Love for the other person

Proverbs 14:29 NLT

29 People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.

There are those whose fiery passion is unbridled and invoked without notice to others.  It can come in an instant without explanation and shows great foolishness on the part of the person when their temper rages.

A simple but marvelous illustration of nonirritable love took place during a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals during the 2009 pennant race. Phillies fan Steve Montforto was sitting with three-year-old daughter Emily when a foul ball curled back into the upper deck. Montforto leaned over the railing to catch his first and only foul ball—every fans dream. But when he handed the ball to little Emily, immediately she threw it back over the railing and down into the lower deck. Everyone gasped. Monforto himself was as surprised as anyone to see her throw the ball away. But rather than getting irritated with his little girl, he did what a loving father should do: he wrapped his daughter up in a tender embrace.

This is the way God loves us. He puts gifts into our hands that we could never catch for ourselves. Without realizing what we are doing, sometimes, we throw them away. Yet rather than getting irritated with us, he loves us again. Then he gives us the freedom to go love someone else with the same kind of love. He even gives us the grace to go back to people who throw our love away and love them all over again. [Phil Ryken, Loving the Way Jesus Loves (Crossway, 2012), page 58]

Anger is what many psychologists call a secondary emotion, because behind the anger are other emotions pushing a person towards anger. For the father above instead of being surprised, he could have been easily disappointed to have lost the ball he wanted so much to catch. Disappointment could have turned to anger and then anger could have exploded with criticism towards his daughter. Instead even though he was surprised about his daughter’s actions; he had the understanding to control any anger and show love towards his daughter. Let us all learn to stop our emotions before we reach anger by understanding our triggers and learning to turn our feelings towards love for the other person.