Find refreshment for your heart, home and life
A couple times this week I’ve heard someone say,
One person said showing women how to fix their own hair makes her happiest. Another said giving blood brings her the most joy. It made me stop and ask myself, “What gives me the greatest happiness?”
Continue reading “Nothing Makes Me Happier”
I’ll never forget the sinking feeling I had one summer day some years back. I had gone out to get something out of my Jeep, and when I opened the driver’s side door there were my cassette tapes (my model was old!) strewn all over the seats of the car. My first thought was that my husband had made a mad search for something he needed. I came in and asked if he’d been looking for something in my car.
His reply was, “No, why?” After I explained what I’d found when I went out to my vehicle, it was obvious to us both that someone else had been searching through my car in the night. The thief had to be sorely disappointed, because I had nothing of value kept there, and the only tapes they found (and left) were Christian music tapes.
It gave me a truly strange feeling to know that some stranger had been rummaging through my car and my belongings, right outside my bedroom door while I slept! We learned that our neighbors had also been burglarized, some losing valuable possessions. We all began taking precautions against this happening again. I began locking my car and we left on a flood light through the night. These were things that we should have been doing all along, but instead we had left ourselves open to the thief because we thought we were safe.
I think how often I’m robbed of other things – things that I leave unprotected and unguarded, and as a result they are stolen away from me in a moment of distraction.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I have a choice now – to lock up my car and also to leave the light on in hopes of discouraging thieves, or I can leave everything as it was on the day the robbery happened. An even greater choice is the decision to lock up tight, and “leave the light on” in my spiritual life so I’ll be very aware of the thieves that desire to steal precious possessions the Lord wants me to enjoy!
Are you safeguarding against the thieves of your heart?
Part 2 (You can find Part 1 here)
A good day can turn into a very bad day in a matter of minutes. Here’s how it goes –
1. I allow my feelings to dominate my thinking – (“This is the worst thing ever! I shouldn’t have to deal with this!” Neither of these statements are true.)
2. My reactions then reveal the emotional tidal wave by spilling from my mind into my heart. (I pout, am angry or I retreat)
3. My mouth speaks what I’m thinking. (I may accuse, complain or verbalize in other ways the things I feel)
4. The result is always regret. (Hurt feelings of others, distance in relationships, or spiritual coldness in my own heart)
However, when I begin to feel those emotions (and we will all feel things about our situations or relationships), I must make the immediate choice to deal with it in the three ways I mentioned last week. Then the blessed results of choosing right thinking will follow!
The results are…
For good emotional health,
don’t depend on your emotions!
I don’t know about you, but I never like it when I’ve had times of emotional upheaval. Thank the Lord for His Divine help that enables us to mature in regards to our feelings.
If this post resonates in your heart at all, and you deal with fluctuating emotions as I have, make it a matter of prayer, asking God to help you apply #1-3 in the first part of this post.
Emotions are part of our make-up as women, but they should never be the boss of our lives! Let Truth override anything you may be “feeling.” Dig to find it in God’s Word. Ask loving questions of others. Then meditate on that truth instead.
You won’t have regrets for doing so.
Ask Eve.
Part 1
I love that God made women to be emotional beings. We feel sentiments, we sense problems, we discern issues. Sometimes we are spot on. Sometimes that intuition and sense of sadness, trouble or even excitement were all correct and we nod our heads, thankful that we followed through to care for ourselves or the other people involved.
However, because we are far from perfect, we don’t always get it right. Let’s face it, sometimes we can be totally off. On those occasions, we can also track our incorrect feelings to our incorrect responses. Been there? Me too! We are not alone, though.
When we open to the first Book of the Bible and see Eve in the garden, we are met immediately with a woman who missed it. When Satan showed her the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Scripture says,
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
She was looking at this whole situation and feeling that God had not been fair. He had withheld something that was good. Next we see that her wrong thinking/feelings, led her to act out her incorrect discernment when she took of the fruit and gave some to her husband, Adam.
There are several ways we can avoid jumping to conclusions as Eve did.
The truth of this situation is found in Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Eve needed to believe that God was so good to her and Adam. He had kept the evil from them! She found that out very quickly, didn’t she? You and I will often invite hardship, too, when we keep pressing into our emotions. What do we do then if we’re told that our feelings are inaccurate? We make a choice. We go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help us replace our feelings with right thinking. Philippians 4:8 Every time the emotion rushes in, we choose truth instead. It’s like choosing to eat something sweet and delicious, or picking up something disgusting from the sidewalk and popping it into our mouth and chewing on it. It’s our choice to choose.
Next week I’ll continue this post and I’ll be sharing the result of choosing right thinking over our emotions. For today, ask yourself:
The roller coaster of emotions make for dizzy days. Guard your heart by seeking out the truth.
With so much hardship and struggles in life, it’s easy to overlook the beauty that is all around us. As I took a look back on my week of photos, I found five pictures that reminded me of some beautiful things the Lord allowed me to see this week.
Roses – How gorgeous are the roses above? I purchased them at Kroger and took them to my mom when I visited her and my dad for a few days this week. I cut the greenery in their yard. I love the pink on the edges of the leaves; it just brings out the pink of the roses!
My dad’s love for my mom – After church we went to Applebee’s for dinner and I snapped this picture of him rubbing her back – one of many loving gestures I saw him do for her while I was there. Sixty-six years and counting!
Golden Hour – This stained glass piece at my parent’s is beautiful – especially when the sun is shining through it at sunset.
Morning light – The last morning I was in Kentucky, I looked out my window and the sun was hitting this tree just right. How gorgeous a new day is! How blessed to see the sunrise and watch the light creep into the yard like a little child slipping from their bed and rising to greet their parents.
This is not my obviously not my photo; it belongs to Tara Leigh Cobble, who is leading a tour of Israel. I took a screen shot of her Instagram photo. Since I’ve had the blessing of going to Israel myself, when I saw this picture, I knew immediately that they were on the Sea of Galilee. That boat ride was the highlight of my time in Israel. Its’ beautiful, but it’s also amazing to be on that water and think about Jesus walking on THAT water!
Jesus is the reason for any joy I can experience in this world. Because I have peace with God through Jesus’ finished work on the cross, I can have true joy, even if the day seems bleak and there is no visible beauty. The fact that I am His and He is mine reminds me that this is not all there is. One Day I will live with Him and reign with Him forever. I pray you have that assurance and that joy in your life as well.
Refresh your day by seeing the beauty around you, given by the hands that died for you.
RefreshHer 