Check out our latest episode on Behold Women: At the Table below!

In this episode of Behold Women: At the Table we talk all things emotions! 

We recognize that when it comes to emotions, there isn't any clear cut answer. But I sit down with Caitie, soon to be a Licensed Social Worker, and talk about emotions. We talk about how to navigate emotions and how to process them - what tools we utilize in processing our own areas of pain and strong emotional responses. We also discuss the difference between righteous emotions and emotions that are sinful. Are there unhealthy and healthy emotions?

We talk about not letting our emotions rule us but rather ruling our emotions. Being rooted in our identity in Jesus allows us to come from a place where we can have authority over our emotions. We talk about dealing with the tension of sitting with negative emotions and indulging in them.

Lastly, we talk about trauma responses and whether trauma is an emotion or a response to an emotion or situation. We also discuss unbalanced emotions as a result of trauma. 

Some Take Aways and Quotes:

• Sometimes our rhetoric around “choose joy” and “choose peace” actually becomes toxic positivity. Sometimes we can actually feel too mad or too sad to approach God, but God gave us emotions! He wants us to be expressive. And there are so many times in Scripture we see in the middle of Jesus’ ministry He is experiencing emotions.

• In discrediting or demonizing our emotions, we say that God isn’t big enough to process our emotions with.

• God isn’t afraid of our emotions. We don’t have to always approach Him perfectly filled with peace or perfectly filled with joy.

• Sometimes that “choose joy” mentality or the “fake it til you make it” idea actually gives me a mask I can hide behind instead of being vulnerable with Jesus.

“Instead of going to the one person who could fix these issues; I wanted even God to think I was perfect.”

• Ten out of ten times, coping mechanisms will fail.

• Processing emotions changes depending on the circumstances and the season. You have to find what works best for you. Caitie mentioned that she is an internal processor who processes externally, so for her, it looked like talking out loud in her car to Jesus. Caitie mentioned that journaling didn’t work for her because she felt like her hand couldn’t catch up with her brain. Instead of keeping a written journal, she kept an audio journal. Allie, on the other hand, used running to process emotions after she lost her dad. Another way she’s processed her emotions is by writing out the psalms in The Passion Translation and then processing her emotions within the context of Scripture.

“Some of my deepest processing times with God have contained the least amount of words from me.”

• Growth and processing don’t happen overnight, it happens in gradual increments.

• We focus on the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, but within there we see Jesus’ emotions. Him being moved, is Him being moved to anger, and then He weeps – and He knows that He’s going to raise Lazarus. So He didn’t deem His emotions as untrustworthy. He experienced them and processed them.

• Emotions are windows into parts of your soul. They show you lies that you’re believing and thoughts that you’re having.

“When you deem all emotions as untrustworthy, you turn off your capacity to experience joy.”