A few years ago I noticed that I was angry. A LOT.
Can you relate?
I felt trapped, stuck and tired of my angry self.
My kids, my family, my life as a homeschool mom–these things were supposed to bring me joy, right?!
But instead they just made me SO ANGRY sometimes!! And I had no idea what to do about that.
Through much prayer and trial and error, God has grown me immensely since that time.
And now, I want to share with you what he's taught me about anger–specifically about dealing with anger triggers.
2 Steps to Tackling Mommy Anger Triggers
1) Discover what makes you mad.
We need to give ourselves permission to identify and accept what we're angry about.
We need to understand that what we're feeling is real, and lay it all out on the table.
When I identified my key anger triggers, my answers weren't surprising (and I'm guessing you can relate to more than a few of these?!) but, nevertheless, it felt GREAT to have them written down on paper:
- ungrateful hearts
- whining and complaining
- lack of obedience and willful defiance
- fighting amongst my children
2) Accept these two facts about mommy anger.
I noticed two very important things about my biggest mom triggers (and, friend, you've got to notice them too because they are the lynchpin here!). Ready?
- I wasn't in control of whether or not the triggers would come; and
- I wasn't in control of whether or not they were going to change (and my being angry about them certainly wasn't helping them to change).
However, my transformation in dealing with mom anger started by accepting this thought:
I can't control whether or not the triggers come, but I can control my response to the triggers.
When I realized that I was in control of (and responsible for) my responses, I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.