Is this you lately? Is this what is running on loop in your head? Is this what you feel like? Is this what you see everywhere you go?
The world is falling apart, and we are living in this weird time where I can never feel like my emotional cup is full.
Once a week, at least, someone in my family lodges the complaint, “When will things go back to the way they were—no masks at school, cheering our team from the stands, no more empty tables at restaurants. And, can we please stop using the words social distancing?!!”
Our emotional cups seem to deplete quicker and as we look around we wonder where did it all go (reminds me of that country song right now, hole in the bottle). We used it all up and did not even realize it. We are using our female emotions on other people’s hurts and pains and sometimes that is before we get out of bed in the morning. Then we have our own pod of humans we have to deal with on a daily basis. We have to love them, help them, encourage them, instruct them, guide them, lead them...see it is now 10 a.m and we are done. We now feel empty, void, exhausted, lacking and hollow.
As this happens we are looking around the world and seeing all the negative - all the yuck, muck, negativity --- what if I asked you to put on a new pair of lenses. Ones that are clean, one that when you walk outside it shows you all the good in the world that we don’t see. What if we deny our flesh and satan’s desire for us to be living in a constant state of fear, anxiety, depression, anger, etc...?
Like Albert Einstein said, imagination is more important than knowledge. Isn’t that why kids learn and grow so fast during those little years? They are still asking the questions, they are still wondering. We as adults have lost the wonder of imagination to what God is doing. We have already concluded the story in our heads and thus the world is a 100% horrible place.
Doom and Gloom.
Someone said, “See the world as if for the first time; see it through the eyes of a child, and you will suddenly find that you are free.”
This world has beat us down so bad that we have lost tenderness to others, continuous hope, awe and wonder in what is going to happen next. We have lost our ability to see things like kids see it.
We must demonstrate the fruit of the spirit by loving them, helping them, offering encouragement, guidance, and leadership. How can we do this when we are surrounded by so much negativity?
In Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:17 (yes, same life-lesson in three different places) is where Jesus talks about how we need to turn away from what the world—or, adulting has done to us. Matthew 18:3 says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Becoming like a child means letting go of the cynicism, anger, and apathy in the grown-up heart. Even turning away from adult-like thinking, like being bored with nature, shallow small talk and thoughtless routines.
He insists, in order for us to enter His Kingdom we need to make ourselves like children—though, not naïve—he is using the humble disposition of a child to describe how we ought to trust Him and look to Him for all our answers. Jesus is not rejecting maturity, but the lies of pride, self-sufficiency, and self-deception that are learned with years of practice in a sinful world.
His goal is to bring us to spiritual life in His Kingdom of opposites. (Check out Matthew 18:4 &23:12, Luke 14:11 & 18:14, 2 Corinthians 11:7 & 12:21 and Philemon 2:8). Psalms 18:27 says, “For you save the humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.”
To be humbled means realizing you don’t have all the answers, and that you’re not always right. #whatwhat?!?! Being humble means you forgive easily because you know that you offend often. Being humble means trusting God instead of trusting your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). Being humble means you are teachable—you want to learn and grow, and you know there is more. Now, doesn’t that sound like children that you know?
In the podcast Robi Heath, a registered Play Therapist in Frisco, Texas, restocks our toolbox with equipment to get us through this season with our kids and our own junk.
Please do not miss the things we can do to humble ourselves which allows us and our kids to grow and flourish in this time! She also gives some great insight into how to recognized when our emotional cups are empty and how to handle. Let’s be women are not afraid to grow and stretch and who humble ourselves daily, knowing that we are doing this in obedience to God, our heavenly Father, who we adore greatly!
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