Seven Virtues for Seven Sins: Week Four: Patience not Wrath

 Proverbs 15:1  A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

 

 photo by marjan blan on unsplash  Captain America Graffiti 

Patience may not be the first thing you think of if you are thinking of an antidote to anger.  Yet many of us were told from a young age to count to ten when you are angry.  There is a place for righteous anger.  Even Jesus turned over the tables of the scoundrels in the temple who were cheating people.  Injustice demands action.  We all know that when our anger is out of control, we are in danger of hurting ourselves or others.  We live in an angry world, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the images of the superheroes that we give as models for our children.  They look mean and angry and they are supposed to be the good guys!  We may feel anger, but it is ever OK to act violently on that feeling?  Should NATO be enforcing a no-fly-zone?  How patient should we be when children are being bombed?  Is violence ever the right answer to anger, even righteous anger?  Difficult questions for a difficult time.  Perhaps if we practiced patience more in our routine lives, we would be better prepared to be patient when it really counted.  Perhaps then our response to our anger would be more faithful and more effective.  Patience is a gift from God we need to practice.  Count to ten, then act. 

If you want to think a bit more read and contemplate  Mark 11:12-21

 

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