Emotions

Feel that emotion, but don’t let it control you!

I remember when I used to cry and throw an adult tantrum when things didn’t go my way. I was in my mid-twenties. Quite embarrassing now to think about, but I would cry and throw whatever I had in my hands if things didn’t go my way. Or I would walk away and go sulk in the corner. It was always like I expected life to go exactly as I wanted it to, or else.

Looking back I see an overgrown baby. Inexperienced. Immature. But now I understand it stemmed from the complete absence of the Holy Spirit fruits – patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, peace and self control.

I moved to the US with my family at 15 and from that time I was a scholar. I don’t think I spent too much time doing much else. In High School, I spent summer breaks at our local library. Oh how I love the smell of books. And so I looked forward to helping them organize and sort. The best job I may have ever had 😁!

And then in college, I spent my summer breaks doing research so as you can see I was very sheltered. And so once I went away to grad school I started to uncover the really immature character that I had, but had never been firmly challenged.

How many of us are led by our emotions even as adults?

I mean we watch babies and toddlers throw a fit and we can sort of understand why they would, even though we try to redirect them.

They do it at least in part because they don’t have any other way of expressing frustration and they can barely speak. And yet as adults, we who can speak and communicate better are often caught up in negative emotions that never lead us to behave well.

Earlier this week, I watched 2 grown men that could have been in their 40-50s cursing at each other and one trying to call the cops because the other man refused to move his truck.

How are we letting our emotions call the shots in our lives? Have you tried to surrender this to God and ask Him to lead you in this? To help you learn to manage negative thoughts and emotions.

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.”

Luke 1:37

In this world, we are encouraged to trust in ourselves. But if we are being honest, we can find moments where we know we just couldn’t have trusted our first responses to a negative challenge. And that is why many behavioral coaches recommend breathing and taking the moment to run through the possible consequences before we let it out.

Only Jesus can help us find the life balance that we need in this life. It’s okay to feel fear, sadness, frustration, anger, etc, but we don’t want these negative emotions to cause us to treat others or ourselves with dishonor/disrespect/disregard.

“Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back.”

Proverbs 29:11

Again, we shouldn’t feel ashamed or condemned if we are still struggling with emotion regulation. You should know we have no condemnation or shame in Christ. But our God loves us too much to leave us there❤️. He truly does make everything beautiful in its time (Ecc 3:11). In the Bible there are many examples of great men and women of God expressing sadness or anger or fear. We are human and God knows this, even Jesus wept. But we lean into God for wisdom, strength and understanding of how to effectively regulate and/or overcome these negative emotions so that they don’t rule over us or hold us back from living the full life God has for us.

We can sense/feel the emotion, acknowledge it and then we can choose to let the Holy Spirit lead us to respond or react in the godly way. We may not always get this right, but that’s why we have tomorrow to keep growing in Christ.

I pray for everyone reading this, that you experience a surprise in this week or month that opens your eyes to see the beautiful and majestic wonder of our God in a new way than you ever have. For all requiring emotional regulation, I pray that you begin to experience God’s peace in a new way. I pray that you are filled to overflow with His love, peace, gentleness, joy and self control. That you abound in these Holy Spirit fruits and that you continue to surrender in a deeper way to our King for the continuous unveiling of the amazing work that God wants to do in and through you. In Jesus’ Powerful and Holy Name, Amen ♥️

⁃ Love,

Uju