Anger

Hey team! All right, so here we are. It is Workshop Wednesday. What a beautiful day. What a beautiful week. I’m excited to be here with you.

So, I’ve got this little quote for you, “Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” It comes from Felice Dunas.

I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life where I’ve been pretty angry at somebody. I’ve held a grudge, been upset, frustrated.  I’ll be honest with you; it didn’t do much for me. Worry and fret and anger and bitterness; they really only harm one person, that’s you.

I don’t know about you and some of you right now, I can hear it. And I can hear you, even right through the airwaves. I can hear you saying, “But Chad, you don’t know.” Oh boy, do I know. Trust me, I know. I understand.

But I can tell you right now, it’s not doing you any good.

I’m not telling you, you know, forgiveness for wrongdoing isn’t going back to the person in accepting the abuse and continuing to be abused. That’s not what it’s about. It’s just that you forgive the person. But you let them be them, and you move on through life not holding bitterness in your heart. Not holding anger. Not wanting to see hardship. Hoping for that other shoe to drop, to harm them, and get excited about it.

It is moving on with your life and recognizing that this struggle, this time in your life can be a building block for your future. That’s a hard thing, right? Again, it’s a hard thing to, to be wronged. Because we out of our own frailty, in our own human nature, says we want to get that person back. We want that person to suffer like we suffered. Because it’s only fair.

That’s not our goal. That shouldn’t be our goal.

That’s not our best life and all it does is, harboring that anger and that resentment, prevents you from moving onward into other relationships that can blossom and grow and make you the person that God really created you to be. So, I believe that you know, this is kind of a fortuitous moment, fortuitous, I think that’s right, moment in our lives for us to be thinking about.

So, as you’re listening to me speaking, we’re talking here and dialoguing, and you’re thinking about what I’m saying. While I can again, I can hear you saying, “But Chad, you don’t know what I’ve gone through!”

I can tell you honestly, even if that person suffers super horribly, what’s that going to benefit you? Just the knowledge that they got it bad? It’s not going to actually help you move forward. Feeling good for a minute that somebody else suffered horribly because they did you wrong, somewhere else in their past?

Again, I don’t want you to go back and be abused. I don’t want you to not learn from this mistake and move forward into another abusive situation either. Or just harboring that bitterness and isolating yourself to the point where you’re not willing to venture out and now you’re alone. That’s not a good place either.

I want you to be prosperous. I want you to thrive.

The best way to do that is to forgive and to look forward for relationships. Learn from the past. Learn from maybe mistakes where you trusted too early, or you trusted the wrong kind of person. You saw the warning signs of that abusive relationship. And by abusive relationship, I’m not saying that it’s always physical, right? Sometimes, it’s emotional, sometimes it’s other things.

I want you to think about that, and as you’re thinking through this Wednesday Workshop, and you’re moving forward in your life.

Take a minute to forgive people.

Don’t be angry. Look for ways to move forward with a prosperous life and success.

Sometimes it takes counseling. If that’s you, look for a counselor. Look for somebody that’s wise. Go to your pastor. Go to your rabbi. Your priest. Go find a counselor, that’s paid to do this. Look for ways to forgive and move forward in a positive way.

Alright guys, God bless you. I want you to have an awesome day and I want you to have a great rest of your week. I want you to be valuable because nothing less will do. The best way to be valuable is to forgive others and move forward. Don’t be angry.

 All right. Have a blessed one. I’ll see you next week.