Those Pesky Emotions

Some think it would be better to be rid of them. However, this means no peace, no joy, no happiness, no heartwarming, no good. It is impossible to live with only part of your emotions; it’s all or nothing. It is possible to mute emotions, but that only means they’re buried. Sooner or later, they dig out of the hole you drop them in.

The world declares your emotions are valid. What about the ones that lie? Still valid?

Listen to your heart. Sometimes, your heart lies. Sometimes, it’s simply a misunderstanding. The pain and devastation caused by listening to emotions run amok is vast and unnecessary.

I know I’ve written about this before. Know that the repeat is because I’m trying to work things out in my own mind. Yesterday’s post triggered other thoughts.

We place so much weight on emotions. While they’re important, they need to be mastered. Otherwise, they master us and take us on a roller coaster ride of terror and destruction.

It was my third counselor who taught me that anger is a secondary emotion. I had to do some serious soul searching. What did I feel before the anger? Fear. But fear feels so weak and useless. Anger feels powerful.

I’ve had to adjust my perspective. God-inspired fear has protected me more than once and landed me in a painful mess when I ignored it. Learning to recognize the difference becomes easier with practice. Hearing the God-inspired fear sooner is a whole lot easier than waiting until it’s almost too late. I’ve had a few too-late, but at least I lived to regret it. It could have been worse.

Jealousy is an emotion I think I’ve mastered. I rarely feel it; in fact, I can’t remember the last time I did. I don’t want what others have; it’s theirs. I’m happy for the success of others. Do I wish I could have a place of my own with a couple of horses? Yes, but not at the expense of someone else.

Self-pity was tackled by my third counselor. He had me describe how I felt. He told me I didn’t spend enough time in self-pity to count as I went straight into self-condemnation. That isn’t much better. However, it requires a different approach to master it. I don’t go there much anymore either.

I’m perfect! LOL! Not even close. I have plenty of other shortcomings to work on.

Mastering emotions requires self-awareness. Yes, it’s a good idea to ask God to help figure things out. He knows all the answers. He’s willing to share, but He won’t do the work for us. The only work done for us was the work we couldn’t do: Jesus died for our sins. We couldn’t do that. He asks us to follow Him and even appointed prophets and apostles to write it down. Line upon line.

The adventure continues.