Peel Off Your Stickers!

I was having a discussion with a friend about a sermon she'd heard about anger and it prompted me into thinking about emotions and what the Church teaches about them.

As a teenager/ young adult I was struggling with a lot of repressed memories of various traumatic events playing through my mind and this triggered a variety of emotions in me.
I was sad, angry, confused and shocked about what had happened to me or what I had witnessed and the only teaching I was ever told on the subject of emotion was "Leave it at the cross." "Give it to Jesus and decide to be happy." "If you're a Christian and you're unhappy, it's like throwing what Jesus did on the cross away."
So that's what I tried. I said "Jesus I'm handing it over to you, I've decided to be happy." and off I went on my way, deciding I was happy.
Problem is. What I'd just done was the equivalent of sticking a smiley face sticker over a warning light on my car dash board and pretending like it wasn't there. You can stick anything you like over a warning light. It's still there underneath.
Emotions aren't sinful. We need to stop looking at them that way.
Jesus felt emotion. He wept, (John 11:35) He got angry, (Matthew 21:12), He felt agony, (Luke 22:44). Jesus felt emotion. Jesus was sinless. Sinless. He felt emotion and was open about it.

For me, after years and years of walking around with a fake smile plastered over my face, things started to get bad, my engine over heated and exploded. I withdrew from everyone I loved and tried to cope by punishing myself with various was of self harm. On top of it the teachings that had been engrained in me as a young adult "Just give it to Jesus and decide to be happy." Still echoed in my head. So on top of everything that was going on I felt guilt, shame and condemned.

Eventually, I decided I needed help and some very wise people taught me the most life changing thing I think I've ever heard.
Emotions are't sinful. They're not bad. They're useful. They're needed. You need to pay attention to what you're feeling and do something about it.
You need to peel the stickers off your car dashboard, look at what it's saying and take it to a mechanic.
Our mechanic is Holy Spirit.
"Holy Spirit, I feel really angry with this person, what does that mean?" *Listen and act of what she says.*
"Holy Spirit, I feel really upset about what happened yesterday, what can I do about it?" *Listen and act on what she says."
It''s really that simple. Sometimes you wont want to do what you've been told, sometimes it's painful, sometimes it hurts, but that's okay. It's like breaking your arm as a child and not seeing a doctor. Letting your arm set wrong. Then later in life seeking medical attention. To fix your arm, it's going to hurt. It'll have to be broken and re set. It's the only way it'll heal.

So! Get rid of your stickers, fix your car and enjoy your journey! ^_^