Am I Going to Be OK? Stop Light

Dylan has already made about 5 Christmas lists. I find them everywhere. He just wants to make sure I don’t miss them, so he makes several versions and strategically places them all over the house. Grant, however, is a different story. He doesn’t even want to make a list. I have to guess what he might want. He keeps saying he doesn’t want anything. I love that about Grant, he is really not into the materialistic aspect of this world. But that doesn’t help me! I need to get him something, so I spend a lot of time searching through the mother of all online stores: Amazon.com

Gosh…what don’t they have in there? Sometimes I think that if it isn’t in Amazon.com it doesn’t exist! It’s awful! But I’m hooked. I’ve been searching and searching, until finally I think I found a few things I think Grant might enjoy. Now…this searching, brings me back to the book You’re Going to Be Okay…

In the book, author Holley Gerth says that naming our feelings will move the emotions we are experiencing into a more rational/reason-oriented part of our brain, which will help us tame them a bit. In my case, however, how do I make myself stop long enough so I can examine my feelings and identify them?

I need a stop light.

Hmmmm…. Where do I get one of those for my heart? I wonder if Amazon has it?

Nope!

Maybe, there is an app for it?

Nope again…or should I say: “not yet”? Someone will come up with some kind of app that sounds an alarm in your phone when it senses you are getting “emotional.”

Anyway, that won’t work for me, since I don’t have my phone in my hand 100% of the time…soooooo…what then?

My stop light is incorporated into my soul. It’s called, The Holy Spirit.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14: 26

I just need to get out of the way and let Him do His thing!

First, I have to ingest Scripture and commit it to memory. I need to be able to proclaim that:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119: 11

That way, I will know that,

…the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. Deuteronomy 30: 14

Then, I will be able to,

…Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD. We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven… Lamentations 3: 40-41

So, the promise of Christ could blossom in my heart:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15: 7

Becoming familiar with the Bible and actually memorizing verses is a practical way for me to be ready as the Holy Spirit brings them to my remembrance during times of trial.

Memorizing Scripture is one of the most powerful ways to activate the internal stop lights in our hearts. That way, the Holy Spirit brings it back even without us consciously thinking about it at the right moment when we need it. But if we don’t have it memorized, it would take the Spirit through unnecessary rerouting which could be avoided if we had Scripture already abiding in us.

Please Lord, open my mind so Your Word may dwell in my heart forever.