Are you the master of your emotions? - Daily Bible Reflections October 25,2013

SPITFIRE

 

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. – Romans 7:20

 

I didn’t want to confront her, but I needed to come to my niece’s rescue.

       A 27-year-old woman whacked my teenage niece’s face after a heated basketball game where they rooted for competing teams. Face to face, this hostile stranger reasoned that she had the right to hit anybody she wanted to hit.

          That did it. Hell broke loose.

          No, I didn’t touch her, but I spat fire like I had never done before, so much that she ran out of words to throw back at me.

       Back home, I couldn’t stop crying. My friend Vincent called and asked why I was crying when I had done right by defending my niece. I heard myself say, “This isn’t like me. I was so mean.”

          There are times when anger is the right response to a situation. But there is still a right and a wrong way of showing our indignation. It says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” In angry moments, may we learn not just to exercise self-control, but to unceasingly seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. Nova Arias-Sevilla (nova.svp@gmail.com)

 

Reflection: Are you the master of your emotions?

 

Forgive me, Lord, for the times when I was uncharitable to my neighbor. Remind me to be gentle with words when my emotions get the better of me. Amen.

 

St. Antonio de Sant’Anna Galvao, pray for us.