When You’re Just Mad

Peace family, do you ever have a day where you just feel frustrated and easily angered? A day where you wish you could ask all of the people you love to just not interact with you, because you don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, and you are just not doing a good job at controlling yourself?

Peace family, I am having a day like that! I can think of a few specific, logical reasons that I might be feeling stressed, annoyed and on the verge of overwhelmed, but at the same time, I know that the yucky, pent-up feeling in my guts is making me feel additional, unmerited irritation in unreasonable ways.

I have a lot of friends who might read this blog and say, “Oh, but you’re so nice, no one can even tell when you’re in a bad mood!” Well Peace Family, it doesn’t matter if you can’t tell. I know inside my heart when I’m being a jerk, and God sees my heart, too!

I don’t know a hundred percent why my heart’s in a bad mood today, but I know that my sinful nature probably has much more to do with it than my circumstances. Peace family, when we are in a bad mood and on the path to a bad day, is there anything we can do? Is there any hope for our wicked hearts?

Yes! I’m so glad that God loves us. He proves his love to us over and over. He knows that “we are but dust,”(see Psalm 103:14) and that we “are like brute beasts before him,”(see Psalm 73:22) and yet he loves us. If you are just mad today, he is still there beside you. He is still forgiving of your repentant heart. And don’t bad days remind us that we, especially if we sometimes get prideful about our righteousness, really do need him as our savior after all?

How terrible it would be, if, when we faced the truth of our sins and our guilt, God turned his face away from us, and that was the end of the story. But it’s not the end of the story! How wonderful, that God loves us, and when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).

I gave myself a time out. I took a few minutes to just think about God, and took some deep, slow breaths. I told him out loud that I don’t fully understand why I feel so frustrated today, but that I’m sorry. Here at my work desk, I slowly ate two waffles with real maple syrup (I brought them to work frozen, and toasted them in our break room toaster.) I slowly drank a big glass of milk, and noticed how good it tasted. And you know what? I don’t feel so frustrated and overwhelmed anymore. Today is going to be a good day! I know that you can have a good day today, too. Hang in there, and remember that God’s grace is sufficient for you, even when you’re just mad!