Emotions.....Can You Trust Them?

I remember when I was in High School Youth Group, we were in a Josh McDowell study (can't remember the name of it) and the subject was "how we can't trust our Emotions." Being someone with so many emotions, this phrase had a lasting impression on me over the last decade and a half.

"If we can't trust our Emotions, then what good are they and what do I do with them when I feel something?"

I am still working on how this fits in my life. Nevertheless, the following is what I have thus far discovered:

We legitimately Feel Emotions.

When we are hurt and feel grief, we go through a series of emotions known as the Stages of Grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). When you feel pain, you may feel compelled to cry or if you are mad, you might begin to resent someone. But like anything in life,

"it doesn't matter so much as what you do but how you handle it."

When you learned how to ride a bike, you most certainly didn't get it the first time. You probably fell over several times, maybe even got to petal a bit but nevertheless you still fell over. Now it doesn't matter so much that you fell. Everyone falls. What did matter is what you did after you fell.

Did you give up? Did you kick the bike for "making you fall" and thus blaming the bike for your mistake? Did you go running off crying and thinking "I'll never get this" or "Well, riding a bike just isn't for me"?

OR

Did you get back up?! You might have cried from being disappointed or from getting a scratch or even felt hopeless after the 10th fall BUT You GOT UP ANYWAYS and TRIED AGAIN!

That is what I mean about how

"it doesn't matter so much as what you do but how you handle it."

You didn't give up! You preserved and finished something you started...no matter how many times you had to try/work on it. That's the way to handle things!

Emotions are the same thing. You are going to feel something. Everyone does, maybe even several times a day. What matters is how are you going to handle them or are your emotions going to handle you. Are you going to let them determine if you hold a grudge against someone, harbor guilt/anger for years to come, maybe even cause you not to trust people and becoming isolated? Will you let the feelings determine your mood/attitude or lead to cause you to lose your self-worth/identity?

OR ARE YOU A STUFFER.....

Do you stuff your emotions? Because if you don't ever feel anything or talk about it, then you don't have to feel those feelings or worry about what comes next? And eventually it all goes away... Right?! WRONG! If this is you, you stuff everything down and think it will eventually go away....especially if you don't acknowledge it. However, if this is you, they don't go away and they will continue to try and surface until you do deal with them. Even if you have become a PRO at this, the only difference is you have a bigger WALL between you and everyone else. The only thing WALLS do is cut you off from the World and loved ones from truly connecting in complete relationships.

SO THEN WHAT?

1.) You acknowledge the emotion.

Figure out what you are feeling and why. If you're Super Worried about something, you might really have a fear of Failure. And you need to figure that out so you can deal with it.
NOTE: this can take a while. Especially if you are not use to identifying your feelings.

TIP: Get with someone you trust (i.e. mentor, pastor, best friend, etc) to talk it out with you. Someone that is mostly going to listen but also help you look inward more so.

TIP: if you don't know how to describe the feeling, look at a list of emotions. Just reading through them might help trigger something. Click HERE for a list. Click HERE for list/definitions. This is the Best one I think, with the Emotions & the Subcategories.

2.) Look at how your emotions lines up with God's Word.

If you are not a Believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ, you might start to skip this one. BUT WAIT! This is where I have found the ability to NOT ALLOW MY EMOTIONS TO CONSUME ME.

Emotions can wear me out. That's why I like to deal with them and move on ASAP! However, one of the hardest emotional experiences I've had in a long time was over this summer.
I had the following emotions due to a situation: deep hurt, betrayal, stunned/took by surprise, resentment, anger, anxiety, great sadness. The hurt as so deep and hard, I didn't want to deal with it because when I felt it was overwhelming. In fact, I prayed God would remove me from the situation so it would just go away. So I started to turn to God for help and what I should do. He lead me first to Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his faults" and then Ephesians 4:15, "speaking truth in Love." I knew I was going to have to confront the person and the situation, which is not my strength.
So I kept searching God's Word for guidance and met with my mentor on praying what to do next with the emotions and the situations. It seemed that most scripture was telling me how to deal with the emotions I was feeling:

