Ticked Off

What do you do when someone really ticks you off?

Offence elicits emotional response because offense is unfair. It gives us a right to be mad! It stirs up all manner of emotional reactions inside of us.

Some of us are struggling with hate and bitterness – against a spouse, a friend, a relative or a workmate. Others are filled with sadness – they have not known joy for a while. A woman who lives with a violent husband has gone numb – she feels nothing even when he slaps her and shouts at her.

You may be the offender, not the offended. The offender struggles with guilt, self-blame, shame, and sadness. May be you broke a family, or broke someone’s heart. Or you have been the cause of stress for a workmate. Or you are a spouse who has crushed the beauty of his wife! You may be a mean friend who betrayed your friend or started a false rumor about him or her! What are your feelings?

We see three categories of people in the way we handle these emotions: Aggressive typres, passive type and passive-aggressive type.

I came across a story of a near-perfect gentleman in the bible who struggled in this area of managing emotions. This is Joseph, the dreamer.

Read Genesis 45:1-12