I Second That Emotion – Session #7 & #8
Here are this week’s notes, go ahead and check them out, comment, and even print them out if you want, but make sure to join us at 1pm (EST) in a Skype chat room for our small group time. If you haven’t signed up for Skype it is absolutely FREE for what we are doing and I am super easy to find. If you want leave me a comment or send me an email with your Skype handle and I’ll invite you to the group today!
Let’s get on with the study, shall we?
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Book Study Memory Verse
Page 51 ~ Shoe Goo is that goopy gunk called moodiness that attaches itself to our personage.
Page 52 ~ I’m not a doctor, a psychologist, or a prophet, but I’ve been a moodologist (which means I have the skills set to be difficult to live with).
Question ~> Are we trying to capture the other’s attention or to control that person with our moodiness?
Question ~> Think about it…what types of people are you drawn to? Who do you like to spend time with?
Page 55 ~ We would be shocked to learn how many people have multiple hardships, but these folks still smile daily at others. They have purposed to compartmentalize their pain.
~ Speaking kindly when we feel stuck in sad shoe goo will be a liberating step.
~ Read from the book “Having a Mary Spirit” page 221 & 227
“Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.” ~ C.S. Lewis
~ a Smile is a Wordless way to Spread JOY!
1) Recognize your choices
a. What is your default reaction when things don’t go just right?
2) Know Yourself
a. How often to you see yourself starting to become “moody”?
i. What do you do about it?
3) Enlist a Prayer Partner ~ __________________, ___________________
a. Write down one or two names, ask God to give you an opportunity to talk to them about becoming your prayer partner.
4) Watch what you watch.
a. Are you affected by the shows you watch?
b. TV Free Monday’s
5) Choose to Talk
a. If you habitually”close down” to others force yourself to open up and talk about it.
6) Relax
a. Your mouth and yourself
Read Psalm 16:1-11
Page 58 ~ I’ve found memorizing verses on JOY helps to protect my mind when I slip toward gloomy. I’m also affteced by music; so I encourage you, if you love music, to sing songs that lift and calm your spirit.
Book Recommendation ~ Boundaries by Cloud/Townsend & Having a Mary Spirit by Joanna Weaver
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“Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.” ~Henry Ward Beecher
Page 62 ~ Unexpressed grief doesn’t leave us; instead it waits to rise up another day to take our breathe away. If we don’t step through it, the grief will put on anger’s clothes and create havoc.
How do you vent?
Screaming?
Crying?
Chocolate?
Workaholism?
Denial?
“Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o’er fraught heart, and bids it break.” ~ William Shakespeare
Page 62 ~ Venting helps us to lower our pain level so we can make room for healing. Talking can help, support groups are valuable, exercise gives some physical relief, gardening or other types of life-giving activities provide distractions to give a bit of a break to our overprocessing minds, journaling can be cathartic, time really does help in mending, and crying releases emotions and toxins…grief is anything but tidy.
Page 63 ~ Mrs. Job may have been hysterical and panicked when she cried out to her husband, “Curse God and die!” Who knows what we might say in the midst of catastrophic loss? Are we really surprised that surging anger gushed forth? Her comments contain her humanity. We never need God more, yet there may never be a time we understand him less than in our grief.
Question to ponder ~> How would you react? No…really, think about it. Re-read Job 1-2:8 to get a better idea of what had just happened in her life.
Read Judges 16:4-31
~ We’ve all been hurt at some point in our lives…by a friend, a family member, a co-worker, child, sibling. The fact of the matter of life is that it is a part of life here on this planet. It makes our story something that can be used as a part of HIS story and that makes for a beautiful testimony.
Question ~> If your life could be expressed by the words of a song, what song would it be?
Page 152 ~ Your life will include things you don’t understand and times of loss. Yet God is with you. Continue to remind yourself of his love for you and let him continue to live through you.
Read Job 40:3-5
Read Job 42:12
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