• The Wise turn away from Anger. (Pro. 29:8)
• We are not to judge one another. That is God's duty (Romans 8:34)
• Judge not or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1)
• Know that God is faithful to those faithful to Him. (Ps. 31:23)
• We are to Cast all of our Cares upon Him (aka we are to worry because He does that for us)
• To have faith (He will provide) (1 Peter 5:7)
• We are not to let our heart be troubled. Believe in God! (John 14:1)
• Rejoice Always (1Thessalosains 5:16)

I believe that God knew the heart would be so strong and hard to conquer with the flesh, which is why His Word is full of encouragement and insight of how to deal with anger, sadness, joy, worry, sorrow, great lost, pain, etc. Which brings me to #3.


3.) Make a Decision.
Once we feel, we have to make a decision.
Are we going to hold onto everything or we are going to let go and let God?
We are going to take matters into our own hands or Believe in God and trust Him as our Lord and Savior?
Are we going to chose to "Rejoice always" or allow that anger to become resentment, sorrow to turn into depression or worries to result in high stress?
I know that choosing to "Rejoice Always" seems unrealistic and impossible. Nevertheless, God tells us to do so. We are suppose to strive for it. {Strive: to make great efforts to achieve or obtain something} We aren't perfect (that is who Jesus is!) so we are going to mess up on this some how some time. But like everything else we learn from the Word, it is a daily effort to Pick up our Cross and Follow Christ every single day.

A great man pointed out once that in Ps 103, God remembers who we are, that we can from Dust. So He remembers what He made us out of and knows we are not going to be perfect. But God again does not ask for perfection from us. But we are called to serve and to not be lukewarm.

So remember, Emotions are normal and everyone has them. Also remember they are of the flesh and to keep your emotions in check, try dealing with them according to God's will and having Faith that God will take care of those who are faithful to Him. Finally, because emotions are of the flesh, we have to chose how they will effect our lives before those emotions decide for you. Meaning, who you are and how you deal with emotions is up to you!

I leave you with this photo by Ron DiCianni entitled "Forgiven". The title speaks for it's self. But the reason for posting it, this is how I felt this summer: Beaten up and done. I needed a Savior to save me and I got the one and only Savior. Jesus Christ has my back and is holding me up! Praise God, Praise God for His Grace and Love!

FREE!!!

Being newly weds and leaning on God to provide every single detail of our lives....I am always looking for ways to make an extra buck or to get something for free! My newest thing this year has been MyCokeRewards.com. For those of you drink Coke Products or know people who do, you should invest your time into this.

With MyCokeRewards God has blessed me with a free subscription to Better Homes N' Gardens, a Lands' End Bag, free movie tickets with a Coke drink and now Chili's $5 Gift card. There is so much more to the endless prices you can send the points on! The trick: Taking the time to save up the points, the time to enter them in.

1.) First you find and collect CODES FOR POINTS.

Where you find the Codes for Points & What do they look like:

• The codes will be 12 to 14 letters and/or numbers long (i.e. J790L8KJBN44, DKUNGFPOMLKPHH)

• You can find them on the inside of the plastic bottle lids (from 12oz bottles to 3 litters.

• Also, on the inside of the boxes when you buy mass quantity of 12oz Cans (8 cans to 32 cans.

• Coke Products include: Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Minute Maid, Fanta, Fresca and more.
• NOTE: there are no cokes on the cans themselves and Dasani water bottles do not have codes on their lids.

2.) Sign-up and Sign-in

• All it takes is an Email to Sign-up at MyCokeRewards.com.
• Enter in each code, one at a time and the points start to rack up.
• You can enter in 120 points a week (the week rolls over 12AM Mondays)

3.) How much are they worth?

• Codes can be 3 points (bottle lids) to 32 points (codes inside the box of a 32 pack of 12oz Cans)
• Prizes can be any where from 0 points (instant winnings) to thousands of points or you can enter Sweepstakes for 3pts at a time.

