Sarah Jakes Roberts is opening up about how difficult it can be to work through negative emotions.

The daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes and wife of Pastor Toure Roberts has come into her own as an author and preacher. Now, her words of wisdom are spearheading her own Woman Evolve ministry movement.

In a recent message, she revealed how there was once a time when she did not process her traumatic emotions in a healthy way.

“‘I don’t think it matters how I feel.’ Those are the words I would have uttered when asked how I felt during any of the number of traumas I experienced in life,” she wrote on Instagram. “As disappointing as those words may be that would’ve been my truth. But my truth would have been a lie.”

However, the preacher explained why it is important to sort through those feelings.

“Sometimes what we hold as truth perpetuates feelings of unworthiness, shame, pain, and resentment,” she said. “If those feelings are our soil then our fruit will always be tainted.”

The preacher admitted that it isn’t always easy to work through those emotions.

“A more honest answer would have been, ‘I don’t know if I can handle what I’m feeling…’ when you begin to feel incapable of holding your own heart you hand it over carelessly to someone else,” she wrote. “Your aching needs to be soothed and we find many drugs on our search for peace.”

Still, she encouraged people to be intentional about working through those emotions.

“I am endeavoring each day to remind myself that my feelings matter. My voice matters,” she said. “I am learning to handle my heart. I want to encourage you to do the same, because God did not create you to wander aimlessly searching for love. He chose your life and placed it in this time so that you can be planted.”

She suggested some ways that people can begin to deal with these types of struggles.

“I am encouraging you today to dig within your soul. You may need prayer, therapy, friendships, isolation, or a combination of them all to finally confront who you are becoming in this season,” she wrote. “But know one thing for sure…. how you feel does matter. Don’t ignore you in orders to make others comfortable. In the end you’ll end up making matters worse for them and you.”

 

(Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for BET)