It is true God gave us every emotion we are able to express ranging from pure delight and joy to life destroying anger and bitterness. BUT He did not give us this range of emotions to think with – He gave us a brain.
We dealt with inflating the mental tire last time. Although, in one sense, our mental and emotion tires are different they relate to each other very closely in that it is the mind that triggers our emotions.
A recent lesson in this series is an excellent illustration of this mental/emotional interaction. It was stated: Comparison is spelled K-I-L-L-E-R
When a comparison is made emotions are triggered. Even so, this is a neutral reflex.
If the comparison bolsters our spirits our emotions run high. If the comparison deflates our spirits our emotions hit bottom. If the comparison does neither surprisingly our emotions also hit bottom.
In an earlier article we learned words do one of three things: They give life; they give death (to feelings) or they do nothing. In other words they do the same thing as comparisons. Why? Comparisons are most often made up of words.
Self-inflating the emotional tire is not easy, but it is possible.
Just as we learned inflating the mental tire was a do-it-yourself project so is inflating the emotional tire. We are not, however, left to figure this out on our own. Scripture gives us instruction in this area.
We see in Proverbs 23 a man comparing himself with one who is a ruler. From one word in Proverbs 23:7a thinketh, God is instructing the man not to think less of himself than he is: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
This usage of the Hebrew word thnketh is the only time it is found in the King James Version of the Old Testament. A brief word study should greatly guide our thinking in this matter. Although the Hebrew definition is easily discernable the English definition rounds out this teaching.
Hebrew: thinketh meaning to estimate
English: to estimate meaning an opinion or judgment of the nature, character or quality of a person
Yes, what others say about us can bolster or deflate what we think and how we feel about ourselves, but we can do this to ourselves also.
Step One in inflating our emotional tire:
I am reminded of the approach taken by a young boy who never seemed to do anything correctly, on time or well enough to satisfy his parents. They constantly, it seemed to him, to berate his every effort.
Finally one day he said to them, “I am made in the image of God, and God don’t make no junk.” Poor grammar – great theology.
Step Two in inflating our emotional tire: Try it.
Next time: Inflating Life’s Spiritual Tire
