What do emotions have to do with our spiritual lives and wellbeing anyway? Well, everything. God made us multi-part - body, soul, and spirit. All of these parts are interconnected and make us fully alive. Emotions may often feel like a burden to us, but they are a gift from God that enable us to experience our lives in a complex way. They also help us to connect with God and others at a deep level.

Sometimes we become convinced we can force-feed gratitude into our own brains, and we feel guilt when it doesn’t happen. We ask ourselves questions like, Why am I not happier? I would like to take a different approach with gratitude that I hope will help you to set aside any guilt and to chart a path toward a more natural (not forced) experience with joy.

One of the ways we get rooted in truth and uproot the lies is by meditating on God’s words. Whatever He says about you, you should be saying about yourself.