My friend and I went shopping and I purchased new hangers for my closet. I absolutely love these hangers because a) they all match, and b) the clothing does not seem so crowded together when I use them. We also found a new Christmas store that had absolutely lovely things in it that I can only dream about because they are not in my budget (not to mention I already have WAY too much Christmas stuff!).

After shopping we decided to dine at a Chinese fast food restaurant. We were enjoying a leisurely meal when the door was thrown open and a lady stormed into the restaurant. She threw her hands up in the air like a referee calling a touchdown and began to yell. When I say she began to yell, I mean she was screaming at the top of her lungs at the staff. Things like, “You are fired. You are a lazy bunch of people who are not doing your job! The drive-through is extremely slow and there is no excuse for that.” She was taunting the staff to come over and face her.

Initially, I thought maybe it was a store manager who had totally lost control, because she had a red apron on similar to what the workers were wearing. But then I noticed it had a totally different logo. My friend and I assumed she had gone through the drive-through and they were too slow for her. She became inappropriately angry–or dare I even say, full of rage.

As she continued her rant, finally a young man came up to her and politely asked her to leave. She was screaming in his face and at that point he escorted her out the door. She left, but we watched as she continued to pace up and down the sidewalk outside the restaurant.

My friend and I decided it was time to leave. As we started to exit, the young man was extremely polite and asked us if he could get us anything else or even a drink to go. We declined and then he offered to escort us to our car since the woman was still agitatedly walking up and down the sidewalk. We told him it was not necessary, but we did not tarry getting into the car!

My friend and I discussed what had happened, and quite frankly, we were glad she did not have a gun in her hand. I suspect if she had, we might all have been injured or even dead, she was that out of control. In all honesty, most of us have been in a slow drive through line at some point and may find ourselves becoming irritated. I am grateful that our action is not to come in the store and scream at the top of our lungs. Frankly, some of us have watched YouTube videos showing unacceptable incidents that have taken place in drive-throughs. But I had to wonder what happened in that woman’s life that made her so full of rage.

In all honesty, in my younger years, I struggled sometimes with anger and as a result acted inappropriately on occasion. It was only after I truly focused on letting God take control of my words and actions that I started becoming less hateful and more kind. I am grateful that as we become Christians and let the Holy Spirit do his work in our lives things like rage no longer control us. If we truly let ourselves be ruled by the Spirit, we are going to be focusing on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control–all fruit of the Spirit.

The fact is anger is an emotion all of us experience at one time or another. But when we let that anger fester and boil over, it is harmful to both ourselves and those around us. By learning to recognize and appropriately respond to our anger, we avoid enacting scenes like the one we witnessed in the restaurant.

Proverbs 29:11 says, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” So my prayer to God is to not foolishly let anger lead me to sin against God, but to instead practice using the fruit of the Spirit that God has gifted to me.