Lesson from the Emotional Child

There are always new ways to recognize my inner-Pharisee shadowing the inner-child of God.

There is something I recognize in watching my children lately. Their expression of emotion is enormous and spontaneous. My girls have the capacity to move to drastic stages in emotional expression out of nowhere. It only takes a statement from me or anyone else, and my girls will jump right in to the pool of emotion with no abandon.

There is a part of me which recognizes those outbursts and emotional breakthroughs as dramatic and unreasonable. This part of me is the inner-Pharisee, but you and I like to cal it 'maturity' and 'adulthood'. We can become irritated by the outbursts of children and their emotions, but that irritation is because we have come far enough down a line of Pharisaic maturity devaluing the expression of emotion. The Pharisee in me says, "You have to learn to get over this. You have to let these things roll off you, because life is going to be hard." My inner-Pharisee says, "Grow up and stop whining."

My inner-child of God knows how to open myself to other people and refuses to lie to myself regarding my loneliness, sadness, and insecurity. My inner-child hears my girls' outbursts and identifies. My inner-child says, "Hey! You have fears and hurts and affections too! You just quit listening to them."

The moments I open myself to others and share how much they mean to me are moments the child of God wins over the Pharisee within. These are moments the Holy Spirit reveals the deepest work in the child of God.