I scroll down my Facebook, ignoring the pull to go check on the kids. I’m educating myself, I tell myself. Just touching base with the rest of the world.
And scroll.
I pause to read a borderline feud over the new hot button everybody’s talking about. I sigh in agreement when I see what a popular old friend wrote. Then I frown at the audacity of her attacker. People can be so…you know?
I roll my eyes and scroll.
Then an post from the opposition. A comment there stuns me in its effective logic against my friend’s position.
I fume and consider commenting.
The little “someone’s making a comment” dots roll on the screen, and I wait.
It’s my old friend! And she’s agreeing with this person now! Sigh. I scroll until I find the next emotive explosion.
It doesn’t take long. Emotions rule the screen.
Our Culture Is Addicted to Emotion. Not Sense.
What would Facebook be without rage? Without embarrassment? Without gush? Without sadness?
Out of business, that’s what.
And God knew it would happen.
He warned us.
"The aged women…that they may teach the young women to be sober…”
SOBERNESS IS WHEN GOOD SENSE CONTINUALLY CONQUERS WILD EMOTIONS.
Seriously! This is THE list God gives of priorities for young women to learn from the older generation, and at the top of his list is soberness. The ability to not be controlled by emotions.
God wants older women to teach younger women to be sober. Before He wants older women passing on wisdom about marriage, or parenting, or discretion, or modesty, or homemaking, or goodness, or obedience, He wants soberness taught FIRST.
Why? Because unless we learn to let our good sense continually conquer our wild emotions, nothing else we learn will stick.
I have this awesome podcast I'm going to share in a little bit about how my friend trained her YOUNG children to clean. Like, really clean.
And I have a book about how to teach kids to clean.
I know my kids are old enough to clean.
I know it will benefit them the rest of their lives.
I know it will save me time if they clean.
But it's scary. What if I fail? And my fear holds me back.
Unless I learn to overcome my dread of teaching my kids to clean, unless I do what I know rather than what I feel, my kids won't learn to clean, even though I've learned how to teach them.
Knowing is half the battle. The easy half. The hard part is overcoming the emotions that don't want to DO.
It all boils down to whether emotion or logic will win.
Think of it!
Just think how different the world would be if women in general learned to be sober.
No sleepless nights thinking out the ramifications of a thousand unlikely scenarios.
No more panic attacks.
No need for wine to dull the emotions. No dependence on coffee to get us started lest we crash and burn with a monster migraine.
No more mommy-daughter fights. No more guilt trips. No manipulation. No more walking on eggshells.
Think of it!
If I can learn to be sober, I can do all the things I’ve learned--from such and such course or those college classes or that awesome book--that I know I should do but don’t FEEL like doing.
On the other hand…
When I lack soberness, it doesn’t matter whether something makes sense or not. If I FEEL like doing the opposite, my feelings win. In many cases that’s a bad thing.
If I need to be spending time with my family but I FEEL like scrolling further down Facebook, guess who wins when I’m not sober? Sigh. Nobody.
If I know I’m weak in a certain area but I FEEL like entertaining a little temptation, guess who wins when I’m not sober?
If I know in my head that God is good but feel in my gut that I need to run from Him, guess who wins when I lack soberness?
Next week, I'm going to tell you the number one thing that helps me when I'm feeling overly emotional. I hope it helps you too!