...They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.(Psalm 1:4)
Emotions.
Anger. Frustration. Fright. Anxiety. Hope. Love. Joy. Fear.
Are we those emotions? Is who we are, at the core, emotional?
In our home, we have lengthy discussions around emotions. As my daughters get older there have been many opportunities to dissect emotional responses. It's easy to drift through life a slave to emotions allowing whatever feeling inside to direct our mood, our path. I've seen it in myself. The baby is crying, the two year old just dumped out a box of cereal, the boys are fighting, my eight year old doesn't want to do her work, my twelve year old is ill, and my thirteen year old needs to get to ballet. Oh yeah, and then there's laundry, bills, cleaning the house and homeschooling. Emotional response? Perhaps anger, or anxiety, or overwhelm. I've been there. I've felt it. And my family deals with me sitting in the unproductive state of overwhelm.
So am I overwhelm? Or am I something more then the feeling? Over the past years I've learned a great deal about the power of emotions via an amazing post-graduate course by Dr. Al Larson. One of the most significant truths that I was led to was the fact that I am NOT the emotion. I am FEELING an emotion, but the core me is NOT the emotion. If you take the above example, I can recognize that I am feeling overwhelmed. And then, I can take that emotion of overwhelm and begin to replace it with more proactive emotions. Overwhelm is teaching me something....the question is discovering what truth is in there. In my case, overwhelm is telling me that there needs to be something changed. Perhaps the schedule is too busy, or the little kids need me structure, or I simply need to reframe what my normal day looks like. I certainly will not have a quiet, problem free day with seven kids at home. Then I can develop a strategy for living joyfully in the midst of a busy life. If I allowed overwhelm to define me then I run the risk of losing the nuggets of beauty scattered throughout my day. Of my two year old, as he's sweeping up the cereal mess, telling me he's my helper. Or of my thirteen year old describing her ballet class. Or my six year old elated that he read the word "Sam". Or the sunlight reflecting through the cross on my window and making a gorgeous pattern on my wall. It's in stepping back. Breathing. Learning from emotion.
I've chatted with my children about not being emotionally driven. If we don't begin to recognize emotions in our minds and simply live in emotion we run the risk of being blown around life chaff in the wind. Jealousy. Discontent. Despair. Negativity. Christ created us to be with Him with our hearts connected to His power. If our minds flit around from emotion to emotion then we aren't grounded in truth. The truth of Him. The truth found in Romans 12:2-Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformed by what? THE RENEWING OF OUR MIND. And what does that mean? To me, it means recognizing emotions...not denying them...beginning to understand them...and then replacing lies with truth. And the truth is that He is with us always. He's ever-present. I just need to slow down and see Him.
So friends, where do you need to slow down? What emotions are blowing through your mind? The truth is that since we are with Christ we are rooted in Him. Read the words prior to the verse on chaff...
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1:3)
In a world that pushes emotionally-driven responses it's time that we sink our roots deep in the Word, in Him. When we are secure our hope in Him then it becomes more apparent where we need to renew our minds. Our God is about hope, faith, and joy. Don't allow the emotions of this world rob us of His truth.
