A local church Gateway Community Church, this evening had a family movie night and the movie was “Inside Out”. It was a really great movie for the family. We took Lil’ Chris to go see it. It was about your core emotions and how they work. The movie was pretty close to accurate on the emotional side. The 5 main emotions that the movie used were: Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear.
I really loved what they did with the movie. They put it at a young person’s level so anyone watching could understand what was going on. Joy was ALWAYS happy and thought her emotion was the only emotion that matters until later in the movie when she realized that sadness also had its place. As the movie went on you learned that all the emotions really do work together for the good of the person, not just one emotion.
That is really powerful because that is the way God made us. I watch men try to be all macho all of the time. Yes, there is a place for men to be that way, but when dealing with something sad with your kids, you have to be able to turn on your sad emotions in order to help your child see through the situation.
You have to have some anger and disgust as they go hand in hand in you too. Because without any anger or disgust, you will never stand for what’s right. Anger is what makes people take a stand when they really don’t want to. Anger, when used properly, can be a great thing. But at the same time anger that is out of control can destroy you. This is where discernment comes in and growing towards Christ because for the most part anger will stay away except when it’s important.
You have to have sadness because, without it, you can’t feel joy. Feeling both sides makes you the person God is trying to build. God gave us this emotion so that we can feel empathy for other people. Without having the feeling of sadness then we would just be a happy person that doesn’t understand the depth of people.
You have to have some level of fear because, without it, you would do so many stupid things in life and destroy not only your life but the lives of others. How many times do you see someone who seems to have no fear? They take so many chances, but that keeps putting their family in harms way. But on the flip side of that, we don’t need to let fear control us either because then we don’t do anything with our life. Fear is an important emotion in our lives to keep us from going over the edge.
Of course, joy is a very powerful emotion because if you have joy in your heart, it changes everything. You may have so many bad things coming at you but with joy, you can ride right through them where some people will break. I have always heard that problems either break someone or make them break records. I believe part of it has to do with how joyful you normally are. It is up to you to live a joyful life for the most part and keep all these emotions in check but also let them out when they need to be let out.
We can’t just take one emotion and live with that daily. Life is all about all of the emotions I have mentioned and yes, there are others, but I wanted to focus on the 5 core emotions that the movie was about because I feel these 5 emotions make us who we are.
Remember, God gave us emotions for a reason and that is so we can understand the world around us. He gave us the emotions so that we can relate to others. Imagine the world with no emotions? I see many people who have turned cold in their hearts and it’s not a pretty site. Never hold all your emotions in because you will find yourself walking down a very dark path if you do!
Are you ready to live with your emotions? Are you ready to have a changed heart so that emotions really do matter? Ask God to replace your heart so that his desires become yours. Ask him to show you which emotions you need to work on. Ask him to give you the courage to feel sadness even if it brings you to tears because if he does, you will be brought to tears! Ask him to help you see that all emotions are good when they balance your life! AMEN!
Living a God-Inspired Life,
Chris Benton
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