October 2

Ephesians 4:24-27
24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.
26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,
27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Doesn't it just make you mad when you take the dog for a walk and he "walks" on your pant leg or shoe? you call a friend to talk about how much you like this "total fox" in your class and you realize-too late-that you dialed the wrong number and spilled your guts to the "fox"? you forget your lunch and have to eat the food your friends don't want, like carrot sticks, Spam, and something mushy and gray? you turn on the television to watch your favorite show and it's being preempted so the president can talk about meeting with people you've never heard of in some place you've never heard of to discuss something you don't care about? you realize at noon that you forgot to take off your pajama top before getting dressed for school? Lots of things can make you mad. Sometimes it can seem like the whole world is just waiting for a chance to get on your nerves. But it's not. What is happening, though, is that every day you face a lot of choices that challenge your self-control. Self-control is your ability to control your temper and your actions. It's not like being double-jointed, though, in that "some people are and some people ain't." It's like any choice between right and wrong: Sometimes you make the right choice (and exercise self-control), and sometimes you don't. No matter how many times something or someone gets on your "last nerve," no matter how often you're tempted to lose your cool, no matter how much you'd like to blow off some steam, you need to recognize that being self-controlled is a choice you make. And, with God's help, you'll be able to choose self-control more and more often. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. (See Galatians 5:22-23.) If you're controlled by God's Spirit, you'll have self-control. Does that make you a robot? Hardly! You still have the freedom to choose self-control or to blow your cool. Someone won't "leggo your Eggo"? You can choose what to do: get mad or use self-control. You can heed or ignore the psalmist's warning, "Don't sin by letting anger gain control over you. Think about it overnight and remain silent" (Psalm 4:4).

REFLECT: Reread Ephesians 4:24. What do you think it means to be a "new person"? How can that affect your actions? What was the last thing that got you really upset? How did you respond? How could you have responded differently?

PRAY: "Lord, stop me when I start to get angry. Help me to see my choices. And give me the strength to make the right choice."

HUH?
SPAM IS DELICIOUS.

Anyways, the fact that I'm always given choice is something that I don't like sometimes.
I think of anger as a sin, just like getting drunk is.
It leads to more sin, making both an epicentre to turning away from God.
And just like temptation, it needs to be resisted, in order for us to be just like God.
I believe that self-control isn't just a trait that we should have, it's just respect for yourself as well.
Managing yourself from temptation, from anger, keeps us from being Satan's little puppets.
If we don't fight it, it's just lifting up the white flag and calling surrender.
I think that patience definitely goes hand in hand with self-control, especially with anger.
26 Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry

Sorry I can't come up with anything.
I was kinda fumed today too though. Relevant to the topic.
Made some paper cranes. Proceeded through my day calmly. Word.

Cramming by the way. So yeah. I have a feeling I won't get a proper devotion in this one tonight.

Temptation and anger is things that we all do all the time sometimes we reconize our mistakes and regret it, and other times, we don't even notice our mistakes.
This reminds me of the friut of life (I thinks that's what you call it...) :
"love, joy, peace, paitence, kindness, goodness, self controll."
all of this is needed to avoid sinning. It's not always easy to live like this god didn't create any human to be perfect right?

I need to get some sleep, got a bad cold.....

oh, this one would be for me. I have a terrible temper. It's not long lasting or anything close to a grudge, but i tend to lash out when I get mad. That has been one of my major struggles throughout forever. I got it from the mum side of the family. Guess it was a learned thing, as my mum has a pree short fuse as well as my grandpa. I'm trying to work on being more patient and being more rational while I'm mad and so far, it's been getting better, and I hope to improve it even more.

Self-control is somewhat a struggle for me. I tend to show less self-control around people that I am close with. Especially my friends.
I come off as an awkward, quiet person at first (Or so I've been told....) but then if I get comfortable around someone, I become some crazy, and loud chatterbox.
I also tend to show people more emotion if I am close with them, therefore I don't really monitor how I act.
I do sometimes "step over the line", and totally lose my self control and I actually really hurt someone's feelings.
Umm that's all...I think...
Good Night

27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

HOLY, so simple yet it gives me the heeberjeebers.
Our anger, is the devil's strength. IT is his PRIME TIME to attack us, and use us in his ways.
Anger, SUCH A bad trait. I find it's one of those harder things to control since it's so "in the moment" kind of thing.
It's something we should ALWAYS keep in check, because sooner or later, we'll get angry.

26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”

This is so relevant, to everyone, I'd think.
Often times, our main reason for sinning is that we let our anger control our actions.
If we were always happy, I'm sure we wouldn't find a reason to sin. But anger makes it that much easier.

And obviously, we can't just stop being angry altogether. So, make sure to take a breather and step away from the problems to collect yourself. DON'T DO ANYTHING YOU'LL REGRET.

mind blank really busy alot to doo
will post tmoarrmow

for me i guess i have some weird way of controlling my emotions...i am the type to push down my emotions and its really bad. i keep things to myself and i can get consumed by really negative thoughts if something small happens to me because i dont express my anger, sadness, etc. being so easily sucked into negative thoughts can really mean that you are being dragged around as the devil's puppet. small jabs have always been a sensitive thing for me because in big terrible situations, i keep it all down. it doesnt allow me express myself well and small jabs...all of them i remember and tend to think negatively upon them. i really hope and pray that i will get over this strange habit of mine.

this reminded me of the retreat we went to. That we are all a part of the body of christ. When we feel God feels. So it is ok for us to ask for help when we are in a emotional affair with ourselves and sturrgling to move forward. Anger may bloack out our common sense and we may do someting we may regret later so it is always good to pray when you are angry to prevent something regretful.

24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

We all have an image that we show others and most likely, its not an image that God wants us to be showing to others. Since we are of the same body of Christ with others, we should act like we are apart of God to others. Although they are unaware and clueless, it should be in our nature to show Gods nature in being righteous and holy.
We should throw out our "old image" and create a new image which should be in Gods image. React and respond to thigns like God would. Be more like God.