“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it …” Nicholas Sparks, At First Sight

When it comes to emotions, we may try hard to eliminate or deaden the difficult ones because we don’t know what else to do. However, we can’t rid ourselves of our God-given feelings anymore than we can deaden the negative ones without also deadening the positive. 

Not feeling is not an option. 

It also doesn’t work to let our emotions run rampant. We can give into them and act however we feel, but that leads us down the same crazy road as trying not to feel. 

During a volatile argument with my husband, I vowed, “I’m not going to let you keep getting to me like this.”

Ink splattered everywhere while I repeated, “I’m not. I’m not. I’m not.”  

I held it together the first time he stomped into my office, but not the second time around. I hit the point of my pen again and again on the pad of paper in my lap until the pen broke, and I broke too. 

That moment was one of several turning points, which is kind of “punny” now … the broken pen point was a turning point. Get it?

I didn’t heal or even change much at all, but I took a few small steps toward self-control. I tried doing it on my own, which didn’t work, but at least I had some direction. I couldn’t maintain it until I accepted that self-control is a fruit of the spirit meaning there was no way to keep it up without help from the Holy Spirit. 

However, that argument helped me make a decision and become willing to change. My fear of someone else being in control of my emotions, which he was because I handed over control, was the same fear that drove me to that decision and willingness, and to self-control.

Our emotions keep us needing Jesus, which heals us.  

In This Together, 
Kim

FYI: I’m blogging my book titled On The Other Side of Trying Hard: Healing, Happiness, and Holiness. Because these blog posts are a manuscript instead of stand-alone stories, some posts may leave you hanging. I hope you’ll hang in here with us anyway ‘cause a happy ending is coming. My blog post title includes the chapter title first. The phrase in parentheses is the subheading. I’m over-the-top grateful to have you here. I’d love to hear your reflections, questions, and comments.