remember

It's so easy to let our emotions get the best of us, isn't it? I mean sometimes I'm just walking along and out of nowhere (okay not exactly out of nowhere, but relatively unexpectedly), I am overcome with anxiety. My emotions just take off like a spaceship and suddenly I am soaring into another dimension. I know some of you are reading this and thinking that I must have some type of anxiety disorder or something and maybe you're right. Or maybe of we're honest, this happens to us sometimes. I just forget that my emotions can be deceiving and sometimes they tell me that everything is going to go wrong and nothing will turn out right and I believe them. Actually now that I think about it they might be right, but just coming from the wrong emotional state. Let me explain.
If my emotions tell me nothing is going to turn out the way I think it should (note: remind me to tell you later about the word "should"), they might be right, but is that a bad thing? Or is it just what it is? Maybe what I think is the right way or the best thing really isn't. Maybe there's actually someone orchestrating this whole deal and maybe (just maybe) it's not actually about me. Whoa. Revolutionary, I know. So when my emotions get the best of me, what do I need? Truth. I need truth. I need to know the promises of God so that in anxiety-ridden turmoil, I can remember what I already know - that I am loved, that God cares about me, that I have been redeemed, that this life is not the end of the story. And you know what emotion comes out of those truths? Yep. Gratitude. A great and overpowering sense of awe at the fact that I deserve nothing and yet have been given so much. A sense that, even when I am melting down because I don't trust the One who is in control, He is for me and my heart swells with thanksgiving. A long time ago I was given a daily devotional called "My Utmost for His Highest" (written by Oswald Chambers). I was told that this book would change my life and honestly, I read a few days, but wasn't really super into it. Every once in awhile I will pick it back up and read a day or two, but for the most part it sits on my dresser with a few other books holding up a vase and serves a merely aesthetic purpose. For some reason I spotted it today while I was putting on my makeup and decided to read today's devotional. Here's the first sentence:

We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus.

Insert the gritting teeth emoticon at the end of that sentence. Oh dear. After the meltdown that I had yesterday and the gentle reminder that I received last night that my emotions are not always telling me the truth, I read that sentence and knew that the fact that I spotted the book today was a gentle calling from my God to remember Him in truth and in love and in gratitude. Ann Voskamp would call this eucharisteo - to remember and give thanks. And isn't that the point? It is definitely my hope for my 21 Days of Thanksgiving.

to remember and give thanks