Life is full of choices...how do you feel about that?

While my intent to return to discussing the Church remains, the topic of emotion seems most relevant to many at present. An article has been posted by my scriptural attorney that provoked yet another lengthy response from me. This post is actually a comment to his article so while your comments are always welcome here I would ask that if you can contribute to the discussion please do so on his post.

In my previous article I stated that how we feel is determined by our own actions. I concluded with an admonition for us all to learn to be aware of our feelings and to learn the proper response for each. Feelings also play an enormous role in becoming the compassionate, caring people God intends for us to be. Often they are the only scale available by which to measure the merit of our choice in what to do and say. When presented with a choice our feelings should at least be as valuable to us as our reasoning. If we learn to apply both properly we should find ourselves making wise decisions

Life really is full of choices. Some are presented to us while others are created by us. Some choices have more options than others and some are as simple as whether or not we should or should not take part in some activity. We are even responsible for the words we choose to use and we should always consider the consequence of our choices. Regardless of the origin and type of choice, knowing that our future feelings, including our feelings of happiness, are determined by our present deeds we should also learn to give due consideration as to how we might feel if we follow through with any given decision under consideration. Some of our biggest mistakes are made when we reason away a negative feeling. This process is called justification and there is no valid justification for the just outside of faith. Alternately some of our biggest blessings go unclaimed when we fail to accept that our desires are important to God and we then reject His providence because of a fear it might be selfish.

In order to apply our feelings productively we need to learn to separate our present feelings from future feelings. Sounds silly huh? It may be surprising to realize that a vast majority of our feelings are based on events that have not and may never occur or on some specific knowledge we have that cannot be known. We have those feelings when we believe we know the future or when we believe we know the intent of others; those very privileged moments when we are granted the divine ability to "see" how things are and will turn out given the present situation. It's at moments like this we need to realize that faith necessarily requires that we can't see the future. No matter how awful the situation God's part in it can change the outcome in an instant. We need to realize we can't even know our own heart, let alone the heart of another. Knowing this we will then give much less value to what our future feelings might be given the potential action of others and pay much more attention to the future feelings of others if we do as we intend based on this knowledge that can't be known. This is commonly known as the Golden rule and it is how we learn to love. This consideration of future feelings should always begin with God, followed closely by the feelings of others and then we can safely consider our own feelings. Good reasoning has good doctrine as a foundation and good doctrine is founded on the scripture. Our feelings should likewise be subject to our conscience and that guided always by the Holy Spirit.

Given the above circumstance and after due consideration of the consequences, you still feel good about your decision, it is likely the best course of action. If there is any doubt then you may do well to wait on the LORD. Remember, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. It might not be time to take action yet or you might lack some critical information necessary to make a wise decision as to what action, if any, should be taken. Making a good decision may not feel good at the moment but will eventually result in good consequences and good feelings, in other words, what is best for all.

Authors note: The above is much easier for me to say than to do! ;-)