I'm posting this here because I'm looking for a strictly Christian response, preferably with Biblical support.
Long story short, with the help of a Christian therapist I'm trying to allow myself to be angry with my emotionally abusive mother so that I can ultimately forgive her. I tried forgiving her for everything in general but that didn't work. Due to my upbringing -- I was not allowed to be angry with my mom, ever, and repressed my anger, hurt, etc. in order to survive -- I have an incredibly hard time allowing myself to be angry. I hate being angry, partly because it reminds me of being like my mom. I feel guilty for being angry due to my upbringing and all the passages that talk about getting rid of malice and wrath, etc. But stuffing the anger down leads to self-hate and depression.
So what I'm looking for is a Biblically-based argument that it is okay in my situation to let myself be angry, that I can let those feelings out in an appropriate way (e.g. writing a letter no one else will read) and not keep stuffing them down.
This is what I have so far:
God gets angry at sin. What my mom did was wrong and was therefore sin and it's appropriate to be angry about it.
There is a time to hate/be angry (Ecc 3)
Long story short, with the help of a Christian therapist I'm trying to allow myself to be angry with my emotionally abusive mother so that I can ultimately forgive her. I tried forgiving her for everything in general but that didn't work. Due to my upbringing -- I was not allowed to be angry with my mom, ever, and repressed my anger, hurt, etc. in order to survive -- I have an incredibly hard time allowing myself to be angry. I hate being angry, partly because it reminds me of being like my mom. I feel guilty for being angry due to my upbringing and all the passages that talk about getting rid of malice and wrath, etc. But stuffing the anger down leads to self-hate and depression.
So what I'm looking for is a Biblically-based argument that it is okay in my situation to let myself be angry, that I can let those feelings out in an appropriate way (e.g. writing a letter no one else will read) and not keep stuffing them down.
This is what I have so far:
God gets angry at sin. What my mom did was wrong and was therefore sin and it's appropriate to be angry about it.
There is a time to hate/be angry (Ecc 3)
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