I remember it well. The year I turned eleven years old. My days were filled with hurt feelings and nights spent crying myself to sleep because of some perceived wrong done to me by a friend at school. One moment I was angry, the next I was carefree. Looking back on it, I was constantly plagued by surging emotions that were tethered to circumstances. Circumstances that were always changing.
Hormones. The word causes us all to nod our heads in feminine sympathy for one another. Hormones can turn a good day into a bad one and produce tears at the drop of a hat. Husbands rightly shudder at the mention of PMS and look on in bewilderment as the rise and fall of estrogen transforms a wife who yesterday had a sense of humor about her faults, into an over-sensitive emotional mess…and then back again.
Hormonal fluctuations can certainly affect our emotions but must we let them? In the past I have been far too quick to believe the enemy’s lie that I must act on my emotions, or even that I have no control over them. You know, “I can’t help how I feel.” While God gave us emotions He did not mean for them to dictate our lives when they run amuck.
We can control our emotions and they should not be used to justify sin. Our daughters may feel irritable and edgy at a certain point of the month, but that does not excuse unkind words or corrupt speech.
Truth Versus Reality
A kind gift we can give to our daughters is to communicate to them that our feelings often have very little to do with reality. We can instruct them now, when they are young, not to cater to their emotions in the midst of fluctuating hormones. If they allow themselves to be led by emotions now then how will this look in later years during the “big stuff” like a difficult pregnancy, a troubled marriage, financial emergencies or caring for an aging parent?
Hannah Whitall Smith penned these words:
We must choose, without any regard to the state of our emotions, what attitude our will will take toward God. We must recognize that our emotions are only the servants of our will…
Our will can control our feelings if only we are steadfastly minded to do so. Many times when my feelings have declared contrary to the facts, I have changed those feelings entirely by a steadfast assertion of their opposite…
Surging emotions–like a tossing vessel, which by degrees yields to the steady pull of the anchor–finding themselves attached to the mighty power of God by the choice of your will, must sooner or later give allegiance to Him.
(Incidentally, Hannah Whitall Smith had circumstances in her life that would have left many of us an emotional nutcase. Her husband was an adulterer who was repeatedly unfaithful. Two of her children died, one was unfaithful in marriage and ran off with her lover. Another child married an outspoken atheist. Hannah herself suffered with painful arthritis.)
God has designed our bodies to have seasons and cycles. Every season has it’s challenges whether it be young girlhood, puberty, young womanhood, middle adulthood, peri-menopause and finally, menopause. But by God’s grace, we can fill our minds up with his truth when we feel hormonal storms approaching, and we can teach our daughters to do the same.
Scriptures to Mediate on When Your Emoticon App Doesn’t Contain Enough Faces to Describe You
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Cor. 10:13
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self,created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Eph. 4:22-24
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 4-7
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Phillipians 4:8
God made our bodies. He understands how they work and things like puberty, menstrual cycles, pregnancy and menopause don’t catch him off guard. We can fix our minds on Christ and He will sanctify our emotions and grant us peace.
<This blog post was shared with you from the amazing blog Raising Homemakers, by Bambi>
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