TITLE:  Skunks and Turtles
TEXT:  Ephesians 4:25-27
PROPOSITION:  We must understand how we react to situations.
QUESTION:  How?
KEY WORD:  Reactions
SCRIPTURE READING:  Same

INTRODUCTION:

1. I want to try to classify everyone in this auditorium this morning.
2. You are a skunk, a turtle, or some combination of the 2.
3. When there are personality clashes, personal conflicts – it is because –
   1. Opposites attract – skunks and turtles get along just fine
   2. Skunks and skunks – always clash
   3. Turtles and turtles – never get anything accomplished, no progress

    

Skunks

1. Act out – spray others
2. Danger, fear, cornered – attack everything around
3. Temper – quickly flares, then subsides
4. Anger is short-lived – after the spray – skunk waddles away, happy and free
5. Those he sprayed are angry, smelly, hurt – can’t get over being hit
6. Skunks can wind up doing illegal things – vandalism, robbery, killing

Skunks need to learn:

1. When and how to spray
2. Find less harmful and destructive ways to act out
3. Control their anger in non-sinful ways
4. Learn what is socially acceptable – stay in the lines
5. Limit the desire for radical changes

Turtles

1. Draw inside – pull back into a shell
2. Danger, fear, cornered – hold it all in, peek out to see if danger has passed
3. Anger builds and builds – every event adds to greater caution and suspicion
4. Anger – builds slowly, lasts a long time
5. No one else is hurt – the hurt is internal
6. Turtles can wind up doing personal harm – self-esteem, suicide, depression

Turtles need to learn:

1. Find a way to let out some of the internal pressure
2. Learn to like yourself (self-esteem)
3. Force yourself into groups, activities
4. Learn to trust others
5. Learn to be social – venture outside the lines – try new things

Pressure Cookers

1. Put in green beans, little water, on stove
2. Steam builds up pressure, weight on valve – psst, psst, psst – lets steam escape
3. Watch Out when the hissing stops – pressure is building – green beans on ceiling
4. ALL of us (skunks and turtles) need to learn how to reduce the pressure in harmless ways.