SHEPHERD TO SHEEP
THE FIVE MINUTE MELTDOWN
(Galatians 5:22-23) But the fruit of the
Spirit is … self-control …
Okay, I’ve got a proposition for
you that may seem kind of wild but I hope you will indulge me just for a
moment. I would like for you the next
time you have a meltdown to just freak out for only five minutes. That’s right…just five minutes. Get all your anger out, say what you want to
say, vent till you’re spent, cry, yell, pound your fist, kick the wall, say you’re
going to quit, threaten to leave, send you’re mean text, and do whatever else you
want to do. Then when time is up you
have to quit all that. Your meltdown is
over. Now you just go on with your
business, be cool, and have a great rest of the day.
So what do you think? Sound kind of crazy huh? Well, you know what I’m trying to do, don’t
ya? Yeah, you’re quick. You know that if I can get you to put all of
your anger and upsetness into five minutes then you will think...well, if I can
get all this emotional expenditure down to five minutes, then why not go
further and get it down to one minute?
And if I can get it down to one minute then why not just skip my tantrum
completely? He he…I love strategy!
We all have our way of throwing a
fit when things get overwhelming and we feel we are under undo pressure. We go off and lose emotional control and we
say and do things that are not good.
Family members retreat to their bedrooms, our animals hide under the
beds, and we are left alone with regret over what was said and done. You see it’s not just the terrible twos that
we have to worry about. We can lose it
at any age given the right amount of circumstance. But is it worth it? Do we always have to default to having an
outburst (2 Cor 12:20)? Isn’t there a
better way to act when we are angry?
The Bible says the fruit of the
Spirit is self-control. That means we
don’t have to give in to how we feel.
The Holy Spirit will restrain us if we yield to His power within
us. We want to lose control but we don’t
have to lose control. We can choose to
let the Lord settle us down and to maintain our composure. All we have to do is step aside, give way to
His influence, and then we will mellow instead of meltdown. Then the fruit of that will be so wonderful
we will be glad we didn’t give in. We
maintained our serenity and therefore had the ability to ACT instead of REACT. Our emotions did not have the chance to take
over so we remained calm and collective to deal with the pressure of the
moment. We stayed composed in front of
others and so were able to deal with the situation at hand with wisdom and
fortitude. Instead of flipping out we
peaced out (Col 3:15).
So what do you think? Want to take me up on the challenge? Enjoy…and tell others about THE FIVE MINUTE
MELTDOWN! (James 3:17) But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits…
Louie
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