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Emotional Stability (Part 1 of 2)
As human beings we all go through an array of emotions throughout the various circumstances that present themselves in our lives. These come in both positive and negative forms and each I believe have different levels of magnitude. For example, it is quite different to feel a little guilty for eating a piece of chocolate and breaking your diet, than to feel guilty for cheating on a test in school. Think about the primary negative emotions that we sometimes deal with: Anger, Fear, and Sadness. Now think of the primary positive emotions that we experience: Joy, Surprise, and Love.
I truly believe we all go through these emotions and we all face a similar challenge when it comes to how we choose to control them. I think discretion plays a vital role in managing our emotions. It is mentioned several times in the Bible and we should try to exercise it on a daily basis. It is an absolutely integral part of maturing in faith and following God's will that we do work on fine tuning our emotional stability through discretion among other avenues (such as moderation, discipline, and self control which I discussed in Article #3). (See V*1).
Before I share with you the verses that speak of discretion directly, I would like to go ahead and clearly define what discretion means. According to www.dictionary.com discretion means: (1) the power or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment or choice. (2) The quality of being discreet especially with reference to ones own actions and speech; prudence or decorum. This helps us to understand that discretion and prudence are closely related and involve exercising sound judgment in achieving emotional stability. (See V*2).
This especially rings true when we are referring to anger, the first on our list of negative emotions to look at. Discretion tells me in a practical sense that it may be the wrong choice to befriend a person with an extreme problem with anger. Not only is this type of person capable of blowing up verbally at almost any small inconvenience, but they may be capable of becoming physically violent. I think we could all be doing ourselves a favor to never associate with such an individual and exercise particular discretion in our words whenever we do meet with such people. This is found in Proverbs 22:24-25. (See V*3). It is clear to me why we should avoid these type of people, not only can they cause mental and physical damage to you through their lack of control, but they can also influence your entire outlook and cause you to convey similar reactions yourself over time. This is why we should avoid anger as best as we can, and get over the anger quickly when we do find ourselves in an angry state of mind.
It is of important note that the Bible does tell us, that being angry is not a sin in itself, this is made clear to me in Matthew 5:22. (See V*4). These verses tell us that we may be liable to judgment. The word liable in this verse indicates that when we are feeling the emotion of anger we are vulnerable or in other words susceptible to acting on that anger and doing something hurtful to the individual we may be angry at. It does not imply by any means that the feeling of anger itself is a sin. The key point to take home is that we need to be particularly discreet both when we are dealing with an angry individual and also when we ourselves are angry. Remember that when we are angry we are not sinning and should never feel guilty, neither when we are irritated at one of life's small inconveniences such as getting stuck in heavy traffic. These are normal emotions that we just need to learn to control and hopefully if we do decide to take any action to be extremely discreet in our mannerisms at that moment.
The next emotion that we will be taking a look at is fear. Fear can manifest itself in various forms, which should all be avoided except for one. When the Bible talks about fear there are two different types of fear that are mentioned. One is the actual act of being afraid, and the other is the fear of God. The fear of God is not meant for us to be afraid of Him in terror or panic, but actually to fear God in the sense of being respectful of Him. As a matter of fact the Bible instructs us many times over not to be afraid of anything, not even the devil, but to certainly be fearful of God Himself. (See V*5, V*6, and V*7). In V*5, which is Proverbs 9:10, we observe that according to the Amplified Bible it is the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord which we should attain in order to gain in wisdom and knowledge of Him which translates into true insight and understanding. To me this means that we should always keep God first in our lives, and He will in turn bless us with true wisdom and furthermore make everything fall into place according to His plan for our lives. He also helps us to understand that even when the circumstances don't fall into place according to our plan, if we trust in Him we will realize that what does end up happening is often, if not always, for our better good.
V*6 is one example, of many, that clearly shows us that we should not be afraid of anything evil. V*7 shows us that we should not worry or be anxious about the future, we are instructed to allow each day to worry about itself because each day as we know it has enough trouble of it's own. This verse also indicates, at least to me, that it is okay if we happen to worry or become anxious about something on one particular day. It is clear to me that this should be an isolated event however, especially when we begin reading other verses. (See V*8). In this set of verses we observe that God doesn't want us to be at all anxious or troubled if we can manage it. On the contrary, He wants us to be cheerful and happy in our undertakings. (See V*9)
Finally we arrive to the area of sadness, which we all face from time to time, as human beings. God promises His children many times that He will always be there to comfort us. (See V*10). No matter what kind of depression or sadness comes our way, whether it be from the loss of a loved one, a friend that betrayed us, or a hurtful criticism that touched our hearts, or any other that we can imagine. God never lets us down. He also promises that one day He will wipe away all the tears, and we will arrive to a place where we need not cry anymore. (See V*11).
I hope that this article will be as enlightening to you as it was for me as I wrote and studied it. No matter how dire the circumstances may seem in our lives, we need to trust in God for he is our refuge. (See V*12).
Keep fighting the good fight of faith!
Victor Nunez
To be continued... (in Emotional Stability Part 2 of 2)
Biblical References:
V*1- "I, Wisdom [from God], make prudence my dwelling, and I find out knowledge and discretion." Proverbs 8:12 (Amplified Bible)
V*2- "That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation]." Proverbs 5:2 (Amplified Bible)
V*3- "Make no friendships with a man given to anger, and with a wrathful man do not associate, 25 Lest you learn his ways and get yourself into a snare. Proverbs 22:24-25 (Amplified Bible)
V*4- "But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and isultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the unpishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot]! Shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire. Matthew 5:22 (Amplified Bible)
V*5- "The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding. Proverbs 9:10 (Amplified Bible)
V*6- "Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 (Amplified Bible)
V*7- "So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is it's own trouble." Matthew 6:34 (Amplified Bible)
V*8- "And [Jesus] said to His disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious and troubled [with cares] about your life, as to what you will [have to] eat; or about your body, as to what you will [have to] wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body [more] than clothes. 24 Observe and consider the ravens; for they have neither storehouse nor barn' and [yet] God feeds them. Of how much more worth are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being overly anxious and troubled with cares can add a cubit to his stature or a moment [unit] of time to his age [the length of his life]?" Luke 12:22-25 (Amplified Bible)
V*9- "A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22 (Amplified Bible)
V*10- "Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous- with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! 4 Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and specially conditions by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted! Matthew 5:3-4 (Amplified Bible)
V*11- "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more, for the old conditions and the former order of things have passed away. Revelations 21:4 (Amplified Bible)
V*12- "God is our Refuge and Strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a very present and well-proved help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains be shaken into the midst of the seas, 3 Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling and tumult. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! Psalm 46:1-3
Other References:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-human-emotions.html (Reminded me that human emotions can be classified as primary, secondary, and tertiary emotions.)