On March 17 I got up on my soap box and gave you some life direction for applying the four motivational emotions properly. Although I may not be the very best source of life information, I have lived long enough to make more mistakes than you have. I have anywhere from a 21 to 49 year head start on you guys and gals in the infamous categories of ignorance, arrogance, stupidity, as well as various and assorted blunders. That makes me, at least in our household, the duty expert! I encourage you to absorb my reflections, because there may be a nugget or two, even if I do say so myself!
Learning to live with and regulate your emotions can be the difference between a life of joy and hope or despair ending in tragedy. Your emotions will either make or break you, so I would be remiss if I did not address them before the year gets too far along. Let’s start with the medical documentation of a John Hopkins University psychiatrist. Dr. Jerome Frank’s medical evidence corroborates that emotions have a profound influence of on your health. He states that anxiety and despair can be lethal, while confidence and hope are life-giving. In their book “The Heartmath Solution,” Doc Childre and Howard Martin highlight research showing that positive emotions have measurable effects on our blood chemistry, triggering increased levels of anti-aging DHEA and disease fighting antibodies, as well as decreased levels of stress-produced cortisol. Emotions can make or break you.
You probably have heard or read this type of data before. Accompanying most of it are suggestions and recommendations on what you can do to “think happy thoughts” and skip happily down life’s path. However, the world we live in is stressful and most of the people with which we come in contact, make little effort or have little control of their emotions. Introverted personalities may be able to hide or mask those emotions through their quieter demeanor, but it is also those introverts who most often explode after a long-term buildup of those emotions. On the other hand we know that the extroverted personalities (type A’s) are going to just let it rip and move on, leaving the bodies behind. The truth is neither approach is healthy, loving, or Godly. Don’t give up, there is hope and it is not complicated!
- W. Tozer posed this question in his book “The Pursuit of God”: “Do we want a Spirit inhabiting our bodies?”As a believer you answered that question in the affirmative. The key to managing your feelings is allowing that spirit to control those emotions. Though the Spirit resides in us, we most often allow people and circumstances to regulate our emotions. If you use the resource you already have available, you can maintain your peace even with adrenalin racing through your body, and that is a promise given in Romans 8:6b: “. . . the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” You can rely on His spiritual discernment rather than your raging emotions. In the days ahead we will address each of those four critical emotions and how your answer lies, not in “3 easy steps to peace,” but in allowing someone else to do your reasoning for you. And fortunately, He’s always right!
Love,
Dad