THINK TOGETHER.
Do you vent your emotions or do you keep them quiet?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 29:11. A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.
Have you ever heard somebody say, “I just needed to vent,” after they yelled or complained about something? Today’s proverb gives us a clear warning about this. It is the fool who gives full vent to his spirit. Or to his anger, emotions, feelings. Are you a venter. Do you just let your feelings out, maybe through yelling, or arguing, or throwing (I hope not)? Or do you quietly hold back your feelings?
We live in a world where venting is encouraged. It is considered being true to who you are. Venting means letting all our feelings out without a filter. All our frustration. All our anger. All our disappointment. But there are some very real problems with venting. First, venting is usually done without much thinking or listening, so that we might be frustrated about something that isn’t even totally true. Second, venting hurts others. It might make you feel good for a minute, but what you say and do can hurt another person’s feelings for a long time. And third, venting hurts you. When we vent without any kind of self-control, when we yell, or stomp, or complain, or criticize, or “let off steam,” we are allowing ourselves to form a bad habit. A bad habit that might make others stop trusting us.
So what do we do with our strong feelings if we aren’t supposed to vent them in front of others? Remember, there’s nothing wrong with strong feelings. Jesus had strong feelings too. He got very sad, very angry, and very frustrated at times. But he always did two things. He always vented to God, and so should we. When we go to God with our feelings we gain self-control, we gain the truth and wisdom, we gain trust in God. And then we can do what Jesus did. We can use our strong feelings to help others instead of complaining to or about others.
Because of Jesus we can have self-control.
With Jesus we can always vent our feelings to God and then help others.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Practice praying your feelings. Often our prayers are simply about things or events, or what we want to happen. Model praying about how you feel for your children. Make “Jesus I feel ____” cards that everyone can fill in ad the pray.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, help me to always go to you first when I have strong feelings. I know you will always listen to me and always love me. Amen.
TLICfamily 