Do You Consider Your Feelings To Always Be Truth?

This question may have been my favorite one to ask so far.

Nowadays, in our culture and society, I think emotions and truths about reality are things that we tend to mix up. Personally, my answer to this question is no. Sometimes I think my emotions lie to me. The may be true to me but not true to all. Sometimes I can allow them to steal my joy and hinder clarity. That is simply my mindset as I go into asking these people this question. And quite honestly, most of them only had a way of perfectly articulating ways that I feel about the subject in a way that I could never think up on my own. Allow me to start by quoting some of these ladies, better known as my hall mates. 

"I can feel that someone hates me and they still love me. So it kind of depends on how you're defining truth." - Emma Robins

"No because we act hastily." - Katie Trapani

"Feelings change...sometimes they're not based on what is right." -Lauren Gill

"[Feelings are] based upon situations and people...so it can be truth but doesn't mean it always is."
 - Carley Schaffer 

"I think you're feelings are always true because they're your feelings...but thats not always universal."
- Emily Cole

"I always question if what I'm doing is right or wrong, or if my feelings are valid. I based them on what is happening in the world around me." -Rachael Ritchie 

"Sometimes my feelings are a misrepresentation of what is actually happening." -Michelle Lister

"When we have negative feelings towards others they're not true. They are just Satan tempting us. So definitely not all of our feelings are truth, some are godly and some are not." - Kim Trautman

"I think what I feel is true but sometimes how you feel is not the truth to the situation."
- Shayna Bickford

Everything that these ladies had to say held grains of truth for me. How we feel is true for us, but that doesn't make it truth for reality. I like how John Piper says it,

"My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives."

Therefore, maybe next time you feel a certain way, bad or good, you can ask yourself if its just true to you or truth to all. 



Question this week: What advice would you give to a newborn child?

What Is Your Biggest Question About Life?

This week instead of me asking the question, it is your turn. Do you ever think about what your greatest questions are? Do you ever just take time to think about things for the sake of wondering? Do you ever ask yourself questions like----

Why does fear exist? 

What would it be like if you were a star? 

If you could eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

What is your favorite kind of love?

Who has changed your life the greatest?

Why are some people born blind?

How come some people are so horrible when others are so kind?

The list goes on and on.

So the challenge begins. Ask your questions and see what happens. Think bigger. 


Next Question: Do you consider your feelings to always be truth?

What Can't You Live Without?

       Lets start with the obvious bunch, teenagers. The current tweeny high schoolers said their phones, iPads, computers, Facebook, Twitter, etc were vital to their survival. To sum it up they pretty much said they couldn't live without whatever device it was that allowed them to be connected to a cyber world of dehumanized people for twenty four hours a day. Rarely, there would still be that one teenager that was more mature than the rest that would say their family or friends. They couldn't live without them and never wanted to. 

       Moving a few years past the teenage epidemic, I received more answers like "my boyfriend/girlfriend," "my dog, he's my baby," and "my mom, I can't do anything without her." I understood and it made sense to me that people at that age would answer like that, and I thought that as the age started to change the answer would continue to. Much to my surprise all the answers that followed from those older generations were terribly similar. People can't live without their families, friends, neighbors, children, husbands, or wives. A way to put it simply is this: people can't live without people. Some would argue that is the very human beings that surround you everyday that make you human in the first place. So it seems plain enough, we all, as people, have a common thread. Nobody wants to live alone, and a lot of us think we can't do it anyway. 

       Whether we think about it on a daily basis or not. We need/want/depend on the people we're around. So live with the people that you never want to live without while you can; they make you human in the same way that you make them. 

How many people really know you?

       Do you ever think about how well you really know people? Do you really know the people that you do life with everyday, the people that you're constantly around, the ones that you walk with and work with. Do you know the people you live with and learn with? 

Do you know them and do they know you?

       We live amongst a generation where it is extremely easy to be around friends, family, and everybody else without truly knowing them as people. There is a serious decrease in face-to-face conversation. I am part of technological age that lacks manners, selfless thinking, and genuine human interaction. Right now, more than ever before, we're all doing the same thing at the same time without really knowing the people we're doing it with. 

       I have deemed this question to be the unanswerable attempt. When I asked people how many people really knew them, they simply thought. Every one of them thought differently and cautiously. No one wants to say that nobody knows them, but at the same time, everybody is stunned by the reality of the situation when they think about it. We are just not very good at knowing people or being known sometimes.  

       I have talked to a lot of people and listened to many hearts. But still, I can confidently say that over the course of my life a very small group of people have really known me. The Lord will forever be the only Being to ever know my heart and know me better than I do, but then there are still some people who actually get what you I am all about. To put it like my mother did, they are the ones that "know me and understand." So if you have those kind of people in your life then speak nothing but gratitude and praise. I am learning more and more just how rare it is to find them. 

Be someone that takes the time to know people and allows the time to be known. 


Question: What can't you live without?

What are you afraid of?

       By far, this week has made me think more than all the previous. Fear is a thing of great variety and possibility. I've realized that I'm afraid of much more than I thought. My response to mostly everyone's fears were "wow, yeah, that is really scary." So it seems reasonable enough that my fear-jar felt a little extra full this week. The list of fears I heard about goes on and on.

I am most afraid of:

Failing

The unknown

My life having no meaning

Going through things alone

Being unwanted

Dying before my children

Giving into my desires

Dying alone

Emotions I can't control

Not knowing myself

Being too much to handle
Never being good enough

       But there are specifically two responses that especially struck me. The first one was from a sweet seven year-old who happens to be one of my favorite people. She said "I am most scared of being in a mall when someone starts shooting a gun." Listening to her say these words almost broke my heart. This tells us a lot about the society and culture that we're currently living in. The fact that this little girl knew of this danger in the world and was able to be terrified of it was enough to scare me for our society as a whole. It doesn't seem fair that a joy-fulled all-good little girl like this could have such fears and ideas in her head. The culture we're surrounded by plays a huge role in what we fear. It influences us in way we don't even comprehend. 

       With that in mind, the second response that instantly grabbed my attention was from one of my fellow college students. I asked her what she feared and with all sincerity and a slight chuckle she said, "What am I not afraid of?" I honestly don't know any other statement that could better sum up my experience this week. As people, we all fear something and some could argue that we all fear everything at some point. Therefore, yes, we all got that part; fear is inevitable. So then what do we do with it? How do we react? How do we live despite it? I really don't know, but if there is anything I did learn this week, it is that we talk about it. Fears lose size and power when they're spoken out loud. There is this strange sense you get when you talk with people about what they're afraid of, this sense that it is all not reality.  The person you're talking to about your fears becomes all the more important and all the more real rather than the fear itself.

       I dare you to ask someone what they are most afraid of. You'll be surprised to find out what some people are really seeking or avoiding. 

Next question: How many people really know you?

What are you waiting for?

This week, through all my discussions and all the curiosity-drenched silence, I have developed a theory. And I don't even know if I agree with this theory or not completely, but I'll figure that all out later. After all, this is only---a theory.

But for right now, lets start from the beginning. This question can, obviously, be answered many different ways. The initial reaction I received from most people I asked was something like this: "Um, okay...well, do you mean for today? Or for this week? My whole life? It all just depends." Which makes complete sense. We wait, essentially, for everything: to get out of class, to get off work, to see a good friend, to meet the person we want to marry, etc. The list infinitely goes on.

With that said, the most fascinating conversation I had about this question was with my friend Eva. She has a very innocent and honest way of thinking that seemed pivotal when she answered this question. I asked Eva what she was waiting for and she answered with the array of possibilities that every other person gave as a respond, in some variation. It wasn't until I asked a related question that she really started to make me think. I asked, "Ev, but do you think there can ever be a person who just isn't waiting for anything?"
She confidently replied, "No because if you're not waiting for anything then what are you doing right now?" All I could do was smile and nod. It seemed as if she had a point; it was a very important point that I had never thought of.

It was from this very moment with Eva that I came to think of this theory-like idea:
I think that all people are constantly waiting for either a beginning or an end.

We wait to go somewhere or to get back, for a birth or a death, for freshmen year or graduation, for the movie to start or to end, etc. There is a pattern within us. We are always waiting. Now whether that is a bad or good thing is for you to decide.

The other day, I read a fiery and motivating article written by Lori Deschene that took a challenging angle from this question. She doesn't ask so much what are you waiting for but why are you waiting at all. It'll keep you thinking and maybe even provoke you to actually do something.



Question Number Three: What are you afraid of?