Notes of Faith March 19, 2023
Don’t Get Hangry!
We were made right with God by His grace. — Titus 3:7 ICB
It’s Saturday morning, and you snap at your sister for no reason, growl at the dog, and then flop on the couch because it’s raining and you can’t go outside. You’re just so angry! Suddenly, your stomach rumbles so loud that the dog barks. That’s when you remember that you forgot to eat breakfast. You’re not just angry; you’re hungry too. You’re hangry.
Hangry is more than just a bad attitude. There’s some real stuff going on in your body. One of those things has to do with energy. When you eat, your body turns the food into simple sugars to use for energy. So when you run low on energy, your brain thinks you’re in trouble. It sends out the “fight or flight” chemical called adrenaline (uh-DREN-uh-lin). Being hangry makes it harder to control your emotions, and you get upset about things that don’t usually bother you. What’s the cure?
Eat something!
Give others the same grace God gives you.
People sometimes act angry when there’s actually something else going on. Maybe they’re hungry or tired or worried about something. If a friend snaps at you for no reason, don’t snap back. Put yourself in their shoes. (I don’t mean snatch their sneakers. That would just make them angrier!) Ask yourself what else might be going on and how you could help. Offer to share a snack and listen. Give them a second chance. That’s called grace, and God gives you a whole bunch of it every day. Do the same and give others the same grace God gives you.
God, when others mess up, help me to give them grace — just like You give me grace when I mess up. Amen.
Explore the Wonder
We humans don’t like to go long without food. We can get hangry pretty quickly. But some animals can go weeks or even months without anything to eat. And then there’s the olm salamander. This cave-dwelling more than 10 years without eating any food at all!
Excerpted from The Wonder of Creation by Louie Giglio, copyright Louie Giglio.
Wow! The things God leads you to read because you need to hear and respond as if He is speaking directly to you through them. This is me today. I messed up because I was not feeling well and anything and everything made me a little angry. And I was hungry as well because eating made me even sicker. Prayerfully, I will be forgiven for messing up and can move forward by and in God’s grace to grow and be more glorifying to His name. Feeling a little better now. Going to get something to eat!
Pastor Dale