When I was younger I was not willing to tell anyone what I was feeling, becasue of this I was a very angry child. I remember one time at school there was a girl I wanted to play with and she wanted to go do somthing else so I told her to lay on the ground and I jumped on her stomach, I got in a lot of trouble. I also remember a time when I would just not stop yelling at mom and so she picked me up took me out side and put me in the pool we had in our yard and said “you need to cool off”. This was because I refused to talk about how angry I was at my dad for all that he had put us through and was taking it out on others, instead of dealing with my anger.
Eventully my mom made me go to counseling and I do not regret it to this day. I did not work through everything at the time and issues with my dad still come up, but it taught me not to be afraid of sharing how I feel or what has happened in my life. It also taught me how important it is to find at least one person that you trust to share everything with. This could mean having several different people I know I do. One thing to keep in mind is the peron or persons you are sharing with are only human and they are most likely going to let you down but God is not. God is the only person that can fill those voids in your life.
Sometimes as Christians we can dismiss someone when they are trying to tell us how they are feeling because it is a topic we are uncomfortable with. Such as someone saying they have feelings for someone of the same sex, or a teenager asking about sex, or abortion. I am not saying these are easy topics but these are things that people including Christians deal with. We have to remember they are God’s children and have feelings just like us. I had a lesbian co-worker and eventully she shared her story with me. She had been raped when she was eighteen and after that every guy she dated treated her horribly, no wondered she had given up on guys. That night I saw who she was not what she was. I know as I get ready to leave on this trip I will be praying for God to remind me of this whenever I am talking to someone in my day to day life.
