Facing Emotions in Each Season of Life
Facing Emotions in Each Season of Life
Honesty is the Key to Emotional Health During Each Season of Life
Take a stroll with me down the road I have traveled through different seasons of my life. Perhaps you can relate.
Sweet Sixteen: My very first memorable season – the long awaited time of being old enough to get my driver’s license and drive around town with my friends.
Twenty-One: I began to realize life was not all fun and games when college, marriage, laundry, cooking and working 9-5 entered the picture.
Twenty-Seven: The beginning of babies and diapers, which led into school, homework, carpools, ballgames, spend-the night parties, fun times, crying times, proms, dating, college and weddings. Whew!
Grandchildren: A time to relax and play.
Aging Parents: The season of being sandwiched in between children, grandchildren, and aging parents.
Many of those seasons were filled with much joy, while others were filled with heartaches, which tested my faith. Those were the ones I wanted over and done with quickly and get on down the road.
Solomon says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:11. He then goes on to name some of the emotions we may experience during those seasons, such as: laughter, mourning, dance, love, hate, peace.
In looking back, if there is one thing I learned that my emotional health depends upon is how I respond within each season. And my response is determined by the level at which I am honest about my true emotions, or feelings, as they are also called. What does honesty look like in regards to our emotions?
1. Be Honest with Yourself: Psalm 51:6 exhorts us to desire truth in our inner parts. When we aren’t honest with ourselves, we are not able to be honest with God and others.
2. Be Honest With God: In Psalm 142:2 David talks about pouring out his complaints before God and showing Him all his troubles. In fact, throughout the Psalms, we see David using his heart like a water pitcher as he empties his heart of both positive and negative feelings to God.
This was probably the hardest feat for me. I remember a particular time when I had a lot of anger stored up inside me. My thinking was, I cannot let God find out about this; after all, I am a Christian, and Christians shouldn’t be feeling this way! Finally, one day, my brain clicked in, and I realized that I might as well confess it to God; He knows anyway. And when I did, He began to teach me how to deal with anger. Emotions are not wrong; it is what we do with them that can lead to wrong decisions as well as hurt others.
3. Be Honest With Others: Open communication is vital to maintaining a relationship. Facing conflict with boldness and openness is absolutely essential to solving problems. However, the Bible is also plain about not causing division and strife, so we must use caution as we begin to deal honestly with those who have hurt us. For example: Sometimes telling everything you may be feeling to aging parents, another family member, or friend only brings more division and strife. Ask yourself the question, “What will help that person?” Also think about that person’s spiritual maturity level when you are trying to decide how much to tell. On rare occasions, it’s best to tell nothing. Instead, just be fully persuaded in your own mind what you believe to be right and how you are going to make changes in your own life to deal with the hurt.
Honesty is the key to expressing our feelings.
Only then can God give us wisdom in each season of our life,
to keep our emotional health in balance.
Reflection
1. Take a stroll in your own life and name memorable seasons you have passed through.
2. What emotions, both positive and negative, were triggered in each season?
3. Do you feel you have been honest with yourself, God, and others as you processed your emotions? Explain your answer.
Goals
Write one goal you can accomplish today (at home, at work, with family, etc.) that will allow you to live out your purpose in regard to Health:
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV)