Tag: emotion

What to do With all the Big Feelings

I’ve shared before that the emotional trajectory of any given day (or hour) of my life can look a little like this.

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Even if this isn’t your norm, perhaps there has been a day or two…

It seems that lately, many people around me have been facing circumstances that have thrown them for a loop even if usually their emotional life looks more like a merry-go-round than a monster roller coaster. So what do you do with all the Big Feelings?

One of the things I love about Scripture is that it’s so authentic, that often I may be experiencing something or feeling an emotion and one of the Bible people seems to jump off the pages and say “Me too!”

The community of young married couples I shepherd has started a study of David. I’m thinking David might have been a roller coaster kind of guy – a musician, shepherd, warrior, leader, and writer… As part of our study, this week we have agreed to read a Psalm written by David every day, starting with Psalm 3.

I love the Psalms because I feel kind of like a voyeur, peaking over someone’s shoulder, reading their journal.  The Psalms are just so dang real!

The Psalms are FULL of All Of The Big Feelings.

Can you say drama???

But the great thing is that the Psalms model how to deal with that drama.

Religiosity may say stuff or deny – don’t admit the messy feelings.

Secularism may say emotion is god – it rules all.

But the Psalms give us a third way to deal with our emotions.  Continue reading

6 Things I’m Learning About Handling Criticism

In our relationship John and I often say that the emotional trajectory of my typical day looks like this:roller-coaster-ftr

And John’s emotional trajectory looks like this:IMG_0532

So when a young woman I mentor asked if she could come over and talk to us about how John has navigated the crises and criticism of leadership with a “non-anxious presence” and how I have achieved the victory of not, you know…killing, any of those critics, we said, “of course!”

John’s temperament just naturally sets him up better for criticism, but he also has a lot of wisdom to share and I have a lot to learn.  Our conversation made me reflect on some of the lessons I’ve learned  I am trying to learn about dealing with criticism.

Here are a few: Continue reading

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