Hi there Mom of One
Letting go and letting God is just what it implies - a process or unfolding. We have a situation that in some way troubles us. I begin the process of letting go and letting God by striving to cease from worry and know that all will unfold as God Wills whether I worry or not. God’s Will is always with us, we merely surrender to it. If something is worrying one it is not easy to stop worrying; however I dont feed that worry by deliberately worrying - rather when I find myself worrying my efforts are concentrated in trying not to worry, rather than effort concentrated in indeed putting everything into worrying and turning a non existent situation of the imagination into something that is real, which it is not.
And most importantly of all I pray and ask God to help me stop worrying and just put my trust and confidence in Him.
The great criteria of the spiriutal life is Peace… “my Peace I give to you” - we already have it -a gift and to be guarded at all costs. Peace is not ,well at first in the process that Peace is, perhaps easy to maintain, but in keeping Peace in our soul all else in spirituality will flow from that. There are three great enemies of Peace:
l. Regret over yesterdays mistakes (they no longer exist)
2. Fear about tomorrow (tomorrow does not exist)
3. Ingratitude for the blessing of today, ponder them! give thanks. The only reality I have is this present moment. Yesterday no longer exists except in my memory and tomorrow may not be at all. If I am going to worry about either yesterday or tomorrow, I will probably drive myself into a neurotic state where I am ruled by my imagination and imaginary matters.
And neurosis is most painful to live with.
No amount of worry about tomorrow can change whatever tomorrow will bring. It is in God’s Hands and whatever does happen tomorrow if it is something negative "this too is for the good’ (Reen12), for God’s Will which is always with us is always for the good as mysterious as it can be to us “My Ways are not your ways”.
Whatever does happen God will never ask of you what is beyond you, although very often imagination can state that it is. But imagination is exactly what it states: imaginary and not real. Imagination that great gift can be most mischievious and troublesome if I am going to start worrying about all the scenarious it presents to me.
does crying, hurting over it, or any other emotion regarding said situation/person mean that we are no longer letting go? I have been told that having emotions over it means that we are “taking it back” from God.
No to emote over something or other is not taking it back from God. We are creatures of emotions and infact emote 24 hours a day even while asleep and emotions are not moral they are a-moral until we make decisions about what to do with them, then we are in the area of morality andgood and bad. Emotions arise from many different sources.
However if I am upset and highly emotional about something that does not exist yet and may never exist…then I would be wise to seek some form of counselling if I cannot see the reality of the situation and that I am highly upset over my imagination that has nothing to do with reality for imagaination cannot in any way predict with sureness the future.
Is asking God why … Is telling God that I hurt and I don’t understand …Is crying over it, being scared/nervous about it taking it back?
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No, none of this is taking our problems away from God. We are emotional creatures. God is Our Loving Father and we can tell him everyrthing without fear of being right or wrong -
for He knows what is going on anyway.
But if I am hurting and crying, scared and nervous about something that does not exist and may never exist - then common sense, that other great criteria of spirituality and the foundation of all virtues along with humility tells me I probably need some form of counselling.
It is the wise person that knows when he/she needs help and prudent and humble to seek it. And we all need help from time to time. Real psychological problems can lurk for the person that does not seek help early in a situation. And in fact most people do not seek help until they are in real crisis due to all the silly notions about seeking the help of cousellor/psychologst/psychiatrist. It truly astounds me that people will seek readily spiritual direction, insighting they do have a spiritual aspect. But these same people refuse to seek mental direction and do not insight that they have a mental aspect. This is ludicrous and a contradition and lacks any sort of intelligence.
God’s Blessing be with you and keep asking questions until you find an answer that settles those negative emotions that are terrible draining and especially for a Mom.:ehh:
Barb
