A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
In the story of the Parable of the Prodigal Son,* there is a minor character that we don’t get to meet until the end of the story. After the prodigal is welcomed home by his father, his dad throws a party for him. The older brother is out in the field and is incensed that his wayward brother should be honored in this way. Even when his father comes out to him to beg him to come into the party he refuses. I think it is safe to say that the older brother was angry.
Our definition of anger in “Anger’s Cause” goes like this:
“Anger is the feeling that results from an imbalance between our expectations and the situation we find ourselves in.”
The older brother expected that the younger brother would get what is coming to him. After all, he had demanded that his father give him half the estate and then ran off and squandered it. Who knows what he did with all that money! Then he has the nerve to come home and ask for a job from his dad.
Continue reading “Three Angry Men – Proverbs 15:1”