What are some of the prizes?

• Over 40 Magazines Subscriptions to pick from (Martha Stewart Living-400pts, Traditional Home-133pts, Comfort Foods-166pts, Fitness-120pts, and more)
• A Ticket to a Movie at AMC Theaters + a Large Coke
• A Blockbuster Rentals
• Free Stuff from www.SnapFish.com (prints, photo mugs, calendars, etc)
• Music Downloads
• Gift Cards toward Budget Car Rentals, Hotel Stays, Omaha Steaks, Stores (K-Mart), Online Stores (shoes.com), Restaurants (Chili's) and more.
• Coco-Cola products (watch, shirts, Cokes drinks, screensavers, portable speakers, and more)
• Over 1,000 points products are like Panini Grill Maker, Stainless Steel Kitchen Utensils, Jewelry, and more)

Some Examples of what God has blessed our Household with thus Far through www.MyCokeRewards.com :

1 Year Subscription to “Better Homes and Garden” Magazine. (133 points) I started to receive the magazine in 6 weeks later and they come every week.

Free Admission to a Movie at AMC Theaters (includes IMAX Theaters) with a Free Large Coke (240pts)

$5 Gift Card to Chili’s Restaurant (140pts)

50 Free 4x6 prints from www.SnapFish.com (Zero pts) This was an instant winning.

Marriage Tip #4: Command Central

One I know is an ever-lasting job is keeping the family all on the same page. Even after 2 yrs this job is still in the making. Nevertheless I am about to share my tips and failures. Do what you must with them as you accomplish this task with your own families.

CALENDAR

TRIED #1: We started with a 12-month wall calendar and would fill in as you go.

PRO: We could fill in events as we went.

CON: My, Husband, was use to keeping everyone on his blackberry or online, so this change was challenging.

CON: We couldn't enter events ahead of time when we close to the end of the year.

CON: Had to re-write in important dates like Birthdays, etc...every year.

TRIED #2: Next, we both have a hotmail email account. So we "shared" calendars.

PRO: Alex, my husband, could input events and since we "share" our calendars, it would automatically input it into my calendar.

PRO: We can print off the calendars for each month and they will combine our calendars into one Monthly.

CON: I have to color in the colors each month because I'm too cheap to spring for the Color ink (smile)

PRO: I only enter in Birthday Events once and since you have the option of re-occurring events, they will show up every year. (so only enter once).

KEYS

When we first got married, there was several times I would get this phone call from Alex, "Honey, can you check your car, I think my car keys are in it." Or us walking around the house looking for them. We needed a central place to keep them.

TRIED #1: Had a drop basket.

CON: Everything else ended up in the basket, so when we would leave, we would have to dig through everything else to get to the keys.

TRIED #2: So on this bulletin board, I added some hooks (about a $1 from Walmart for 8 of them).

PRO: It's right next to the door, so when you walk in the hooks are right there.

PRO: on hooks make them easy to see and find. No basket to search through.

PRO: Basket is now gone and not extra clutter sitting right next to the door.

MAIL

I got this Christmas Card Holder from T.J. Max, clearanced for 75% off after the holidays. Then I made tags for "His", "Hers", "Coupons", for each pocket. So when I check the mail, this is where it goes.

CHORES

I saved the best for last. This one is the most challenging for us! Figuring out who does what and how often. Some times Alex has time or I might have more time.

When we first got married my other issue was I was so use to doing things my way that I thought it was the only way. So the first year was me learning there is more than one way to get the house cleaned. However we do still disagree on a couple of things; like on how full the dishwasher should be before running it.

Lesson Learned: YES LADIES, THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO CLEAN! IN MOST CASES, CLEAN IS CLEAN!

Next we needed to figure out how to communicate what needed to be done and when and by whom.

TRIED #1: Assigning a chore to each day.

CON: Over kill on cleaning

CON: Felt like I was cleaning every day and we don't even had kids yet.

CON: felt like I was the one doing all the cleaning.

TRIED #2: Message board and would write down what needed to be down.

PRO: Alex is visual and it was in a place he would look.

CON: he wouldn't know when I wrote it and who was suppose to do it. Then he would just forget about it.

TRIED #3: Make a Chore Chart. Did this with the cartridge from Cricut called Chore Chart.

PRO: Visual, you can pick the day, as long as it is done by the end of the week.

PRO: Clearly communicates who is doing what.

CON: it takes a while to make it. (I actually enjoyed this part because I like stuff like this!)

YES: This works for us! Alex see's what I need for him to do, he picks a day that works for him and he does it. If he can't then he can communicate with me so I don't feel like he has forgotten just that it might have to wait until the next week, etc.

COMMAND CENTRAL

So this is what is right next to the door. We see it every day. The Calendar is front and center. The Chore Chart is visible and clear on who is to do what and the person picks the day to do it. WE have a place for our keys and where we can check our mail everyday.

So what are somethings that have worked or no so worked for you?!

Birthday week!

September was so busy that before I knew it, the month was over and I had full intensions to blog about the month. But then before I could event download the pictures, October came and went as well! So I will do my best to sum it all up as great as possible....

SEPTEMBER

I know this is a hard thing to start off with but this our life. We had a young man enter our life and within just a few seconds, Alex saw him leave this life. Blake was a 19 year old that was dating Alex's cousin and while at the lake Alex witnessed him have a heart-attack. The great news is he accepted Christ just 3 weeks earlier! Praise God for His Grace and Salvation!

There were 2 other friends of ours that experienced a lost of someone young. The weekend was a challenge to see death as a reality that life is short! What is the Legacy you are leaving?!

The following Sunday at Fellowship was a sermon to help start healing this void by speaking on the Passage of Mary tell Jesus (after the passing of Lazarus) "Lord if you had been her earlier, my brother would not be dead." The passage is such a comfort for the feelings we have when we lose someone so unexpectedly and how Jesus sympathizes with our feelings but has a plan in the end.

Things got better by God providing us with the joy of going to the Hog's home games. What a Birthday present for us both!

I had my birthday and got this White Fossil Watch I have had my eyes on all year! Please that weekend,

Alex did out typical birthday breakfast and Bikes Blues BBQ visit (that was the first night we spent visiting with each other when we first met!) We had frozen yogurt at the Midnight Berry on Dickson Street.

The Good Year Blimp was in town for the first big game of the year for the Hogs! Plus I got this super fun Chore Chart Cartige for my Cricut and now we are organized in keeping the house in order.

Then we Celebrated everyones birthday together with myside of the family.

Then there was OCTOBER

We celebrated Alex's birthday with his Sister and Nephew by cooking steaks, had buttercream cupcakes and Alex playing video games with his Nephew. We love that kid! We went to several Fayetteville Bulldogs to support our favorite Player Tyler Tipton #63! Go Dawgs Go!

Alex got his Deer Hunting on in Booneville (at Deer Camp) while I headed North to Point 11 in Missouri for the Singles Fall Retreat! It was so hard being so far apart but we made it!

Alex slaved away for school and has done AWESOMELY! God has been so faithful that where Alex puts in the Study time, God has be there ever class and test to help Alex Glorify God in his grades!

The Singles ministry I work for, then put on our Annual Costume Party and have a great turn out with lots of great fun and costumes! This year we had a photographer come in and do a photo-booth! So fun!

And Now its NOVEMBER!!!

Tonight is Daylight savings time (which did you know not all states recognize this? They never fall back or spring forward! Craziness!) Anyways, since we FALL BACK and GAIN AN HOUR TONIGHT...I'm off to bed to GAIN THAT EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP!

