May 8, 2026 – Emotions
[I’m writing this days later than May 8 because jet lag left me uninspired to think about the blog at all.] In order to be closer to the airport for my noon flight on May 8 from Venice to Birmingham, I left Vicenza (and my sweet time with family) the day before the flight and spent the night at the Venice Hilton Garden Inn (which, as the hotel desk clerk patiently advised me, conveniently turned out to be the last bus stop before crossing the bridge to Venice and landing me in the bus unloading area. I had thought I’d be Ubering from the hotel to the spot in the city where I was to meet my food & wine tour, but I didn’t account for the bridges and waterways that would leave me and my GPS on our own to navigate to the spot. Fortunately, the bus unloading area was right across from the bridge that led me to the street that was a winding but straight shot to the meeting point for the tour, with plenty of shops and gelato along the route.
I felt pretty brave figuring this all out on my own, and on the fly. Interestingly, as this plan for these last days of the trip got closer, I kept second guessing the hotel and the tour since, when I was booking them, I really had no clue about the hotel location and the part of Venice that I would be touring. I prayed (often) and got peace (which is typically unlike the second-guesser in me) about leaving my plans as they were especially because I had also prayed about making the plans in the first place. Turns out that the Cannaregio area is considered a little more local than the more touristy (and pricier) San Marco area; so, it was a good part of the city to sightsee, shop, and eat in. I didn’t mean for this to be a tour guide. I’m sharing all of this because I hope it exemplifies, at least somewhat, how God goes before us when we invite Him in (and I believe even when we don’t if we will eventually turn to Him and ask for help and guidance).
Power – Colossians 3:8 – “But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things; anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!” Gulp. This is not what I had expected to start with on the heels of remembering my fun last day and night in Italy – but it fits. I had not planned to share the next bit of information either – but it fits.
Being away for so long, I wanted to enjoy where I was and who I was with rather than pine away for home and husband (and dog); but, on the last leg of the trip from Philly to Bham, while chatting with the man in the seat next to me about his birthday (same as mine!) cruise that he was coming home from, I began getting excited about seeing Don at the bottom of the escalator waiting there for me and then to help me with my bags that I had been handling on my own for the past month.
He wasn’t there.
And, when he finally answered my texts, using another phone that he uses for testing his programming, he said he’d lost his phone – first sign that he wasn’t very prepared for my homecoming. My mind began churning thinking he wasn’t just doing me a favor picking me up after a short trip. I am his wife and I’d been gone for 5 weeks! (Can you hear the whining and pouting in my female brain?) The man from the plane walked up to wait for the bags with me and I began my (childish) rant about how disappointed I was. He lightheartedly said, “I’m taking notes for if God ever blesses me with another wife. I need to make her feel special.” That was the only Romans 8:28 part (God working all things for good) of that experience – at least until the next day after my pouting was over and Don and I got to talk about everything, including that I could have shared my expectations to better help set him up for success. Men don’t typically think like women and women don’t typically remember that. We just want them to know!
Joyce understands that “Anger is one of our strongest emotions,” and she advises, “When you experience the emotion of anger, you shouldn’t act on those feelings…. Don’t say what you would like to say or do what you would like to do, because that is what gets you into trouble. [Yep] Instead, follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and do what you believe Jesus would do in the same situation you are facing. You may be thinking, But I can’t help it; I’m angry! The truth is that you feel anger, but you don’t have to let it control your behavior…. Emotions are fickle…. Wait for emotions to subside and then decide what you should say and do.” Valuable advice.
JC – “Do not long for the absence of problems in your life. That is an unrealistic goal, since in this world you will have trouble. You have an eternity of problem-free living reserved for you in heaven…. Begin each day anticipating problems, asking Me to equip you for whatever difficulties you will encounter…. Take a lighthearted view of trouble, seeing it as a challenge that you and I together can handle. Remember that I am on your side, and I have overcome the world.” (See John 16:33.)
Streams – Daniel 3:25 – “Walking around in the fire.” Cowman shares this from George Matheson about facing troubles, “When Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace, the fire did not stop them from moving, for they were seen ‘walking around.’ Actually, the fire was one of the streets they traveled to their destination. The comfort we have from Christ’s revealed truth is not that it teaches us freedom from sorrow but that it teaches us freedom through sorrow. O dear God, when darkness overshadows me, teach me that I am merely traveling through a tunnel. It will then be enough for me to know that someday it will be all right.”
Utmost – Revelation 3:10 – “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience.” Chambers points out that “Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says – ‘I cannot stand anymore.’ God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly…. You cannot see Him just now, you cannot understand what He is doing, but you know Him…. There are spots where that faith has not worked in us as yet, places untouched by the life of God. There were none of those spots in Jesus Christ’s life, and there are to be none in ours.”
My “spots” were definitely showing as I wavered when I came down that escalator and didn’t see Don waiting in the baggage claim area as excited to see me as I was to see him. I didn’t believe the best in him. That was one of the early things I learned from him in our relationship. Don’t assign motives and meanings to what people do and say. Believe the best until you can talk with them and they can explain – or perhaps until they prove “the best” wrong and your instincts were right.
Don may not have met my romanticized expectations at the bottom of that escalator, but he did have hot chocolate (and a sweet note) waiting for me in the car. In the early days of getting to know each other, he brought me hot chocolate while I was working the Boy Scout Christmas tree lot with Alex and Davis on a cold December evening. Hot chocolate always brings back those feelings of being cared for. I stubbornly fought those feelings as we drove home and missed out on enjoying the ride while sharing about my trip and hearing about his time while we were apart.
I saw wine (very nice wine) and cheese waiting for us on the counter in the kitchen. I had been planning to go almost straight to sleep when we got home (it was only 7:30pm but it was 2:30am in the time zone I was used to), but I realized that part of bridging emotions and expectations in relationships is not always insisting on our own ways and understandings. It still took ’til the next day during lunch for us to talk through things, but we did get there and we both wish we had handled things differently…. THAT is working through things together.
Chambers concludes, “The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we take this view, life becomes one great romance, a glorious opportunity for seeing marvellous things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.”
