Determine Your Trigger

“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” - Exodus 2:11-13
 
 
When it comes to keeping your cool, the first thing you must do is determine what triggers your anger. It is important to note that the expressions of anger we see from Moses in Exodus 2 are connected to events that happened earlier in his life.  
 
In Exodus 1, we learn that the Egyptian Pharaoh was pressing the Israelite people. The text says he intentionally dealt harshly with them, appointing ruthless taskmasters over them who made their lives hard. He then instructed the Hebrew midwives to kill every Hebrew boy by throwing them in the Nile River.  
 
The systemic oppression in chapter 1 ends up affecting Moses’ family life in chapter 2. At first, he is separated from his parents. His father is never heard from again, and he is forever separated from the people, the culture, and the faith that produced him. All of this must have produced a great deal of anger and resentment in Moses.
 
Even though he is an adult, he has been carrying around emotional baggage from his childhood that got triggered that day when he saw that Egyptian beating one of his brothers. When he saw that, he was triggered, and he snapped. He killed the man because he was impacted by the injustices of his past.
 
So, what about you? What triggers your anger? Maybe you are not angry enough to physically kill someone; but you can assassinate someone’s character, break someone’s spirit, or murder their will. All of this can happen, not because of what that person did, but instead because of something from your past. Being able to determine what that trigger is will allow you to begin giving it the attention it deserves so that you can learn to exercise self-control when triggers arise.
 
If you are struggling with something from your past, or maybe even the present, God does not want you to bottle it up and unleash it in a moment of frustration. Instead, He wants you to bring it to Him. Pray and ask Him to help you. Only He can give you the healing you really need!