Have you ever had this happen to you? You wake up in the morning, it’s a raining and cold outside. You have the cloud of gloom over your head feeling all “blah” and thoughts come telling you things like, “Today isn’t going to be a good day. I just want to stay in my bed. I don’t want to go to work.”
Well, what usually happens after that? You decide to stay in bed a few extra minutes, you then get caught in traffic or if you’re like me in New York City, your train gets delayed, someone tries to argue with you over a seat and when you get to work your boss decides to get on your nerves really early.
It’s almost as if you predicted that it wouldn’t be a good day.
Of course it won’t be.
See what happened is that you allowed your feelings to decide for you early in the morning what type of day you would have. Feelings are temporary and if you allow your feelings to decide for you or you only follow what you feel then you will never get to fully experience what God has for you.
If you allow your feelings to be the deciding factor for what you do or don’t do then accomplishing your goals and birthing your dreams is going to be one uphill battle where you are fighting no one but yourself.
What will you do when you don’t feel like getting up at 5am to get to the gym to meet that fitness goal? What will you do when you don’t feel like staying on a budget in order to hit that savings goal or get out of debt? What will you do when you don’t feel like writing that book you promised to finish this year?
Motivation, inspiration and empowerment are feelings but discipline, faith, courage and strengths are decisions.
Your feelings can steal your future if you allow them to because you can’t always trust what you feel. I know that sometimes there are “gut feelings” which I like to consider divine intuition. However, I’m referring to allowing your feelings to rule your daily action and reactions.
As you choose to build anything good, there are going to be seasons where you are going to have to walk in nothing but faith – not trusting what you see or feel because if you do, you won’t make it to the finish line.
Five years ago I was in such a miserable state while working a high-profile job in the music industry. So I followed my “feelings” and I started looking for another job but for “some reason” (which I now know was God), I could not find a new job for the life of me. My feelings only grew worse so in full misery, I began drinking heavily and smoking weed daily just to make myself “feel” better. I thought I was doing what was right by following what I feel, but I was in bondage to my feelings until it all came crashing down one night where I made a complete fool out of myself drunk at a restaurant.
Being disgusted with myself and behavior, and after the worst hangover in my life, I made a decision to give God all of me. It was during that time that God put it on my heart to resign from my job and serve him through this project I was working on called, Embrace Her Legacy.
I pleaded with God to give me another plan because my feelings told me all the reasons why I could not do what God was asking me to do. But He didn’t budge, so I put in my resignation.
If I had followed what I felt, you would not be reading this email right now. In the last 5 years, if I would have followed my feelings, Embrace Her Legacy would no longer exist.
Trust me when I say that I know the amount of tenacity, patience, faith, discipline and courage it takes to birth a dream and fulfill your life’s assignment when everything around you is telling you to quit or better yet, to not even start.
You can choose to serve your faith or your feelings. Anything that you cannot say “no” to you’re a slave to. Your emotions may be real, but that doesn’t mean they’re right.
Your emotions are a part of your soul and want to rule your decision making but allowing your emotions to rule is like giving the keys to a new car to a 4-year old.
If there is something – a goal, a vision, a dream, an idea, a business, a house, a organization, a church, a ministry, a family – whatever it is that you know is buried inside of you and you’ve allowed your feelings to tell you to wait, it won’t work, you’re crazy if you think you can do it, it will be too hard, you should be practical, its going to cost too much money or you’re going to lose money or this could never work for you….
I’m here to tell you to tell your feelings to get in check with your destiny. Destiny is rooted in the decisions that you make, don’t let your feelings steal your destiny any further. Your time is now. I believe I’ve been sent as a messenger to tell you to get out of your feelings and get into faith to believe the exact opposite of what your “feelings” are telling you to do.
One thing I’ve observed about people who follow only what they feel is that they are constantly attracting drama and negativity while lacking the discipline to achieve or maintain any good thing that like may offer them. It’s only a matter of time before they do or say something to sabotage that good thing.
What are you working towards but your feelings are telling you to quit? What dream is inside of your heart but you feel like it’s going to be too hard? What investment should you be making into yourself but your thoughts are telling you that it’s not worth it?
I know the frustration and pain of falling victim to your feelings. I wish I could go in more detail on how I would have totally missed the perfect, divine plan for my life and would not be fulfilling my destiny if I followed my feelings.
You can’t decide how you feel but you can choose how to respond to your feelings. I would hate to see your feelings steal your future dreams from you and later this week, I’m going to be sharing something super special with you to get you out of your feelings and into your faith to bring about that goal, dream, vision and desire in your heart.
Take courage, you will succeed in everything that you do. Believe it!
XOXO,
Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy
