Daily Lesson for April 13, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 4 verse 4: 

"Be angry, and do not sin."

It is okay to be angry!  In fact, we can't not be angry at times in life. But we must learn how not to let our anger overcome us.

Whenever President Lincoln was angry with someone he would compose what he called a "hot letter", in which he would really speak his mind. Lincoln's biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin tells how Lincoln would put all his hot indignation into the letter and then set it aside to let his emotions cool. After, he would come back to the letter and affix these words: "Never sent. Never signed."

Lincoln knew the peril of sinning in anger and had the character keep himself from it. 

The spiritual transformation necessary in our families, in our schools, and in society at-large requires that we not allow ourselves to be overcome by our own anger at the sins of the world -- whether individual or social. Instead, we must learn to harness our anger into a force for constructive good.

In his autobiography Dr. King tells how on the night his Montgomery, Alabama home was bombed  in 1956 he was almost overcome with anger:

 "While I lay in that quiet front bedroom, I began to think of the viciousness of people who would bomb my home. I could feel the anger rising when I realized that my wife and baby could have been killed. I was once more on the verge of corroding hatred. And once more I caught myself and said: 'You must not allow yourself to become bitter.'"

That may well have been the most important night in our country's 20th century history. Angry and near the point of hatred, he chose love.  And the heart of our nation was transformed. 

We can be anger; we have to be angry. But we must learn how to make our anger our friend and not our own worst enemy.