7 Ways to Grow Your Marriage: Husband EditionSample

Day 5: Deal with any unresolved anger.

In the early days of graduate school, one of my teachers had a chart showing the progression of unresolved anger in our lives. It showed that over time, anger does not just go away, but can grow into bitterness and even result in death. We see this confirmed in the Bible in Hebrews 12:15: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” Proverbs 14:30 goes so far as to say that inner turmoil will “rot the bones.”

Anger itself is not bad. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:26: “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Anger tells us that something is wrong; something needs to be dealt with or needs to change. In marriage, when we get angry, we need to deal with our anger so that we give no opportunity for the devil to interfere. We need to resolve the issue. We need to be quick to forgive, like Paul tells the Colossians in 3:13, and we need to move forward.

Today’s One Thing Challenge: Review the questions listed below and consider which step you need to take. Take that step toward resolving any anger in your marriage today!

Here are your 5 questions mentioned above:

1. Do you have anger toward your wife?
2. What can you do to resolve the anger?
3. Do you need to talk to your wife?
4. Do you need to forgive your wife?
5. Do you need to ask for forgiveness?