Feelings & emotions

You are walking down a small narrow street and suddenly, a little girl embraces your leg to beg for money. The sight of this young child in dirty clothes and teary eyes makes you want to pick her up in your arms. She holds out a small cup to you, waiting in hope for a few coins to be dropped into the cup. You feel sorry for her; your heart cries out to her. Out of sympathy, you pull out a 10 dollar note and give it to her.

Then, just as you are about to turn at the next corner, you pause to take a look back at the girl one last time. To your horror, you see her pulling out a stack of money notes from the back of her pants. All of a sudden, you no longer feel as sorry for her anymore. You feel cheated and angry. Why the sudden change of emotion? Why don’t you feel as sorry for her anymore?

I think our feelings and emotions have the ‘information’ element that influences the way we react to the things happening around us. In a way, our feelings and emotions are conditioned by the information & knowledge we have about the way of life, and also our beliefs. In the situation above, you found out an extra bit of information about the girl just as you were about to walk away, and that made all the difference in the way your feelings responded.

Thus, it becomes crucial for us to have the right information and knowledge in our mind to respond in the right manner as we can sometimes make ourselves feel better emotionally even with the wrong information. I have learnt that ultimately, I still need to look to God for that right information for He is the source of all knowledge there is to life. This could be the reason why God wants us to come to Him first thing in the morning, diving straight into His Word and to commit the day before us into His hands, for it is through the Bible that we learn how to control and express our feelings in ways that are helpful not only to us, as individuals, but also to others.

I pray that God will help me acquire that Christ-disciplined nature, where I will daily commit the first few moments of my mornings to read His Word and pray; to pray for Christ to take total control of my being, providing me the sufficient strength that I need to sustain me throughout the day. Even when I don’t feel like doing just that first thing in the morning, I pray for obedience, to humbly come before Him for wisdom and guidance. I believe that good feelings will eventually follow the right behaviour for Christ has said that we will be blessed if we do the things we know is right.