Wet Hornets

Complain if you must, but don't lash out. Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking. Build your case before God and wait for his verdict. Psalm 4:4

I once lived in a home with a swimming pool and next to it was a tree in which every summer bald face hornets would construct one of their most interesting paper mache nests. Initially they built them in the top of the tree and were nearly invisible, but each year the nests were lower and closer to the pool. I refused to do anything about them until the one year the nest was at chest level built over the pool deck. The nest got splashed and the hornets began to swarm which brought light to my mother’s saying, “madder than a wet hornet.”

Aristotle said, “Anyone can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everyone's power and that is not easy.” How true that is; “but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. James 3:8-9

As I reflect on the things which have caused me to be angry, the worst of them was pride. Pride only breeds quarrels, Proverbs 13:10 Someone once said when you’re angry count to ten and if that doesn’t work repeat. I find it helpful as Pastor William Arthur Ward put it; “…to direct your anger towards problems -- not people; to focus your energies on answers -- not excuses.” But ultimately I must remember this. for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. James 1:20

Bless you brothers, live this day in peace, in His Word.