Taking control of our emotional lives

One of the things that I have always struggled with (and will continue to do so) is controlling my emotional life (although I am doing a LOT better than when I was younger).

Have you ever caught yourself saying, "You make me so mad?"

Marcus Aurelius once said, "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

I can't be responsible for what happens to me - but I can be responsible for the way I react to what has happened to me.

Ownership of my emotions is a key.

One way to control our emotions is to set emotional goals.

We can't afford to wing it when it comes to our emotional well-being (as Tommy Newberry writes).

We need to give our brain specific intention and it will serve us well.  If we feed our brains mixed messages, it will hold us back.

Choose which emotions you want to experience in any given day.

Which ones to you want to experience less frequently or with less intensity?

Fear?  Resentment?  Boredom?  Loneliness?  Guilt?  Rage?  Confusion?  exhaustion?

Or do you choose to experience Joy?  Confidence?  Peace?  Passion?  Satisfaction?  Enthusiasm?  Energy?  Gratitude?

Choose the top three emotions that you would like to experience more often over the next 30 days (I am quoting Tommy Newberry).

Then transfer your answers to the front of a three-by-five card under the heading "increase!"

Next choose three emotions that you would like to experience less often, and transfer them to the back of the same card under the heading "Decrease!"

The point is this:  With the help of the ministry of the Holy Spirit we can get control over our emotional lives.

We can choose joy.  We can choose gratitude.  We can choose satisfaction.  It all comes back to what we let our minds dwell on. 

Philippians 4:8 shares with us that whatever we dwell upon becomes increasingly prominent in our minds.  You always feel what you dwell on.

Newberry goes on to write that we can do away with a negative thought when we replace with with a positive one.  It's called the law of exchange.

We can't replace our negative thoughts by fighting them or trying to block them out but by replacing them with something else.

"Father, help us to gain control over our emotions!"