It is NEVER ok to hate a person!
You should ALWAYS HATE SIN!

Not complicated or overly obtuse but simple. We are called to live in a world where there is a lot to hate but there is just as much to love. And yes my view on this is very Black and White!

When anyone tries to stifle or control their emotions, they run the risk of not recognizing valid needs and getting them met. This will create more unmet needs, and consequently more potentially unmanageable emotions. Feeling our hearts means that we are alive. If both men and women learn how to pay attention to their emotions in order to get their needs met, it can actually increase the emotional intimacy and quality of our relationships.

And therein is the key. As a parent, it is my job to teach my children that it is not always okay, or wise, to yield to an urge. Just because you have an urge, doesn’t mean you get to act on it. There are other people in this world, and your actions affect them. Just because you have the urge to steal a candy bar, doesn’t mean you get to. Just because you want to have a car someone else owns, doesn’t mean you get to just take it.

I view this situation with emotions the same way. I grew up in a home where ‘female emotions’ were not allowed and have spent the last decade or so trying to unlearn the things drilled into my subconscious. It is okay to feel. And YET! Feelings can be wrong. They just can. While I’m allowing myself to acknowledge emotion and simply feel, that does not mean to get to vent, submit to the URGE, of overwhelming emotion.

There is a time and a place.

I hate how my insides cringe when I hear phrases such as “like a woman”. Because I’ve grown up with the preconceived notion that that is a bad thing. It isn’t. It shouldn’t be viewed that way. But women who use it as another manipulative tool in their arsenal have spoiled it for the rest of us, so that to suddenly be incredibly emotional can make one feel ridiculous, silly, foolish.

I think the wisdom of the Bible is apropos here. Proverbs 29:11: A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back.

You bring up an interesting point too, in that some women feel the need to be “strong” and hold it all together. This, I think, is another negative side effect of feminism. if women hear they don’t need a man and that they are the same as men. Well, then they begin to think that must mean acting “strong.” It is an interesting phenomena. Certainly worthy of its own blog post.

I’m glad you didn’t hit delete!

I love what you said about finding their identity in Christ, finding their freedom in Him. I couldn’t agree more. However, I am also writing about women in general here, not just Christian women. I think this is a topic that affects all women and thus, our culture as a whole, not just women who know Jesus. But of course, women who are yet to know Jesus can find Him and find freedom too.