Letting Anger Steal

Anger is usually a secondary emotion. I bought a kids book once that talked about a rabbit who would explode and no one wanted to be around him. He finally learned that the anger was a result of some other emotion. 

I think it's sad when we let anger become a reason for treating one another poorly. If we could only learn to look deeper and figure out what we are angry about and process the reason for the anger and not use it against people. 

I've always believed that hurt people - hurt people. When we are hurt we use that to justify hurting someone who hurt us or someone else. The old trickle down theory. When I'm upset I take it out on those around me. 

Lately I've noticed that sometimes when we think we can judge the mistake someone else made in their dealings with us we use that as a reason to treat them poorly or turn our backs on them. It's especially obvious with kids and parents. We see that our parent somehow didn't live up to our expectations or hurt us in some way so we use that as a reason to be mean or withhold our love. In our blame driven society we always want someone else to be responsible. Even for our choices and actions as a result of some retaliation for a perceived wrong or hurt. 

The reality is at some point we have to choose to forgive or lose those relationships. We let the hurt become anger and eventually bitterness. We look back and realize we have missed out on so much just because of a mistake or behavior that someone else made. 

If only we could live looking at the jewel inside instead of the actions and mistakes on the outside. Look beyond why the world sees and be willing to forgive.