When Momma Ain't Happy (Uprooting Anger 4)

Do you have a happy home? By this I mean do the members of your family generally interact with each other with love, and respectful communication? Do you realize what an important part you as the woman of the house have in this? I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "When Momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy." It's true.

How would your husband and children describe you? As an angry woman or a woman who communicates with truth and grace?

Do you build your house up with kind words or do you tear down your house with your temper?

How do you handle unmet expectations? Do you give it over to God and have all necessary conversations with the individuals involved or do you yell, rant and rave?

When you are disappointed by someone do you draw near to them with humility and grace or do you quietly stew and withdraw? Our family members feel very keenly our negative (sinful) emotions. I remember as a child feeling the distance from my mother when she was upset about something. I usually never knew what was bothering her but I always thought it was about me. Children don't like to feel emotionally separated from their mother. But if they feel it often enough, or long enough, children will eventually distance themselves from their mother. This is one of the sad consequences of sinful anger.

In his book, Uprooting Anger, Robert Jones gives us a lot of biblical help for addressing anger. Though most of the examples in the book are taken from the marriage relationship there is good news for us all. This is in no way a book on marriage. It is a book on anger - a temptation we all face. Robert D. Jones tells us there is a way to process the sins in our hearts, the sins committed against us by people and the trials that come our way that tempt us to be angry with God.

Because I am a woman and I know the temptation women (including myself) have towards anger I cannot say it strongly enough: women need to read this book!! This book is founded on biblical truth and not pop psychology. This book provides many practical helps (for example, after forty-five minutes of working on this post, I lost all my work. Having just been reminded by Mr. Jones about responding to unmet expectations in a godly way, I was helped to let it go and find comfort in God's sovereign rule over lost time.)

If you are not sure if you are an angry person, here's a challenging assignment (one which I did several years ago): Ask your husband, children, father, or roommate if they are ever afraid to tell you something for fear of your response. And if they are afraid, what are they afraid of? It could be revealing.

Whatever the answer I hope you keep reading Uprooting Anger. It may make all the difference between an angry momma and a happy momma, or a happy home and an angry home.