Sheets cocooned me in a warm embrace. The sun poked its rays through the gaps in my blind. Yet, the thought of releasing myself from bed did not fill me with joy. I didn’t feel like rising and shining and giving God glory. I wanted a few more minutes of shut-eye. I wanted to enjoy my freshly washed sheets before the day bombarded me with demands. Essentially, I didn’t feel like playing the roles God had given me – wife, mom, employee, daughter, sister, and my most important role of being part of His kingdom.
Nope. I didn’t feel like adulting.
The sheets begged me to stay in their comfortable confines. My bed was warm and luxurious. The cold wood floor of my bedroom awaited my feet. But, alas, the pull of the bathroom was stronger than the luxury of the sheets. So my day started even if I didn’t feel like it.
Feelings have a sneaky way of getting in the way of our relationship with God. When we allow feelings to run our life, they mislead us in the way God wants us to go. They can draw us away from the best path God has designed for us.
Consider running your feelings by God before believing them. I journal out my feelings. I write in my journal. Daily. Without fail. There isn’t a set page limit or timeframe I adhere to. It’s about writing out what I need to at that given moment. I do a more extended writing time in the morning and a few lines in the evening to close out my day. It allows me to process my day, write a few lines about what happened, and let it go so that I can rest. But, if you’d like a free download of my journal, grab it here. If you’d like a paperback version of my journal, you can order it from Amazon.
My journaling is a commitment to myself to write like no one is reading. It allows me to process all the pain and sorrow in my life—more on the pain and sadness I’ve been experiencing in the upcoming blog posts.
We must include God in our feelings. Unfortunately, I’m guessing we check in with our cell phones more than with God. On average, smartphone users look at their phones more than 344 times a day. A day! Making it close to addiction when we read an email, text, or alert on average every four minutes. I’m not here to speak of the woes of smartphones and attention spans. I am speaking on how it impacts our feelings and our most important relationships.
I started noticing when I picked up my phone. I grab my phone to escape a feeling I’m experiencing, or I’m having a hard time creating something. I put my phone in the other room to write this blog post, but I’m still getting pings on my watch, tempting me to grab my phone. Curiosity demands to be satisfied. But what’s more important? Should I satisfy my feeling of curiosity or do what I’m called to do? It feels easier to pick up my phone than work through the next sentence. Hence the reason the phone is in the other room.
After I heard the statistic of how many times people grab their phones during the day, I decided to seek out God rather than my phone. Paul, the apostle in the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT), states, “Never stop praying.” So every single time I want to pick up my phone to escape a feeling would mean, on average, I would reach out to God 344 times a day to have my feelings satisfied in Him.
It’s essential to run our feelings to God. He wants to lead us and guide us on the best path for us. He is the one who must be Lord over our lives. Not feelings.
How do you deal with feelings? What reminder do you want to put in place as a reminder? Is it every time you pick up your phone? Let me know in the comments.