EMOTION: the oxford dictionary defines emotion as
• A person’s internal state of being and involuntary PHYSIOLOGICAL response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to a physical state and sensory data. Some common synonyms include feeling, affect.
The human emotions or feelings are very important part of the human person, it is a drawing force very present in the way we do things, the way we react to people, things places etc. a very common example is the shriek of a happy girl when she is given a beautiful dress, the tears rolling down the cheek of a mother when her child graduates college, the thrill that floods us with happiness when we are on a vacation and we see a site we have always longed to visit. So to say the importance of emotions in the life of humans cannot be overemphasized. Our emotions or feelings are a very vital part of our lives.
It is important to note that emotions or feelings in and of themselves are neither good nor evil, they are just unstable and must be managed. They can be enjoyable and wonderful, they can also be very painful and make us miserable and can lead us to make decisions that we most often than not regret.
Unchecked emotions might be compared to a little child who wants to try everything, not knowing that every action taken has a consequence. Our emotions need our parenting, we must learn to keep them in check or we become enslaved to them.
THE WAR WITHIN
Our emotions are sometimes so unreliable that we find ourselves at war within ourselves, trying to decide right from wrong, good from evil. Sometimes I feel my emotions are my own enemies, because one minute I am happy, bubbly, loud even and the next minute I get so cold, moody so withdrawn from people around me and one might even wonder if I just had a personality split. It is maddening to know that sometimes we have no control over how we feel, but in truth we can control our emotions, we might not be totally able to decide how we feel but we are most definitely able to control our expressions of those feelings; the way we react.
Have you ever felt like there is a war going on within, a deciding face-down between what we know is right and what is wrong? At that moment, the wrong thing can feel right and the right thing can feel wrong, which brings me again to the important fact that we cannot judge the moral value of how we acted by how we feel. Our feelings are so unreliable that WE CAN NOT RELY ON THEM TO CONVEY THE TRUTH.
We often ask ourselves how this can be wrong when it feels so right. And usually at this point we are about to do something really stupid and it might come with damning consequences and at that point we are so lost to reason and beguiled to our emotions and in most case than none makes choices we end up regretting.
After making the wrong choice, we begin to justify our mistakes by making excuses and placing the blame on anything but ourselves and dour lack of control over how we feel.
This brings me to the two persons we have in us, the outer shell (our physical body) and the inner person (the spiritual). We have a soul and we live in a body, to control our actions we need to make conscious decisions and follow our inner person, because deep down we know the truth. Our outer body wants the fun, does not care for the effects but the inner self is guided by wisdom that has been available for ages. We should follow wisdom, rather than emotions.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31, said I die daily, I face death every day and die to self. Paul was one of the greatest teachers of the gospel in all of history and in his life he had challenges with his emotions but he learnt to feed the inner man, the spiritual more that the outer body, he denied himself many things just to keep to what is right.
It is not as easy as it sounds but it starts with a conscious decision, wanting to do what is right despite how we feel. Death to self is not easy, it involves discipline, time and a constant reminder to yourself that you want to do that which is right.
Like the saying goes, nothing good comes easy and no pain no gain, if you want it you have to work for it. Learn to control your emotions and use them to your advantage not the other way round.
MY CONSCIOUS DECISION TODAY
I choose to do what is right no matter how I feel.
I am ready to work to achieve that, you should do the same.
for reading.
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