Welcome Quest Blogger Quinetha Frasier

My car is almost 6 years old and it has been faithful from the day I drove it off the lot. However, in the past year, between inconsistent maintenance schedules and a lady running me off the road, my front end needed some serious work. Imagine pumping your brakes to go around a ramp and your car jerking back left, against the curve. Yikes! I spent about 6 months slowing down my car, in total expectation that it was going to pull back. I tried to get it fixed, twice, to no avail. The mechanics couldn’t find the source of the ‘jerk’. So, after buying new everything on the front end of my car, I continued to pump my breaks while turning the steering wheel back against the ‘jerk’. Then I found the perfect (mechanic) man. They found the problem, fixed the left core and “ta-da!” No more jerking when I hit the brakes. Then two days later, still smiling, I noticed that every time I slowed my car down, I habitually turned my steering wheel against the turn, preparing for ‘the jerk’. For no valid reason, besides habit, I was reacting unnecessarily.

 
A ‘Knee Jerk Reaction’: an automatic or reflex reaction; an immediate reaction made without examining causes or facts.

 
Here is the Knee Jerk reaction that we all can identify with…you are use to listening to the first two sentences that a person speaks in their defense, before your ‘knee jerk’ response is to respond negatively. Or when you feel a ‘certain way’ about a person that you work with, and as soon as they open their mouth to provide feedback, you feel your eyes rolling back in your head. I identify the most with this scenario: the times when I am faced with a situation or circumstance that look and feel familiar- because when it happened before, I didn’t get the result or reaction that I expected. So, when faced with something or someone who brings back that old feeling of helplessness or challenge, I ‘jerk’ back in fear. My real fear is that the situation may turn out the way that it did before. How do we know that it will? We don’t, because the decision to ‘jerk back’ is out of fear, not facts. Our knee jerk reactions have no real credibility. They are based on habits, not facts. As people of faith, we must be led by what we know- The Word and The Dependability of God-and not what we think or fear. Because when we live a ‘knee jerking’ life, we look pretty unstable and unnecessarily fearful and negative. So, live in the facts of the present moment, not the habits of the past.

Quinetha Frasier