When Someone "Makes" Us Mad

So what can you do when someone has stepped on your emotional toes? The first thing, according to Christian counselors, is to take responsibility for yourself. Your feelings, thoughts, reactions, and sensitivities are your responsibility alone. They may tell you that a boundary has been crossed, but they are not someone else's fault or responsibility. Most of the time, when our emotions get involved, we sort of go back to the level of a three-year-old. Once when my oldest was that age, she had been sent to her room and she was expressing her outrage by yelling out to me, "I'm the little pig and you're the big bad wolf and I'll NEVER let you in!" and other insults. Come on, we're not much different. We may have outgrown fairy tales, but our outrage feels pretty much the same; it can cloud our judgment and prevent us from acting like the adults we are. So taking responsibility for ourselves, the feelings we have, the words we speak and how we speak them, is the first thing. It's only the first, but it's big. If we don't do this, nothing else we do will really be right.