Idiot!

Dear Reader,

Teaching about Anger

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder,^[a] and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause^[b] shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

 Hm… When reading these verses I recall a scene on a parking space a couple of weeks ago. We were waiting for other cars to leave before my husband started to back out of the bay. When he is almost out of the bay a man in a car behind us starts his car and reverses it towards our car and is inches from a collision. I’m yelling “Stop” but of no use because the driver can’t hear me. The man just turns the car and give us a grin, puts up his hand and off he goes.

What an idiot!!!

That statement was followed by my strong belief that drivers of that particular “trade name” were dangerous drivers; because most of them have confirmed my preconception that they don’t know where the car begins or ends; and most of the time they “own” the road or wherever they turn up.

But in the back of my head the verses above surfaced at the same moment I yelled “Idiot” because the Holy Spirit was right there and reminded me in a split second of them.

Jesus took anger seriously don’t you think?  I had been in danger of the fire of hell with my “idiotic” remark?

I guess I’m the only one who has been in this situation and acted so thoughtless. Or am I not?

I congratulate you if you have better control over your temper than I have; and I will remember my lesson Matthew 5: 22. 

I also have to work on the last of the fruits of the Holy Spirit; self-control.

And for you who haven’t the slightest idea what I’m talking about here is some home work for you:

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is

love,

joy,

peace,

forbearance,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness and

self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

Well…I had better work on them all.

Sincerely yours, Ida