As a parent of teenagers, this summer I’ve found it challenging to spend as much time with my kids as I would like. Between my son’s job and my daughter’s full list of activities, we are learning that we have to plan more creatively to carve out time to all be together. A recent Saturday morning provided such an opportunity. We actually woke them up early (which could be interpreted by them as anytime before noon) and took them to see an animated movie with us. They lovingly refer to this as forced family fun. And although I think I might have been the only one super excited about going to the movies that day, we all actually did end up enjoying our time together. And we might have even learned a thing or two from the film!
The movie we saw that day was “Inside Out” which features an eleven year old girl struggling with all the changes that come with her family’s move to a new town. The interesting concept about this story was that the real stars of the movie were the emotions in her head. All of the major emotions were represented featuring joy, fear, anger, disgust and sadness. And even though joy was front and center prior to their move, all the other emotions seemed to take over as her struggles began.
I can totally relate to the feeling of allowing all the “not so Christ centered” emotions to take over. We can blame it on circumstances, struggles, difficulties, and challenges, but when we allow any of the “other” emotions to take center stage and affect our attitude, our words, our actions, we become just about anything other than Christ like. We’ve all been there, right?
But when we allow Christ to take over our hearts and begin to truly trust Him, He has the ability to give us joy even in the midst of sorrow, to provide peace when our lives are filled with stress. He provides strength when we are weak, allows us to show compassion when we would rather be selfish, and even moves us to forgiveness rather than let bitterness take hold.
The more time we spend with Christ, the more our hearts can be filled with His precious fruits. These are the “better” emotions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. These better emotions aren’t possible on our own and don’t often make sense to others. But they always point to Christ and might even provide an opportunity for us to share our faith.
Source: Pinterest
Paul, the great missionary we read about in the Bible, knew what it meant to suffer through emotions. He was actually imprisoned (talk about a stressful situation) for sharing the love of Christ when he wrote Philippians 4:10 – 13.
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”
Paul understood that by relying on Christ’s strength, any and every situation provided an opportunity to be content and even joyful. If Paul can understand that concept from a prison cell, surely we can comprehend this within the chaos our lives. Our God is faithful and if we call upon His name and ask for His strength, He will help us overcome the emotional rollercoasters of our lives.
My prayer is that we would put Christ in charge of our hearts, our minds, our souls, and most certainly our emotions. That we trust Him fully and allow His joy in our hearts to always take center stage!
And if you’re looking for a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, you might watch “Inside Out” for yourself!
