Remix

Anger…we all deal with it, and as a teenager, it can be very frustrating, especially when we are trying to honor God with our lives.  In our large group experience students will discover that God has given us all the emotion of anger for a reason.  Believe it or not, the Bible actually describes God as angry at certain times.  The catch is learning how to use our God given emotion in a God honoring way.  The closer we get in a relationship with God the more we will get angry about the things that make Him angry and use our anger not to sin but to passionately stand up for Him.

In their group time tonight students will take a closer look at the life of Cain to discover how not keeping our anger under check can cause some pain and difficult circumstances in our lives that can make our lives even more frustrating.  They will uncover the truth that God wants them to train themselves to be slow to anger.

Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

Anger affects all of us.  Whether you are the angry one or just happen to get caught up in the carnage of conflict, there is no avoiding the emotion of anger.  But there is a way to deal with it without sinning and letting it ruin our lives!  Talk through the following scenarios as a family and see how you’d respond:

• Parent is running behind and makes the student late for a movie with their friends.
• Student goes way over their plan’s cell phone minutes for the month…3 months in a row.
• Parent plans a family overnight trip on the same weekend as a student’s friend’s birthday party that the student has been looking forward to.
• Student hasn’t turned in homework in over 2 weeks in a class and parents get a call from the school.

As a family focus on James 1:19-20.  Memorize it together this week, and ask each member to do their best to live it out in their relationships.
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Discussion Questions:

• How should we respond to situations that bring out our anger?
• How should we respond when other people are angry?
• What are some ways that your family can prevent anger from disrupting your family unity?  How can you help each other in this area?

Catalyst

Series: “Remote Control”

Focus: Passing the remote control of our lives over to anger will always lead to regret!

Family Discussion:

Anger affects all of us.  Whether you are the angry one or just happen to get caught up in the carnage of conflict, there is no avoiding the emotion of anger.  But there is a way to deal with it without sinning and letting it ruin our lives!  Talk through the following scenarios as a family and see how you’d respond:

1. Parent is running behind and makes the student late for a movie with their friends.

2. Student goes way over their plan’s cell phone minutes for the month…3 months in a row.

3. Parent plans a family overnight trip on the same weekend as a student’s friend’s birthday party that the student has been looking forward to.

4. Student hasn’t turned in homework in over 2 weeks in a class and parents get a call from the school.

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

James 1:19-20

Discussion Questions:

1. How should we respond to situations that bring out our anger?
2. How should we respond when other people are angry?
3. What are some ways that your family can prevent anger from disrupting your family unity?  How can you help each other in this area?

Wrap Up: Typically we choose to respond with anger when we feel like we have been wronged or treated unfairly.  Anger swells on the inside because we are not met with the level of respect or importance that we feel we deserve.  Most of the time the things we get angry about are so minor that we would have forgotten about them in a matter of hours, but in the moment all we can think to do is lash out!  Remember, it’s not wrong to feel hurt and experience anger, but it is wrong and dangerous to allow that anger to control our actions and our lives!