Organizing the Inside – Day 155 Just Have A Good Cry

February 5, 2012 at 3:00 pm · Filed under Encouragement, Inspiration, Wisdom, Women's Ministry and tagged: Anxiety, Christianity, Religion and Spirituality, Stress

Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Cry with those who are crying. ~Romans 12:15

Maybe it’s time for a good cry?
If God didn’t want us to cry then why on earth did He give us tears? He knew that we would experience emotions that mere words could not express. He foreknew that we would need an outlet and gave each one of us the ability to cry. I’ve often found my husband laughing at my tears over Hallmark commercials or sappy love stories. My favorite of all times is A Walk To Remember and oh, Two Red Ferns. I was so thrilled to find them in the $5.00 bin at Wal-Mart that I could hardly hold back the tears. Yes, my husband laughed at me then too.

Crying makes me feel weak.
Contrary to popular belief, crying is not a sign of weakness; it’s a clear sign of strength. If it was a sign of weakness, what’s wrong with that? … And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 Being strong has nothing to do with putting on a happy face when you’re hurting inside. You can cry without having a “pity party” and without going into “emotional failure.”  We are emotional creatures and sometimes, a good cry before the throne of grace can give you a completely different perspective from the miserable outlook you’ve been holding on to.  I cannot count the times that God turned my tears of sadness into real tears of absolute joy.

I never understood as a child when my parents would get together with family.
We’d end a perfectly reasonable day of running, playing jump rope and hopscotch with tears. It seemed like every super fun, dirty your clothes and mess up your braids-day with my cousins, would end in tears. It was either my Dad or my Uncle Dump, (we called him Dump) would call all the children to gather around and trust me this was not optional. So all my cousins, brothers and sisters would gather around in the family room for a moment, no it seemed like an hour of prayer. I just didn’t get it… why was everyone crying? All the adults and soon to be adults were sniffing and wiping tears. My cousins and I would look at each other with our eyes about to pop out of our heads as we tried to understand what made everyone so sad all of a sudden. We only knew that just at about the time the tissue box was completely empty, it was about to end. We’d all say amen, and run off to get in five more minutes of hide and seek before we said our goodbyes.

As I became older, I later understood it was a true and honest expression of love and gratitude towards God that made my big strong, handsome Dad weep as he prayed. I get it now, the tissue box was empty, yet their hearts were full.  We’re all grown now and usually only see each other during funerals and weddings for the most part, but those hours of heart-felt family prayer was a tradition many of us kept going in our own families.

Crying is beneficial to your health
Studies show that crying literally allows your body to release toxins that build up as a result of stress in your life. So is crying God ordained?  I believe in His infinite wisdom he knew we’d experience happiness and gratitude, sadness and loss and gave us the special gift of crying as a way to release emotions that sometimes our hearts are to full to hold inside. So the next time you find yourself so full of the complex emotions that tend to overwhelm, go ahead and let those tear ducts have at it. Let it out, don’t try to shake them off or hold them back go to your prayer closet (of course, not in the middle of a business meeting) and let God’s good gift of crying help release your stress.  A time to cry and a time to laugh… Ecclesiastes 3:4a When you finish, get back to the business of serving Him with exceedingly great joy, excitement and anticipation of all the good things He has in store for you.

There will come a day when we won’t have need of tears. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”  Revelations 21:4 Meanwhile, periodically use the gift of crying it really works!

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