“Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly” (Prov. 14:29)
A wise man once compared the human personality to a minefield. “Some people,” he said, “have relatively few mines and interacting with them does not often provoke anger. Others have mines lined up side-by-side from one end of the field to the other, and it does not take much to push them over the edge into a fiery rage.”
All of us have mines buried in our personalities. Some of us respond calmly to most situations that upset us. But others among us explode with anger at the slightest provocation….
The degree to which irritation is tolerated varies from person to person, and though we have seen there are times when our anger is righteous, we often express it unrighteously.
The Greek philosopher Socrates saw a direct correlation between right behavior and right understanding. For example, if someone understands courage properly, he will be courageous. Socrates can be faulted for missing the affective or emotional dimension to our behavior, but he was correct to see a link between our thoughts and actions, and, we might add, our minds and feelings as well. As Scripture teaches, “as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7 NKJV).