Anger

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil-speaking be put away from you with all malice. Ephesians 4:31.

This is a familiar New Testament teaching to us, but do we put these things away from us? Today in the Shawnee New Star there was an article by Larry Sparks about this very topic. We are a nation of angry people, and our anger is manifesting itself in unprecedented ways.
A man flew a plane into the IRS building because he was angry; then his daughter spoke from Norway saying that she was proud of her dad's actions. I hope she stays in Norway.
Road rage, people going "postal" at work, students shooting students and teachers, the list goes on.
We have been having a terrible time at school with "girl fights." What exactly do we expect of the generation of girls who have grown up watching Jerry Springer. They have no clue how to resolve conflict without "bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil-speaking." Add to that hair pulling, hitting, scratching, and you have the makings for an interesting day at school. When we try to tell them that they need to settle their arguments calmly with words, they look at us like we are aliens.
The sad fact is that many of our teenage girls have every right to be bitter and angry. They came into this world a sweet, innocent baby, but they were betrayed by the very people who were supposed to protect them from all harm. They've been abandoned by their fathers, and their mothers have not protected them from the men in their lives. Sometimes when these girls are talking openly about the chaos in their lives, my thought is--Honey, you didn't have a snowball's chance. Only a relationship with Jesus will rescue you from the world around you. I can't say those words, but I can pray that prayer.
I don't expect a person who is not a Christian to put these things away, but for a Christian to spew bitterness and anger all over the place is unacceptable. If we are supposed to hold our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable, I guess we should recite this verse when a Christian is speaking words of anger. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to do that.
I get angry; it happens far too often for me to look down my nose at anyone else, but I do try to hold off bitterness. In my experience bitterness is a cancer in the life of a believer. A bitter person is consumed. I have yet to meet a bitter person that I enjoy being around; as a matter of fact, I usually will try to avoid a person that I know is bitter.
Life is difficult, and we don't all get what everyone else gets here on this earth, but nothing is as dishonoring to God, in my opinion, than wearing a sour look that reveals that you got the short end of the stick.
It's not human nature to be content at all times. That is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
I am going to make every effort to "put away" anger from my life. What do I have to be angry about? Nothing. I am saved by grace, and I will spend eternity with the creator of the universe and His son who died so that I could live. All of this "stuff" is insignificant.

Prayers for Justin's family

Justin Johnson, a former student at THS, was killed in a construction accident today. He leaves his wife, three boys and a host of friends and family to mourn his death. My heart hurts for his family. He was a cousin to Chase, my red-headed step-son (Carson's friend). Chase took the news of his death pretty hard. I know how it feels to get up on a day that you think is just like all other days, and suddenly your world is flipped upside down. You begin marking time from that moment and, I guess, continue to do that for the remainder of your life.
We went to Stillwater tonight to have a Valentine's dinner with Allison and Carson. I know that Jason wouldn't have been there anyway, but we missed him. Our family is so spread out in age that we often only had two of the children at a time. Before Carson we had seven years of just two; we only had five years of all three at home; then for six years we just had two at home again, then Carson was the lonely only for six years. Even though we seldom got together with all three of them and just us, I feel lonesome for Jason when we are just the four of us now.
Chase was supposed to join us tonight, but the news about Justin caused him to stay home. I hate that he has to grieve another loss. Chase was close to Jason--they really had a strange bond that began just as soon as they met one another. I know this will be another tough loss for him to understand. He is especially sad to think of Justin's boys. Life sure knocks people around, doesn't it?

World View

I'm participating in a study at church called The Truth Project. So far it is interesting, a little slow, but interesting. One of the major truths is that each era, generation, age, whatever has a world view.
This is not new information to me. I teach American Literature which requires me to begin each unit with the World View of the people who lived in that time. I know that this generation's world view is very open-minded. The by-words of diversity, tolerance, and political correctness are tossed around in educated circles, and those very words offend other circles. Those words do not offend me. If I have a message to get out to a person that I have encountered, I need to realize that misusing labels creates a barrier to my message. My Oral Communications degree still comes into play sometimes, huh? Although I have spent 32 years teaching Language Arts, I also majored in Oral Communications. I studied speech, drama, debate, persuasion, group discussion just as much in college as I studied grammar, literature, and composition.
In those communications classes 35 years ago we were taught that any barrier to communication distorts the message. If I use a word that is offensive to people while I'm trying to convince them of something, I lose them. They will not hear my message about the love of Jesus if my language is judgemental and intolerant. You can call it political correctness if you want; I call it horse sense.
All of us have a world view, individually and collectively. I can't speak for the collective world view, but I can speak of my own. I want everyone that I come in contact with to see me as a positive representative of Christ. I fail so often that I shouldn't even be writing this, but every time I think "I'm not good enough to post something like this," I'm giving the devil a foothold in my life.
I'll never be good enough, but I know the truth of Jesus's salvation. I have no choice but to share it with others. That means I will have to be tolerant of the lifestyles of some people; I won't win them by looking down at them. I will have to use unnatural "politically correct" language if I want to reach out to the hungry souls in my life. I don't have all the answers; I just know that I have never known of a person becoming a Christian because someone ridiculed them for their lifestyle, thoughts, or opinions.
Father, let me see people as you do.