You won't like me when I'm angry

What do you do when you get angry?

At work, school, home or in relationships it is easy to become angry.

Sometimes folks can get on your last nerve. Everyone gets angry: preachers, teachers, leaders, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, siblings; everyone you know has been angry at one time or another.

Some have been angry with each other for years.

Charles Swindol in his book "Three steps forward and two steps back" says there are phases of anger that begin with irritation. The next are: wrath, fury, and rage.

When we get to rage we become the Incredible Hulk. That's when we tear things up, hit, shoot and kill. The Hulk always says, "Don't make me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry."

I get angry sometimes. I can feel myself moving up the scale: irritation, wrath...then I have to do something stop before I become the Hulk. (I have been the Hulk a few times, what about you?)

No one likes that side of us; we are out of control when we get to the point of rage. There is nothing wrong with anger. Even Jesus became angry and ran the money changers out of the temple. The trick is to keep it under control.

First, we should never let anyone know the buttons they can push to send us into a rage. They'll push them for the fun of it.

Second, take Thomas Jefferson's advice, when angry count to 10 before you respond. If you are really angry count to 50 or 100. Slow yourself down.

Third, never go to bed angry with your spouse, friend, teacher, employer, etc.

The Hulk never counts to 10, becomes destructive in a rage and regrets it later. So do we.

There is a bible passage in Ephesians 4:26-27 that says, "Be angry but do not sin.Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity."

That means that it's OK to be upset about wrong things you see or injustices but not to the point that you go into a rage; and never to the point that you begin to hate.

Dealing with anger is a life-long struggle.

Nobody likes us when we become the Hulk.

In fact, we don't even like ourselves.