The Fashion of Feelings

There are a lot of bad things happening in the world right now. They are negative. They are big. They are out of our control. How does that make you feel? Angry? Afraid? Bitter? Anxious? Are you filled with rage? Worry? Despair? Shame? Stress? Irritability? Helplessness? Depression? Confusion? Hopelessness? Yikes! It’s too much! 😫💔

These are strange, dark and overwhelming times. These feelings are normal and common to us all. It can seem that these feelings are bigger than us. We are overpowered by them. We can’t really control them. Feelings are just something that happen to us, that we have to endure and wait until they go away.

Or are they? 

It’s ok to have emotions. The Bible tells us that God has emotions and we are created in His image. Our emotions, centered in God, are good! But we are not supposed to be ruled by them, oppressed by them. They are not supposed to enslave and imprison us, causing us pain and robbing us of peace and joy. 

As parents it is easy to recognize attitudes and behaviors in our children that need to change. We can see when they are letting their emotions rule them. We tell them what not to do, emotions to “take off” and we show them what to “put on” instead. When the MurphyBros were wee lads, we spent a lot of time on learning to control our emotions and not letting our emotions control us. We talked about how our feelings were like clothes we were wearing. Things we could put on and take off. We weren’t stuck with them forever!!! We were in charge! 

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”   Colossians 3:12-14

During this time of heightened emotions, I was reminded of these Murphy childhood lessons of comparing controlling our emotions to taking off and putting on different clothes. But how does one do that? It’s a lot easier to change your clothes than it is to change your feelings!! 

We all know that there are things that we can take in that change our emotions, like 

☕️ coffee

🍫 chocolate

🍦junk food

💊 medications

🍷 alcohol

📺 TV

📱 social media

📚 novels

👩‍💻 the internet.

 What we take in... what we are thinking about... controls our emotions. Or as we often told the young MurphyBros, “Your thoughts are the boss of your emotions! What you know trumps what you feel!” 

Do you want to break free from the prison of your emotions? You need to start filling your mind with the truth of God. You will learn what God is really like, what He wants us to do and how He wants us to treat each other. When we start really understanding these truths, we start experiencing the most amazing emotions! 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 

In 2017 the USPS issued some lovely forever stamps honoring fashion designer, Oscar de la Renta. The stamps are beautiful and reminded me of clothing myself in beautiful things like compassion, love, forgiveness, forbearance, patience, humility, gentleness and kindness! Writing about my feelings is one of my favorite ways to deal with them!! (Obviously☺️). I plan on sending some “fashionable” mail to someone that may need cheering up in this time of darkness. Won’t you join me? 

Go postal, people! In the most fashionable way! 👗 

XOXO

Mrs. Murphy