Sunday Morning Impact

Sunday was a pretty good Sunday. It was the first time that we have broken up into small groups in a long time. Unfortunately, one of our teachers, who has been with us the longest, stepped down. Tonya has been leading the 8th grade girls for years. She brings the donuts every Sunday morning as well. But she has decided to step down. We are going to miss her a lot.

Gideon led worship, and he just keeps getting better and better. Our game was "Everybody's It!" Basically it's an all against all game of tag. Christine Cavender was the winner.

Our lesson was on anger. I gave a few case studies in the opener. Think about these and what you would want to do and what you should do.

1. You have somebody stay the night at your home or they go camping with you, and they eat all of your food and drink all of your drinks without asking, what do you do?
A. Just go buy more and say nothing
B. Chunk a chair at them
C. Tell them you don't mind sharing, but just ask first.

2. You are walking through the cafeteria and somebody throws their applesauce all over you, what do you do?
A. Just keep walking and clean yourself up.
B. Tell them that makes you angry and to not do it again.
C. Shove their face in their mashed potatoes.

3. You have been standing in line for a roller coaster for 2 hours. You get to the front of the line and some kids cut in front of you. They get on the ride, and the ride operator says that the ride is now closed, what do you do?
A. Just get of line, but wish something bad happens to the people on the ride.
B. Wait for the kids at the ride exit and throw dog poo at them.
C. Tell the Ride Operator that they cut in front of you.
D. Just leave and ask God to help you forgive them.

Honestly, I don't always do a good job handling my anger. When you're stuck in the moment, sometimes you lose control. We talked about things in our small group that make us angry and what are we supposed to do. One, we're not supposed to sin out of our anger. So I guess that means shoving a guy's face in mashed potatoes might not be good (although it sure would feel good at the time). We talked about how we are to handle anger with fellow believers who have done wrong against us. You go and talk to them and give them the chance to ask for forgiveness. If they don't, then you take another believer with you. If they still don't, then you take it before the church.
The question that came up during our group that I didn't really have an answer for (well I had a churchy answer, but not an honest answer) was about this guy on a show. I guess there is a guy who dresses up like a clown and goes up to random guys and kick them in their "special area." And then he laughs and says you just got kicked on t.v. They asked what would happen if the guy came up and did that to my son. Honestly, I want to be like Jesus, and Jesus says turn the other cheek, but I think I would have to smack the smile off that clown. We talked about things that make us angry and how we should handle that based on the Bible. We talked about not taking revenge and things like that. I'm OK, but if somebody hurts my family, I think I would have a hard time turning any kind of cheek. We went through the scriptures and the kids know what the Bible says about it. Hopefully, they'll think about these thing the next time they get angry with their brother or sister. But this is a hard concept for me to really grasp, and harder to put into action. I'm interested in seeing what other people think about these things.