This week has been quite snowfilled with downright frigid temperatures. We haven't had weather like this in Arkansas since the late 1980's. Has it brought you more emotions than you can bear? Stress can bring on anxiety, worry, fear, and insomnia. We have to learn to deal with our emotions so that we control them and they don't control us.
"Are there good and bad emotions? Yes and no. Emotions in themselves are neutral. Their expression takes on the nature of good and bad. All emotions are valid, and each has a place in God’s design of your human psyche and spirit. God created your emotions so you might enjoy them and communicate to others by using them.
Sometimes we are overcome with emotion. We may lose control in a particular situation. At those times, we may feel that we should apologize for our lack of restraint, but we should never apologize for having feelings. After all, none of the psalmists held back in expressing their full range of human emotions to God. When we apologize for having emotions, we are in danger of stuffing them, with a possible eruption later. Stuffed emotions can only be damaging.” [Charles F. Stanley, Becoming Emotionally Whole]
"Emotions can become problematic when we allow them to overpower us and take over. There is a line between feeling anger and becoming it. Sometimes an emotion feels so big that I can’t separate it from who I am in that moment. This is when I know I have to pull back. I don’t reject the emotion, but I want to be able to hold it at a distance. I change “I am desperate” to “I feel desperate; I am holding despair.” This small change in perspective is enough to give me relief. And if I treat the feeling with care and compassion, I am able to come out of it with time. By treating our own emotions not as enemies but as neutral information, we can have compassion for ourselves and, in turn, with others." [intouch.org]
Emotional overload can lead to feelings of self discouragement and disappointment. We may be told or feel like we are overreacting. These are unfair and hurtful judgments that only further develop the emotional snowball. "Since we cannot experience perfect success in a fallen world or keep ourselves from suffering, there’s no way to avoid all disappointments in life. However, we don’t have to yield to discouragement. With the right perspective of God and His sovereignty over us, we can avoid feelings of despair. When He, in His providence, allows failure and disappointment, it is part of His perfect plan, and He promises to use it for good. May we all become victorious over despair and disappointment by trusting in and depending on Him."
As for myself, I never understood anxiety as a real thing until after my fall in 2018. Since then, anxiety can be brought on by things that normally wouldn't phase me at all. I think a lot of it has to do with the realization of my lack of control. God has always been in control, but I previously had a crazy facade going on in my mind that I had a little bit of control of in my world. This week my emotions led to a fear of the possibility of a power outage here that overtook me, but led me to much prayer to the One in control of all things. My mind told me I was being ridiculous, but my faith told me to rely and trust in my Protector and Sustainer. God is faithful to take care of His beloved.
2 Corinthins 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
