"Hell Has No Fury Like A Woman Scorned"

The above idiom refers to the idea that there is no worse anger than that of a jilted woman (see origin). Also, see here and here. This writer disagrees with this idiom, simply because I've experience two women's anger in my lifetime who were not jilted, but who were just as mad at the world and as a result, took their anger out on me. Back in the early 1980's, I was taking my tattered Bible to have it rebound at a binding company in Lubbock, Texas.

As I turned into the parking lot of the binding company, I saw a woman in her car attempting to find a parking space. Since I saw a parking space close to the entrance of the building, I immediately drove in and parked. Well, that woman suddenly became unglued at my taking her parking space (I didn't see her name anywhere within the parking space!). She angrily told me, "You need to read that Book." I told her that I had read it many times from cover to cover, and that perhaps she needed to read it and heed it as well. Needless to say, this writer didn't win her as a friend on that day. She jilted me instead of the reverse.

On Saturday of this week, I passed by a house about three houses down from where I live, on my way to the grocery store. A young woman was parking her car in her driveway. Just as she opened her car door, I happened to drive by in my car and glanced in her direction. She took an immediate affront to my looking at her and gave me a rather severe "go-to-hell" look, and I've never met the woman. Perhaps someone caused her to be angry at the world that morning, and she was taking her anger out on me, an innocent bystander (I had no ulterior motive at all, except to smile and be friendly).

My late father-in-law told me the following saying several times, "Mike, folks have got the same clothes to get glad in, as they've got to get mad in." In other words, don't let your anger override your good judgment. The old idiom regarding any insult or criticism, "like water off a duck's back" comes into play here (see meaning here and here).

Perhaps we (both men and women) would find it easier to get along with one another, if we would just simply (1) follow the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12); (2) adhere to Paul's admonition in Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:12-13; and (3) be willing to condescend to people of lower estate. Beloved, managing anger (see article) is a necessity for all of us in a world that's seemingly filled with both anger and hatred.

---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets