Cultivating Emotional Maturity Prøve

Battle of the Mind We are emotional beings and our emotions steer us in many directions affecting our mood, tone, and behavior on a daily basis. Many are taught from childhood that emotions are bad so we invest considerable time trying to ignore them in the hope that they will just go away. They don't! They simply hang around like annoying back-seat drivers blocking our ability to build and maintain good relationships. If we allow it, our internal chatterbox voice will transmit negative thoughts about self and the people around us. Such lies impact on our expectations, govern our behavior, and lead us to view experiences in a way that re-enforces those lies. The lies become  repetitive loops playing with our thinking and when left unchecked become constraints, choking the abundant life God intended for us. Jesus describes Satan as the ‘Father of lies' and much of our stress, anxiety, and negative responses to situations flow from believing Satan's deception. The good news is that we have Christ in us who combats any scheme that Satan tries to play in our minds. Any time you revisit your past without remembering how God sees and loves you, you subject yourself to the spirit of deception which is why we must guard against having any ‘self-talk’ that differs from God’s truth. When we learn how to understand and develop our emotional responses we increase our ability to be relational.