Our Favorite Proverbs: Proverbs 15:18, Temper, Temper!

Welcome to your moment of hope. I'm Jen Houston joined by pastor David and

Marilyn Chadwick. We are in our series called our favorite proverbs and we've had

a great time in this series kind of going back and forth between David and

Marilyn, your lenses of these proverbs. Today we're going to look at proverbs 15,

18, which is all about a temper, temper, temper. Marilyn, we unpacked this for

us. Well, temper, temper is something we should all remind ourselves that that's

one of the reasons that that phrase exists. Like when some people are getting

heated up, remember you used to say to him, temper, temper, the proverbs does

that for us. A hot tempered person stirs up strife proverbs 15, 18. But then it

does this contrast thing, which I love. But one who is slow to anger, quiet's

contention. And what I like about proverbs, I really

recommend to love it all over again in this series. But it'll throw up the

problem and then it'll throw up the solution right right after that. So it's

telling us in so many different ways. We'll look at some of those. Be slow to

anger. Proverbs has a lot to say about the problem of anger. I think 15

different verses warn us of the dangers of an unbridled temper. And anger is

described really not very complimentary terms. The person who gets angry too

fast is described as foolish and destructive. Being slow to anger is a sign of

moral strength. So if for no other reason than just to not want to be a weakling,

we should avoid anger as a sign of a weak person. And then we don't normally

think that way, do we? So dangerous, though, is anger that we're actually

warned. We were talking about relationships earlier this week. We're

actually warned to steer clear of close friendships with hot tempered

people. This adults we're talking here to avoid letting them influence our

behavior. Do not make friends with a hot tempered person. Proverbs 22, 24

says, do not associate with one easily angered or you may learn their ways

and get yourself ensnared. So, you know, we think about friendships with

our children. How often do we think about the impact of the relationships we

have as adults?

Well, I do think one thing needs to be mentioned here is the difference between

the two words, anger and danger is just one consonant. We are so quick to

anger that can cause danger. The other thought that comes to mind is it says,

be slow to anger. That implies to me we can choose not to be angry. I think

here my mom who really wasn't an angry person, but she could sometimes

become heated toward us kids. And we could see her anger level rising and rising

or words getting a little louder, louder and louder. And the phone would ring

back when we just had dial phones and right in the middle of one angry

diet tribe, the phone to ring and she'd pick it up and she'd go to yelling at us

to, hello, in that inimitable Southern draw, which I've always thought

about, you know what? You can be slow to anger. You can choose not to be angry

almost in a heartbeat if you really want to give the right impression to other

people, Marilyn. Well, I've listed four or five. I see one, two, three, four,

five, six proverbs that deal with anger just to see if anything grabs us.

And a lot of these hit me, Jen, did any of these particularly grab you?

Well, the word patience comes to mind and that's in some of these other

verses as well. And patience is a fruit of the spirit. So when I

encounter somebody who is a hot tempered, you know, easily

angered, I think, wow, they have not yielded a part, a big part of who they are to

the Holy Spirit. They are not self-controlled. So danger for me,

let's not get too close to that person. You know, that's true. And it's funny how

if you aren't convicted by one of these, try the next one. It says in

Proverbs 13, 10, where there is strife, there's pride. Now that's not a small thing.

But wisdom is found in those who take advice. I mean, these kind of

were a positive conviction for me to say, if I want to avoid anger,

then here's something I could do in its place. I can take advice.

Yeah, and I'm thinking as well that a lot of anger is when we don't get our way.

When we don't get our way. And so if we can learn how to give that way to God and trust him,

I think anger will abate as well. Yeah, which is selfish. It's very

selfish. And then there's other scriptures that talk about selfish ambition. And there's all

sorts of evils that there's right. These are really meaty. These aren't really encouraging.

Well, and if we all listen and learn, because if nothing else, let's think about this.

Anger can be bad for our health. It causes us to make bad and rash and unwise decisions.

And it can even cause us to lose a war. One of the guys that was writing in the art war said,

you should never go to war angry. Well, let's stay in the Proverbs. Why not for another

week or two or three, or however long we feel like we need to? We just think we're going to end

and then we start reading more of them. We go, this is really powerful as well. So,

listeners, if you don't mind, next week we'll stay in the Proverbs and maybe a little bit

even after that. They God continue to give us His wisdom or His glory and His glory along.