Have you heard this before:
"If I feel something, it must be true."
I remember as a young mom feeling discouraged and wondering what I had gotten myself into some days with all the responsibilities before me. I was feeling stressed, alone, and depressed.
Around this time my husband was away at work for 12 hours a day. I started to think that he didn't care and didn't love me.
I allowed this thinking to creep into my mind and actually entertained it. Did he really care? He is gone all day. He doesn't really know how hard it is.
Feelings of resentment and bitterness subtly made their way in and I started to begin to feel upset about the whole situation.
But then I caught myself.
What was I doing?
Here was my poor husband working hard for our family and I was thinking negatively because I was entertaining wrong thoughts in my head!
What I should have been thinking was:
"God will help me through all that He has entrusted me with."
"My husband loves and cares for us and that is why he is working hard to support us."
If I had focused on truth and not on my "feelings" this could have all been avoided. I realized after that there were MANY areas in my life that I had allowed my heart to lead the way and not the Truth of God's Word.
The Bible describes the heart this way:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17:9
And the importance of controlling our thoughts:
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. -2 Corinthians 10:5
Dear friend, we need to be vigilant as we guard our thoughts so that we can carefully build our homes on the solid truths of God's foundation and not on our "feelings" or worldly influences or philosophies around us, God's truth brings light on the darkness and truth to incorrect thinking.
We need to apply this in all areas:
- our marriages
- our parenting
- our church life
-our own daily spiritual walk
-our relationships
Let's face it, there will be times when our thoughts will be unreliable and will not hold any ground.
Let's choose to get off our emotional roller coaster of ups and downs and STEADY ourselves on His Truth which brings PEACE, REST, AND CLARITY-- not chaos and confusion.
So we can wisely use that time to patiently and prayerfully cultivate the sober-minded women He has called us to be.
Are you struggling with any wrong thoughts today?
How can we pray for you?
10 comments:
This post is providentially right on time! There have been many times when my husband would point out something in relation to my home management and I would have a tendency to feel like he is criticizing me and become defensive about it. I would "feel" that he is constantly belittling me, only sees what is not done or right, and looks for things to complain about. The truth is that he may be just helping me improve in areas that are important to him. It is so hard to stay humble when he does this because I take to heart all of his feedback.
This is good to consider. I married a man who was born out of wedlock and not aborted by a compromising mother. Some of these heart problems show up in our marriage in the form of ultrasensitivity. I too had my issues and purposeful neglect patterns by parents.... so I need to rely on true strength of holy spirit....
Pray for me to have steady emotions; too often, I am overwhelmed with fear of not making the right choices for my children.
Dear Anonymous,
This is true for me too and I have had to carefully think through it so I don't just react to him! My husband is VERY easy going and hardly asks for a thing so when he does mention something it takes me off guard. But I need to realize he is not criticizing me but just trying to help.I will pray for you and so glad this post blessed you.
Many blessings...
Dear Laura,
That sounds difficult and yet at the same time it is so wonderful that you see the need to rely on God for help. Remember that we have hope because Jesus died for our sins and now we are a new creation in Him. We are being renewed daily and the old man has gone and the new has come. 2 Corinthians 2:15 I will be praying for you and your husband!
Thank you, June, for a thoughtful post. It is so important that we not allow our "heart" to get in the way of obedience to Christ. Our feelings were given to us to enhance our life here not to control our life.
I just love the beautiful artwork you display here. The pictures are an encouragement for godly femininity. Thank you again.
Love to you from Arizona.
Gleniece
June, thank you for this post. Your transparency is refreshing and I take your encouragement to be vigilant to heart. You were describing a scenario from my own life almost down to the "T"!
I will pray for you, Danielle!
Dear Celina,
I think many of us have been there at one time or another! So thankful that there are others who know what it is like. Praise God for the change in perspective---every day can be a battle in some area if we are not careful!
Dear Gleniece,
Thank you for the kind words--we hope you visit again! :)
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