Message Minute (Learning from Our Heavenly Father)

"I, the Lord, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness." — Exodus 34:6

If we want to learn how to parent well, especially when it comes to handling anger, we need to look at how God parents us. What is striking about God's anger is that it's always based on a thorough knowledge of every situation.

By contrast, we rarely know the whole truth about any situation, but that doesn't stop us from getting angry, does it? This is "the great lie that accompanies anger"—the lie that we know the whole story.

God is slow to anger. The Greek word for patience is macrothumos—macro means "long" or "slow," and thumos means "heat." In other words, slow to heat up. That's our God! God never loses control. When God gets angry, it's based on an accurate appraisal, and He never gets angry quickly. And once He does, He gets over it quickly and moves on. Anger was designed by God to have a short shelf life.

The key to patience is understanding. The more you understand your kids—where they are developmentally, why they struggle with anger, why they can't see the big picture—the more patient you'll be with them. May we learn to parent our children the way God parents us—with understanding, patience, and a love that isn't dependent on performance.

Reflection Question: How can I better reflect God's patient parenting in my response to my child's anger?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for Your patience with me. Help me to parent like You—slow to anger, quick to understand, seeing beneath the surface. May my children learn about Your character through my responses to them. Amen.