Do you ever get your feelings hurt? I do.
I can get my feelings hurt just by walking into a messy room. Somehow the stuff lying around translates in
my brain to, “We do not give a hoot about how hard you work to keep our house
nice and clean, Hazel. Um, I
mean…Mom.”
Have you ever felt wounded at dinner time when someone at the table did not seem
quite gleeful over the cheesy broccoli and liver casserole you made? How about the time when your
husband forgot to bring flowers home on the anniversary of the day you bought
your first couch; or last week when that
person from church ignored you in Wal-mart. (Too bad that she didn’t even
see you. She should have felt your
presence and sought you out.)
Whatever it is, we can get our pantaloons all in a bunch over
some pretty silly things. Our irrational
reactions make us miserable and give us a reputation as someone who is easily
offended and must be handled with kid gloves or dropped like a hot potato.
A brother
offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle. Proverbs 18:19
We do need to remember, though, that feelings are not bad
things; after all, God has feelings and we are created in His image. But…because
we are not God (no matter how hard we try to be at times) we do not always use
our emotions correctly. The Lord sees
the whole picture, all the facts. We
tend to use our feelings as facts. We
feel a certain way, therefore, it must be true.
Like a thermometer, feelings can give us some idea of our
emotional temperature. We can feel our
blood start to boil or our heart start to feel cold towards someone based on
their words or actions. Those same feelings, however, should not be used as our
thermostat. Once we feel our emotional
temperature responding to a situation, we need to turn to the one true source
that can regulate our response – God’s Word.
The Word of God is an endless resource of correct responses
that glorify Him, and....it is always true. Hope in His Word and
allow it to set your thermostat and keep you from being a Feelings Diva. When you do that people won’t run when they see you
coming, they will be happy to welcome you.
Those who fear
You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your Word. Psalm 119:74
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for giving us emotions to enjoy. Please give me the wisdom to set my emotional
thermostat by Your Word. Amen.
Challenge:
Take time to read through Proverbs, making note of all the
verses that address how to respond in a godly way to various circumstances and
people. Afterwards, flip over to Psalm 119 and see how the Word of God should be the thermostat for all areas of life.
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