Feelings

I am a female and sometimes I feel insecure. There, I said it!

I don’t know if all females feel this way, but I do know many who do wrestle with feelings of insecurity.

I also realize just because I FEEL this way doesn’t mean I am. It means I feel this way and there can be a difference between feelings and reality.

Our feelings can drive our thoughts and our actions, and I want to suggest we can pull our feelings into check and realize they are nothing more and nothing less than our feelings. It tells us something about ourselves, and ourselves in relation to the situation around us.

I have always lived in Canada, which means I am very familiar with the term wind chill factor. Wikipedia says wind chill “is the decrease in air temperature perceived by the body on exposed skin that is due to the flow of cold air.” Interpretation – if it’s cold and windy, it feels colder than it actually is. (For those of you who live in significantly warmer climates you may be more familiar with the term humidex. Wikipedia says humidex is used “to describe how hot the weather feels to the average person, by combining the effect of heat and humidity.”)  The terms wind chill factor and humidex are used as a measuring stick. It tells us how hot or how cold it feels. It’s important information to have, but not reality in regards to an actual temperature.

If the actual temperature is -30C and there is a 10 km/hr wind, it will feel like -40C. Wind can do that to an actual temperature. It changes the actual to feel like something which is different. This would be a good place to say that whether the temperature is -40C or whether the wind chill is -40C, it’s still really cold and one had better dress for the weather or risk frostbite!

My point is this. Just because I feel insecure about a situation or a comment made, or a look given, doesn’t make it reality. However when I feel something, like insecurity, perhaps it’s a good opportunity to look inward and ask myself why that specific situation or those specific words resonate for me. Perhaps this is an opportunity to stand on the foundation of God’s Word and remind myself of His truth about me.

This is where it’s important to have scriptures memorized and tucked in the recesses of our mind. Here are a few to start with:

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.” HCSB

Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. I have kept on loving you with faithful love.” NIRV

Isaiah 43:1b says, ““Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” ESV

These scriptures are a good starting place to realign our feelings about ourselves to God's reality about us.

Jo-Ann