"The first sign you have an elder brother spirit is when your life doesn't go as you want, you are aren't just sorrowful but deeply angry and bitter." (page 49)
What thoughts, feelings, and assumptions lead to such anger and bitterness?
(See: pages 49-50)
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Our group's comments:
ReplyDeleteFeelings:
angry - temper tantrum!
injustice - It is not fair!
dispair - This can be experienced at different levels, but gives a feeling of deep sense of loss, of being left with nothing.
self loathing - blaming oneself for the difficulty.
Specifically, when we lose power, we feel worthless, confused, dejected, and angry.
When we lose approval, we feel rejected, worthless, needy and hurt.
When we lose comfort, we feel insecure, and hopeless. We also lose our sense of joy.
When we lose control, we have feelings of fear, worry and failure.
"The Prodigal God" pages 52-53
ReplyDelete" . . .elder brothers expect their goodness to pay off, and if it doesn't, there is confusion and rage. If you think goodness and decency is the way to merit a good life from God, you will be eaten up by anger, because life never goes as we wish. You will always feel that you are owed more than you are getting. You will always see someone who is doing better than you in some aspect of life and will ask, "Why this person and not me? After all I have done? This resentment is your own fault. It is not caused by the prosperity of the other person, but by your own effort to control life through your performance."