Man's Wrath

In James 1:19-20, we are told, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."

I don't know about you, but sometimes this is extremely difficult for me to live by. Just the other day, I felt my blood boiling over the simple matter of my dog begging for food at 11:30pm because he had skipped breakfast and dinner.

My dog isn't the kind of dog who will eventually stop whining after hours of being ignored. No, in fact, he will start whining louder and eventually resort to barking until you give him what he desires. This behavior is much like what my sister's dog does, and we have tried all of Caesar's tricks to get them both to stop. Spidey and Cally, my two smaller dogs, do not engage in this annoying habit very often, and for that I'm thankful.

On this particular night, I was so exhausted from going non-stop all day long that Kudo's whining was frustrating me. I fed him dinner earlier that night, took him out three times, gave him water, and even let him play for around twenty minutes. Yet he was persistent and getting louder by the minute. If I fed him, I feared he would have an accident in the middle of the night, but if I ignored him he'd wake the family.

It sounds insignificant, but for an exhausted, hard-working lady of twenty-three, it couldn't have been going worse. I threw food in his bowl, unlocked his kennel door, tugged on his collar, and fussed at him to eat.

This moment is one I am not proud of. My anger took the best of me, and a poor little dog was griped at when all he needed was some food. This negative reaction to a negative situation caused me to have a sleepless night. If I had just been slow to anger, if I had just been swift to hear his cries and understand what he needed, my wrath would not have gotten the best of me.

These are the moments God uses in my life to train me in his righteousness. It's not the times when I feel loved, peaceful, or serene. Actually, it's when I feel like pulling my hair out, crying myself to sleep, or crawling under a rock.

Becca