My mother passed away some time ago, so some of her belongings were being distributed among my siblings. One of my siblings got to keep her journals, and that sibling found a profound thought within those journals. That thought was shared with me, and I’ve used it from time to time to inspire myself and others. I recently found it again, and I am amazed at such a thought from my mother. So I wanted to share it, because many people (myself included) could be reminded at the benefit of not getting angry.
One of the subjects I’ve done a lot of contemplating on is anger. I used to not understand why it was so awful to get angry, if one had good reason to. But, now it has come to me. I have noticed when I get angry “for good reason,” we seem to be hurt because our ideas and pursuits have been somewhat thwarted by a person. We seem to be more concerned with our selfish desires than the welfare of others. So in God’s truth, we do not have good reason to become angry with one of His children, ever. I have made it one of my goals to hold my tongue, for sometimes it has gotten quite evil.
According to my mother, in straightforward reasoning, getting angry may be highly justifiable. Getting angry usually results from being mistreated or denied something that one rightly deserves. Of course! One should probably defend oneself, or else they would risk getting set aside or pushed over.
In the situation that my mother describes, this would seem to be in normal every day interactions. And so my mother continues that if one is getting angry with another, then that angry person is forgoing the potential welfare of the other person. What kind of welfare isn’t specified, but I can imagine it being giving the other person the benefit of the doubt. In addition, it would seem that my mother realized that God wants to progress the welfare of all humankind, individually and as a whole.
One more thought to add to my mother’s, I’ve learned the benefit to the person not getting angry. From personal experience, I know that getting angry makes my life worse. I would very much rather enjoy and appreciate the people around me. As such, my thoughts will not be primarily around being treated fairly. Instead, I know that I can practice good stoic principles in accepting things as they come.