03/21/2023
For those of us that are members of a faith community I want you to know that your emotions are not a measure of your faith 🙏🏻
To have human emotions - good or bad - is to be human 👨 👩 👧 👦
For about two decades I have suffered with anxiety. Some things in my life that are no big deal to a majority of people sometimes fill me with terror and paralyze me 😰
Growing up in my church I have been taught over and over again that if I just have more faith I won’t be afraid. The anxious aches in my heart and body will go away. The belief that I was somehow lacking added so much pain to my suffering 💔 But that belief just isn’t true. Fear and faith can and do exist in the same heart at the same time. That is a misunderstanding of the human emotion and what faith is.
We cannot have faith without doubt and fear. We wouldn’t need it.
Our faith in whichever god we worship helps us press forward through our fears and anxieties, but doesn’t always take those fears and anxieties away.
My friends, your emotions are simply your response to your life and the world around you. They are the method by which you process your world. Some are for sure more pleasant than others. We all like to be happy 😃 And some are more useful than others. But zero of your emotions - whatever they happen to be at any given moment - are wrong.
Sometimes we need to evaluate whether certain emotions are helping us or holding us back and do something about it. Sometimes we need professional help 🤝But never ever believe that you lack faith because of what you’re feeling 💕
