A Small Book about a Big Problem: Meditations on Anger, Patience, and Peace

How many times today have you been irritated? Frustrated? While you might not think about it often, if you look closely at any day most everyone can find anger in their actions and attitudes. Something spills or goes missing, we get stuck in traffic or someone cuts us off on the road, or we feel like the people we live and work with are only making our lives more difficult. And while no one wants to get angry, what happens when our irritations and frustrations rise yet again?

Anger is so common—yet it also hurts. It not only leaves a mark on us, but it also leaves a marks on others. The wounds we inflict on ourselves and others because of anger—loss of intimacy, trust, security, and enjoyment in our closest relationships—give us compelling reasons to look closely at our anger and think carefully about how to grow in peace and patience.

But if you, like many others, have just gotten irritated for the umpteenth time today, you might wonder if change is possible. Can anyone truly find peace? The answer is yes, but you will need a plan. Biblical counselor and psychologist Ed Welch invites readers to take a fifty–day journey that unpacks anger while encouraging and teaching readers to respond with patience to life’s difficulties. Readers will also be introduced to Jesus, the key to any plan for change. Known as the Prince of Peace, he is the only one who can empower his people to grow in patience, peace, and wholeness.

• Provides short, daily meditations that encourage readers to look carefully at how their anger affects them and others.
• The fifty–day reading plan gives ample time for readers to unpack the underlying causes of irritation and frustration and develop a Spirit–led plan for growth.
• Offers encouragement and helps readers to develop the skills to deal with the universal problem of anger and respond with more patience to life’s difficulties.
• Christ–centered teachings give readers hope that they can change not based on their own efforts, but through the work of Jesus and his indwelling Spirit.
• A useful tool for pastors, counselors, and lay helpers who are working with people who struggle with a short fuse.

What Is the Product for?

A Small Book about a Big Problem offers hope for change to people struggling with irritation and frustration and its effects on themselves and others. With fifty short, daily meditations, readers are provided with an easy–to–follow plan that gives them enough time to unpack the underlying causes of their irritation and frustration, as well as encouragement and skills to respond with more patience and peace to life’s difficulties. Centered around Christ, the work and teachings of Jesus give readers hope they can change not through their own actions, but through the life and spirit of the Prince of Peace.

Who Is the Product for?

While anger is a universal issue that everyone deals with, A Small Book about a Big Problem is written for people who recognize the destruction anger is causing to their lives and relationships, but do not know how to change. With fifty short, daily meditations that serve as a plan to deal with anger and its underlying causes, biblical counselor Ed Welch also provides readers with encouragement and skills to respond to life’s difficulties with more patience. Also a useful tool for pastors, counselors, family, and friends of people dealing with anger issues, this book offers hope through the life and work of Jesus that change can happen and peace is possible.

Edward T. Welch is a counselor and faculty member at CCEF. He has a PhD from the University of Utah and an MDiv from Biblical Theological Seminary. Ed has been counseling for over thirty-five years and has written many books and articles on biblical counseling. He and his wife, Sheri, have two married daughters and eight grandchildren.