My First Deer Camp

A couple of weekends ago, Alex planned a trip to deer camp and I went with him. This was my first time to go to any deer camp...period. I was, admittedly, nervous about the whole weekend. However, it wasn't all that bad. I enjoyed going 4 wheeling and being some where you didn't get cell phone range. The weather was nice and I got to take some neat pictures and as well as hangout with my mother-in-law and watch some cute movies. One was the documentary on "Babies". Its the story of three between birth and their 1 yr birthday. IT is so cute to watch! IT's a must see! I will be returning to Deer camp next weekend with all of Alex's family. I plan on taking clothes so I can see Alex's deer stands. More to come on that...

Pee-Pee Tee-Pees

I know you're reading this title thinking, what in the world!

This are someone of the most genius things I have every heard of! They are designed for baby boys and when you are changing their diapers. See, if you have ever changed a little boy's diaper, you know that you can have a "shower" coming. So theses P-P T-P's are designed to be put on the Pee-Pee so that if they "shot a gyser" then the do so in the Tee-Pee and not on YOU!

Plus the are wash-washable! So when your done and re-use! I made these for my cousin who just had their first, who is a precious baby boy! Welcome Case!!!

So here is THE HOW TO...

NEED THE FOLLOWING:

Terry Clothe

Soft Fannel

Matching thread

Coordinating Ribbon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) Cut a circle with the diameter of 5-6" out of both pieces of Fabric. I did 5" with the bottom of a jar. It it so much easier tracing the circles perfectly each time.

2.) Then cut the circle in half like a semi-circle.

3.) Next, we Sew! Start in the middle of the straight edge.

4.) Sew to the edge, around the circle and then stop right when you got to the straight edge; sticking will be look like a "G".

5.) Now turn right side out.

6.)Next, cut a piece of ribbon 7" long.

7.) Twist to make a loop.

8.) Tuck in the loose ends into the open part of the semi-circle.

9.) Then fold over the ribbon on the flannel side.

10.) Then fold over the circle where the ribbon and Flannel are inside and terry cloth on the outside. Now sew the edge that is still open. (I had to hand sew this closed due to thickness). (all like below)

11.) Then turn it right side out once completed and TADA! DONE!

To top everything off, I made this tag with my Cricut Machine and wrote a message to explain this super fun Baby Shower Gift!

Mummies (a.k.a "Mummy Dogs")

The Ministries I work with (the LIFE & the REFUGE) had their annual Costume Bash (a.k.a. Spooktacular) Friday, October 29th at the Compton Gardens in Bentonville, AR. It was a great turn out and a so much fun!

In the spirit of the night I made these cute little "Mummies" for the party! They were so fun and such a hit that I didn't have one "Mummy" leftover! Here's what you do....

INGREDIENTS:

Package of 8 hotdogs (I cut mine in half bc I wanted several small ones and not a couple of big ones)

can of Crescent Rolls or Breadstick Dough

Mustard

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) First thing you are going to work is the Crescent Rolls (or breadstick dough).

• Notes on the Dough: Both work well.
• For those watching your pennies, Crescent Rolls were cheaper for.
• We need strips of dough so the Breadsticks are already in rows versus you will be cutting up Crescent rolls.
• If you put the dough in the freezer for a few minutes before handling it, the dough is easier to work with!

SO...Take the Crescent Rolls out of the can, spread out on a cutting board. You are going to use one triangle per dog. Cut Strips no bigger than 1/4 inch.

(you can separate triangles and then cut. I like the longer strips of dough so I cut my stripes and divided into groups for each hotdog)

2.)You will start at the top of the dog, rap around once, leave a good size gap for the eyes and then continue rapping the entire dog with the amount of Dough you have allotted.

NOTE: You can pull and stretch the dough. If it breaks just re--attach and keep going. ONCE the bake you can't tell. SO YOU CAN'T MESS UP! YAY!

3.) Cook at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

4.) When they are done add the eyes. Take the mustard and with a toothpick add to dots of mustard (as big or little as you want them). I didn't have nay toothpicks so I just squeezed from the mustard bottle which proved Challenging.

TADA! DONE!