Uninspired

Empty

Blank

Speechless

Exhausted

Bored

Discontent

Lonely

Uprooted

Grieving

Wasting precious time

Sad

Have you ever felt like this? Sure, we may have all felt one of these emotions during our lifetime; but have you ever felt all of these emotions at the same time?

Because of some things that happened to me in the past, I shut off many emotions from my life. I always say, “I know how to do happy, and I can do anger if need be, but I don’t really do the other emotions.” Sitting alone at my desk a few weeks ago, not able to put my finger on how I felt, only knowing that it wasn’t happy and it wasn’t angry, I wrote a list of all the feelings I was experiencing at that very moment.

Why was I feeling this way? There were so many reasons. Life is constantly changing. Our life changed drastically a few months ago when we sold our home of 11 years and moved to a new home a few miles away. We sold most of our furniture and anything we didn’t really need.

We needed a bigger place for our family and the new house was exactly what we needed. But even though we felt this was a good move for our family, moving is a big undertaking and it takes a while for a house to become a home. We had issues getting the flooring and painting finished which put some stress on us. We incurred more debt because moving is expensive. Another issue that took me by surprise was the fact that I missed my neighbors. We knew most of the people that lived on the street we used to live on. We were all kind to each other and our neighbors across the street always helped us in any way they could. They even came over in the middle of the night during a hurricane to help us get a tree off of our roof.

We live in a very nice neighborhood now. The houses and common areas are all well-kept, but we don’t know anyone yet and most people stay to themselves. This new, beautiful neighborhood is very lonely.

So here I am in a new place. I feel like I should be excited yet I’m not. So in the midst of all these emotions, I feel like I’m wasting time feeling down. I want to enjoy my family and being with them.

On top of the personal changes, a close family member had some issues and made some choices that really hurt me and changed the dynamic of our relationship. With God’s help I realized I was grieving; grieving the loss of the dream I had for this person.

Sometimes life is not the beautiful picture we want to frame, hang on our wall and show our friends. Sometimes life is a list of emotions we didn’t even know we could feel.

How do we cope in times like this? How do we get out of bed in the morning? How do we go forward and do the things we have to do like go to work or school or take care of our family?

The Bible says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Sometimes when we give our cares to God they are wrapped in tears. And that’s okay.

This is part one of my encouragement to you today and to myself.

Part two is, add another emotion to the list.

In spite of all those negative emotions and feelings I was experiencing, I took another look at my circumstances. I decided to remember why we moved. I decided to focus on the benefits of the move and to remember the limitations of our previous home. This helped me remember why we decided to move in the first place.

I chose to look forward to the improvements we would make to our new house that would make it feel like home.

In other words, I chose to be intentionally thankful.

Intentionally Thankful is the emotion I have to add to my list every day. Yes, these words may be at the bottom of a list of negative emotions, but they seriously supersede everything else before them. At the end of the list of negatives I am left with a positive. We can give God all our cares and keep only thankfulness.

This may not come naturally and it may not be easy, but let’s take another look at things. Let’s ask God to reveal His goodness to us and to help us be intentionally thankful.

God bless you!

Mechelle