Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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yet another gender specific post...
So, it's no secret that women have variations in mood depending upon their feminine calendar .
And when you're twelve years old it's hilarious to make little jokes about it. "Ms. So-and-so is in a bad mood... must be 'that time of the month' tee hee hee!" But when you get to be about 20...21ish and the actual reality of your monthly womanly quirks hits you, it's not so stinkin' funny anymore.
I left my house the other day feeling frustrated about some small, petty stuff. And as I was driving into other cars to vent my frustration (um..jk), something dawned on me. Were it any other time of the month, I would be perfectly fine and would not have even noticed the frustrating stuff. And then something else dawned on me. I'm supposed to be walking in the Spirit, right? And I try to walk in the Spirit every day and not be controlled by my flesh or flaky, girly emotions. So, what's the deal? It gets to be a certain time during the month and I just take the next 3-4 days off from walking in the Spirit? I just go ahead and let hormonally induced emotions have the final say in my attitude and what I do and don't feel like doing? Pfsha, as if! Sista girl... shoot.
So... we're created to be emotional beings. Women especially... I mean it's hard to nurture without at least a little emotion. And emotions are a wonderful thing... one of the ways in which we humans get to reflect God's attributes. But just like pretty much everything else the human race has gotten its hands on, we can turn emotions into something filthy and not God-glorifying-esque. We let our relationship with God and our relationship with others be controlled by our emotions, instead of letting our emotions reflect our relationship with God. Instead of worshiping God in and through our emotions, we choose not to worship him because of our emotions.
So, I'm going to try a little experiment. When it gets to be that dreaded 3-4 day period, I could sit around eating dark chocolate or jelly beans and be a little more snooty than usual and make a big deal out of little things and feel rejected when I haven't been rejected by anyone and worry about whether or not I said the right thing that one time when I was talking to that one person eight years ago, etc. OR I could pray and ask that the Holy Spirit would control my actions, emotions, and thoughts. And instead of being controlled by my emotions, I can praise God through them.
Yes, it seems like a simple idea really. (And now, I'm going to use the terminology I've been avoiding this entire post....) You can freakin' pray through your PMS! I mean, it seems so obvious. But as much stuff as I read and listen to, I've never heard one person say that before. So, now I'm saying it. We aren't exempt from walking in the Spirit when we're PMSing.
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Comments (7)
Indeed, sista!
My roomie was just remarking the other day that I must be in that phase because I was snacking late at night. This is an alarming trend that I will have to keep my eye on to determine its validity.
you are on a roll with these gender-specific posts. mmm-hmm. i huuurrrrd that. actually, i just said it. anyway...
here's my two cents. God NEVER tells us to love or worship Him with our emotions. When Jesus said we are to love God, he was using the Greek word "agape." That is very different from the other Greek word for love "phileo." "Phileo" relates to how we feel about someone, our affections, our emotions. It pretty much means, hey, I like you a whole lot, and because i like you i have the warm fuzzies and feel all mushy gushy inside. That is not how we are to love God because that type of love is very subject to change. Our love toward God is "agape" a commitment, it is our devoting our lives to Him. It is a choice we make. Our love to God should come from devotion rather than emotion. So, even if our emotions are out of whack, our walk with God isn't. As you said, emotions shouldn't dictate our actions.
i wrote a paper contrasting "phileo" and "agape" last semester for one of my classes. i rehashed some of it right there.
word.
p.(m.)s. - i totally know what you're talking about. i had my first recognizable case of pms last month and after it was over, i was like, man, i'm a loser. i didn't expect to fall victim to the dreaded womanlies, but i did. i'm so ashamed.
So I was reading this, going, "Yeah, gosh, I wish women would do that so us guys wouldn't have to deal with their 'tudes during that part of the month." And then I realized, who am I to judge someone else for a struggle that I don't have to deal with (ahem, see homosexuality). Thanks for the encouraging post that reminded me of that important truth.
And let_us_run, I will agree with you mostly, but I think that its a slight error to say that the Bible never says to worship God with our emotions. I don't want to get into semantics about whether our emotions are/can be actions, but the Bible says that we are to worship God in whatever we do with all of our minds, souls and bodies. I think that that's the spirit of your post, but I'm always wary of people compartmentalizing parts of the lives into "God-related" and "not God-related."Do you have a hidden entry, which I can't read, but is dangled before my face like a carrot to a horse by my "universal inbox"? And what's the deal with all this extra stuff on Xanga? This is starting to look like Facebook applications, which is sickening!
That was quite beautiful. I send a few huzzahs your way, some chocolate (because we all need that during these times-of-the-month, apparently), and much love - the good kind. :)
"God-glorifying-esque"-- that's great! I think, really, you should just write a book called "Praying Your Way through PMS." I seriously bet it would be a best seller:) I mean, what Christian woman wouldn't be interested in that?