Monday, July 18, 2011

Emotions.

A discussion the other day: What if you could eliminate one characteristic out of human nature, which one would it be?

Someone suggested anger. Someone else said envy … jealousy, hatred, prejudice, fear … and so on.

What if this were possible; what would you get as a result?

A robot. Someone pre-programmed by you with whatever emotions you feel should stay in and which ones taken out.

But God decided differently.

He gave us all these emotions, both positive and negative ones, and with them He gave us a responsibility.

The responsibility to keep them under control and to use them properly.

Even some negative emotions have a purpose if controlled properly and used in the right circumstances. If we didn’t have anger we would not be so disposed to stand up against evil. Fear keeps us from being foolhardy and reckless at times.

So there you have it: negative and positive emotions and a responsibility to control them.

Phew … I’m suddenly tired with all these responsibilities!

7 comments:

  1. Victor, I like how you stated that we must control them properly because in our day and age, the mind set is "I couldn't help. I was so angry." We excuse these negative responses and actions to our emotions as "normal." So, not true. God Bless!

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  2. I definitely agree emotions must be controlled in a healthy manner. Some negatives like anger, though, I think God allows as warning signs that sometimes something is wrong and needs to be made right.
    Thanks Victor and God bless.

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  3. It is a lot of responsibility to judge rightly when to express an emotion and when to hold back. I think the key is continual examination of conscience to determine if we are acting selfishly in some way.

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  4. Victor,

    I always love how you phrase things. Your wit an humor give a lasting effect on your message!

    God bless

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  5. Hello Noreen, Karinann, Barbara and Daily Grace.

    It's perhaps not always easy to control our emotions, but we owe it to our Creator to do so as part of the responsibilities we have in enjoying the Free Will He gifted us with.

    God bless.

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  6. Thanx Colleen.

    Now I feel tired ... all this thinking is hurting my brain.

    God bless you and yours.

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  7. Colleen said - "Feelings are feelings. They are not bad. They just are. We really cannot help how we feel. It is what we do with those feelings that matters." Yes! God gave us our feelings and they are all good. We must just use our reason to decide how best to react to those feelings. There is a great book by Conrad Baars which discusses this: "Feeling and Healing Your Emotions". Highly recommended!

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