Rotten emotions and bad attitudes can ruin the beauty in your life. But, you can fix it! Let’s talk about recognizing your emotional trash…
I love walking on the beach on warm summer mornings. Granted, with five compression fractures right now, I haven’t been able to walk on the beach at all this summer. So, instead of physically feeling the sand under my feet, I’m remembering some of my favorite beach trips and the things I learned there.
Here’s one of my most memorable beach experiences that you can probably relate to:
One July morning years ago, I hit the beach for what I hoped would be a relaxing walk with my family. Unfortunately, no matter how intently I tried to focus on the natural beauty around me, all the trash on the beach and in the water ruined my chance for serenity. A tattered piece of rope, a white plastic tub with two decaying fish inside, a used bandage, flip flops in various sizes and colors, broken sunglasses, a dirty T-shirt, and crushed soda cans assaulted my senses.
I wasn’t the only one distracted by the debris that had washed ashore. My then five-year-old nephew, Mackinley, proudly held up one large sneaker, “Hey, look what I found!”
“Looks like it will take you a few years to grow into that. Did you find the other one?” I asked.
“Noooo,” he said as he dropped it and bent down to tug at a thick rusty wire partially buried in the sand.
“Mackinley,” my brother called as he ran, catching up with us. “I’ll get that!” He carefully uncovered Mackinley’s newfound treasure.
“That’s really dangerous!” I shook my head in disgust. “It’s good we found that before someone accidentally stepped on it.”
Later that day, I noticed a few of the people on the beach picking up the litter right around them, but most simply ignored it. The vacationers swam, built sandcastles, or relaxed along the water’s edge, giving little attention to the garbage. They had grown used to it. Since it was a public beach and municipal workers periodically removed the debris, perhaps those who came to relax felt it wasn’t their responsibility. But for some reason, on that day I had become aware of the unpleasantness caused by the trash.
There is another kind of rubbish that we ignore and grow used to. (It’s also something we can clean up even during this pandemic!) This kind of trash slowly accumulates and pollutes our hearts: unrealistic expectations, frustrations and irritations that turn into long-held resentments, deep hurts, bitterness, envy, arrogance, even shame. Like the rusty wire that my nephew found, some attitudes, like unforgiveness and rage, lie dangerously half-buried in our hearts.
Unlike the public beach, however, removing this type of junk is our task alone, and the effort is worth it. When we finally notice and “clean up” our emotional trash, we discover a remarkable peace and beauty that we may never have thought possible.
The first step in removing the garbage in our hearts, like dealing with any other problem, is recognizing our emotional trash and admitting its existence. Just because we’ve learned to deny it is there, or because we’ve learned to live with it, doesn’t make it disappear. It continues to pile up.
The next step is to get the support you need to actually deal with the mess and clean it up. Whether you would rather join a group program like ReBUILD or work with a coach 1-on-1 to sort through your emotional trash, I’d love to support you. Click here to schedule a complimentary discovery call to talk about which coaching option would be best for you.
Most of us don’t enjoy dealing with our trash. However, when we do the sometimes-painful work of identifying and processing our junk, we discover how God, the Master of Waste Management, can transform our seemingly worthless rubbish into something of great value. But, just like the garbage collectors who will only take what we drag to the curb, God won’t take our trash from us unless we give it to Him. Until we do that, we won’t get to experience how He can replace our hurts, pain, and shame with His peace and joy.
Are you willing to make your heart more like a pristine beach — a place of beauty and peace? What emotional trash do you need to process and allow the Lord to “upcycle” in your life? Hit reply and let me know. Or, better yet, go ahead and schedule that free discovery call with me to see if working through your clean-up process might be best done together!
Let’s begin today and start recognizing our emotional trash!
Georgia
P.S. – You can learn more about this topic in my book, Taking Out Your Emotional Trash, which is available at major book retailers or directly through my website here.
