Emotions

Isn’t it amazing how many emotions we can feel in 24 hours?!  Or is it just women who have that ability?  What a unique capacity God has put within us – the capacity to feel. Who among us would want to trade away that privilege?  Yet at the same time, those very feelings can leave us desolated.

My emotions are something I’ve always had a hard time managing or even figuring out for that matter.  I then find myself trying to figure out other people’s emotions….did they mean what they said? Is she angry or sad? Does she want to be left alone or want company? What was that look for….? Maybe I only worry about people’s emotions because I tend to be a people pleaser by nature so I’m always trying to “read” people’s emotions to know if I’m “pleasing” them or not.  Sometimes I’m still trying to learn how to “act out” certain emotions so people will understand how I feel at a given moment.

I think that’s why I like my dogs so much (random thought).  You always know how your dog is feeling. They wag their tail when they’re happy, tuck it between their legs when they’re scared, and snarl their lips up when they are angry.  There’s not a whole lot of guesswork there and they don’t have a whole lot of in-between emotions.  Plus, the icing on the cake is they are ALWAYS happy to see you and you don’t have to do much to keep them happy.

Back to my original thoughts though.  Just as God’s Word speaks to us, there must also be the word that we speak to ourselves.  Oswald Chambers bluntly puts it in My Utmost for His Highest: “Unless we train our emotions, they will lead us around by the nose, and we will be captives to every passing impulse or reaction.  But once faith is trained to control emotions and knows how to lean resolutely against character weaknesses, another entryway of doubt is sealed shut forever.”

Common advice I seem to be constantly giving my girlfriends is….”keep your facts over your feelings.” Just because we FEEL a certain way, does not mean it is fact. For example, we may FEEL like God is distant, doesn’t hear us, can’t love us, etc., but that certainly is not FACT.

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

So, sit in your ash pile and weep when you must but know the time will come for you to RISE back up.