Day 2208 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Hebrews 12:14 NIV

Yesterday's verse talked about how human anger tends to lead us straight into foolishness. It clouds our judgement and prevents us from thinking clearly. The more distracted we become by anger the more mistakes we're likely to make. Learning to calm down and not be so quickly provoked is a very important lesson that we can all seriously benefit from learning.

I was thinking this morning about how we keep ourselves from being happy. We claim to want peace in our lives yet we make all these choices that make that peace nearly impossible to find. When we only focus on the things that irritate us then we're never going to find that peaceful life that we say we want to live. We're going to be stuck in this miserable existence where we can only see the bad in everything.

As the Bible tells us in James 1:20, our anger doesn't produce the righteousness that God desires. It only creates more separation. It causes us to make more mistakes. It opens the door a little wider for us to do or say something that we don't really mean. We can't let our anger lead us away from who God wants us to be. He calls us to love one another and all this hatred is about as far in the other direction as we can go.

Why not focus our attention on finding that peace that we claim we want in life? Why not allow ourselves to put our differences aside and move past the stumbling blocks that our anger and resentment have created? Anger creates divisions that usually lead to bigger issues. But kindness, compassion, understanding, and the willingness to work together bring us closer to the calmer and more enjoyable way of life that peace promises.

Friends, as long as anger and friction remain as widespread as they are today we will not find anything better than all this discord that we're seeing. But if we are willing to do whatever we can to live peaceful lives and allow others to do the same then there is no way that we can't make things better. All it really takes is a little humility and a whole lot of heart. Each of us have both inside but it's on us to choose to let them shine brighter than the anger we may be used to spreading.