It was a huge blessing to sit down with Lysa Terkeurst in Orlando and discuss her new book, Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions. I felt this was an important book as I read it, but after hearing Lysa's heart on the development of this book, I am convinced that everyone would experience growth and healing if they would take the time to lay their hearts before the Father and be honest about their reactions to life and the events and pressures that are part of daily living. God really wants us to live an abundant life in Christ, and sometimes, we are our own worst enemy!
Join me as I discuss Unglued with Lysa!
Where did you find
inspiration to write this book? I
had just finished Made To Crave: what goes into my mouth and the Lord directed my to
examine what ultimately became Unglued….what
comes out of my mouth. There were not
written in a sequence but God designed them to work together. I’ve seen a lot of information on emotions:
women’s emotions: stress, ect.. and
there are two things I want to add to the discussion: 1) a focus on reaction in
the moment when we decide if we are going to react Christlike or not 2) there
is value in making imperfect progress.
There are a lot of things in the Christian market that
say to us: Do a, b and c and you will
fix your problem. When you are dealing
with emotions, it’s a bit like trying to nail jello to the wall…it’s not a
1,2,3 fix. I want to be gut-honest. If
we can only improve 10% or 20% we will improve our relationships by that much-
that’s fantastic!
What other things
have you learned in the journey of writing this book? Don’t miss this chance to rejoice! If we pause in the moment and add an element
of Thanksgiving it make a lot of difference in our reactions. I think there is Biblical example to
follow…Daniel was praying open prayers of thanksgiving when he was arrested…Jonah
prayed prayers of Thanksgiving in the belly of the fish…Jehosephat sent people
before his army sending songs of
thanksgiving unto the Lord and won the battle without having to raise a sword! There is power in the Lord when we stop in
the moment to offer thanksgiving to the Lord in the midst of our circumstance -
not because the circumstances changed or ended and not because the
circumstances were pleasant …but in the midst of the circumstance! Phillipians 4:16
Is there a way we
can learn to practice godly reactions?
Things that help people look at things clearly and in order?
I’m a mom to 5 and
I have learned I cannot hang my identity in Christ on the fragile choices of my
children. Balance is elusive on a day to
day basis, so I’ve learned to categorize my choices.
1)Keep Jesus at the center of it all
2) What are the tasks that I can FULLY delegate? (older children can do their own laundry)
(assistants can answer email)
3) What are tasks that I can delegate with supervision
(assistants can turn bog post into a devotional)
4) What tasks are those that only I can do : Stopping in
the moment and asking God what He wants you to do (example: write article for
Focus on the Family or keep a movie date with my daughter..) Only I can be a
mom to my children and love my children as a mom
If we don’t stop to ask God what He wants us to do and
make decisions based on emotions in the moment, the cycle pulls us further from
God and further into the madness of this cycle and causes us to get further
behind…further stressed and make other gut reactions that keep the cycle
spiraling downward and away from God.
What do you hope
readers will take away from your book, Unglued?
I hope my book can help others not to go the extreme of
stuffing emotions or exploding emotions…and stay centered on soul integrity
(defined in your book on p52) : “Soul
Integrity is honest that’s godly. It
brings the passion of the exploder and the peacemaking of the stuffer under the
authority of Jesus where honesty and godliness embrace the balance of each
other.”
We change our reactions based on the type of relationship
we are reacting to: I’ll react
differently to something you may do because we don’t have a shared history, and
react very differently to my mother when
she does the exact same thing because we have years of accumulated history.
When we can’t keep our emotions/reaction in line with
godly principles we have unglued moments that indicate that something is wrong
and needs to be addressed.
What words of
encouragement would you like to leave with your readers?
Progress is possible if we are brave enough to look at
the reactions we are having and examine them before God. We must be honest and
realize that my reactions have a direct impact on all of my relationships. If I want to measure how effective my life is
going to be, I have to look not only at my carefully planned actions but my
in-the- moment reactions! What happens
to me in that moment matters, because it determines what kind of influence I’m
going to have in other people’s lives and on the important relationships I have
in my life.
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