Let's talk about anger

The secondary school I attended was notorious for teasing and bullying. S.1 students would endure a dreadful term at the hands of  some "matures" who would whip them up in the middle of the night and attribute their savagery to the Chwezi demigods. One night, a fresher who could take it no longer stepped out and returned with a brick with which he knocked out his tormentor. That act of anger cost the student an expulsion whereas his victim spent six weeks in hospital. 

Anger is conquered through being smart and having self-control

My Encarta Dictionary defines anger as "a strong feeling of grievance and displeasure" but I prefer to describe it as a terrible emotion that makes us do things we later regret. The destructive power of anger was so known to the great apostle Paul that he advised us never to let the sun go down while we are still angry.

Obviously, anger is a human emotion just like happiness that is sometimes unavoidable. What makes the difference is how you give vent to it. Do you pick a stone and crush the head of the provocateur or do you go to your room and punch walls? 

Oh yes, there are positive ways of expressing temper that psychologists and counselors recommend. You can talk about it, take a walk, or do exercises through which fury gets slowly suppressed. But the best way for believers is to pray about it. One of the world's greatest pediatric neurosurgeons, Dr. Ben Carson, too had a problem of anger when he was a young man. So much that at one he tried to hit his beloved mother in the head with a hammer. Another time he stabbed in the belly a friend who had angered him. Luckily the knife missed and struck the metal belt buckle and broke. He realized he needed help and through prayer and reading the Bible he triumphed.

The wisest man to live, King Solomon, once said whoever is slow to get angry is wise. He also said a person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. Anger can only be conquered through being smart and having self-control.