Anger: Time Out

“So, I have to sit here and count to ten first. Then, I can explode?” 

Tiffany, a tall, blonde teenager waited for her counselor to respond. Her high school principal had sent her to the office for anger management counseling.

“You probably won’t explode, if you count to ten first,” replied Moxie, quietly. “If you do, the degree of the explosion will be less than it would be otherwise.”

“One, two, three…” counted Tiffany in a high-pitched voice. “I am too angry to count to ten.”

“Time-out! Want to talk about it?”

“I want to scream, or throw something!” replied Tiffany, who was obviously upset. “It could make matters worse.”

“That would depend upon what you throw, or who you throw it at, right? Have you always had bouts of anger?”

“When I was angry as a child, I would lie on the floor and scream at the top of my lungs. I would not stop until I got my way,” said Tiffany. Gradually, she settled down. “My parents and teachers got fed up with my temper tantrums.”

“No one ever taught you anger management techniques, as a child?”

“They tried, but I was pretty precocious.”

Moxie paused, as Tiffany fidgeted and looked away.

“Jesus got angry at the money lenders in the Temple and overturned their tables, as an expression of His righteous anger,” Moxie suggested. “If He could get angry, then we can too, right?”

“Did that solve the problem?”

“Be angry, and do not sin,” Moxie suggested. “That is what the Bible teaches, as the key to successful anger management.”

“So it is all right for me to be angry, but I should not do anything that might be sin on my part?”

Tiffany looked directly at Moxie and waited for her to respond.

“There is a good response to anger, one that fights against injustice, and a not-good response that can lead to sin through destruction, or even death. We choose which kind of response we have to anger.”  

“My boyfriend is going out with another girl.”