Question: What is righteous anger? I always feel like I’m right when I’m angry. Sometimes I still feel like I was right after I get over being angry, but I still feel ashamed of things I said or did. I don’t think righteous anger can just mean “being nice” but that seems like the only way not to feel bad or break relationships. When I think about it, I start to feel trapped and that makes me angry. So I avoid the question until something sets me off and then all the frustration I’ve been avoiding adds fuel to my anger. Can you help me think about this better?

Resources: Here are several resources that can be useful in preparing for of following up with the conversation discussed in this VLOG post.

Here are  the seven questions discussed in this post in this blog post taken from David Powlison’s article “Anger Part 1: Understanding Anger” from The Journal of Biblical Counseling (Fall 1995)..

  1. Do you get angry about the right things?
  2. Do you express anger in the right way?
  3. How long does your anger last?
  4. How controlled is your anger?
  5. What motivates your anger?
  6. Is your anger “primed and ready” to respond to another person’s habitual sins?
  7. What is the effect of your anger?

To review the other questions addressed in this VLOG series click here.

Note: The VLOG (video-blog) Q&A is a regular series on my blog. If you would like to submit a question, it can be e-mailed to Summit’s admin over counseling at counseling@summitrdu.com (please note this is an administrative account; no individual or family counsel is provided through e-mail). Please limit your questions to 3-7 sentences. This is not a forum for to request or receive counseling. No responses will be sent to questions other than those selected for a video response.