The other day a young friend taught me a lesson, a good and valuable lesson.  Two weeks earlier, she had shared with me how discouraged and overwhelmed she was feeling.   Trying to juggle her career with a new baby, the financial responsibilities of the home she and her husband had just purchased, plus a very stressful situation regarding her extended family left her feeling depressed, tired and weighed down.

 

I had been thinking about my friend, so I decided to give her a call.  Much to my delight, she sounded happy and upbeat—just like her old self—even though circumstances hadn’t changed one bit. 

“You know, Ana,” she said on the phone, “after we prayed the other day, I felt so much better.  I was reminded that my emotions work like a thermometer.  When I am at peace, I am ok.  But when my emotions are high and seem out of control, something else is wrong.  And it has little to do with my circumstances.  So I have to ask myself, ‘What is really going on here?’  The culprit is usually my heart.”

 

This is so true!  When my heart is not in the right place, I can’t seem to handle whatever life throws my way.  And like a ship without oars, my heart tends to drift away when I neglect my relationship with God.

 

I had called to encourage my friend, but instead she encouraged me.  So now, when I start feeling restless, impatient, irritable or disheartened, her words shed light on my feelings.  My emotions are my heart’s thermometer!  

 

It takes courage to ask oneself, What does this emotional “fever” reflect?   A lack of trust or perhaps misplaced trust?  Emotional or physical fatigue?  Not enough time spent alone with God or in His Word?

 

Whatever the answer, I’ve decided to heed to it.  I want the Lord—not my emotions—to rule and to have their way in my life.

Ana

 

 

Categories: Women's Ministry

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