When are emotions wrong? If you feel something, does that make it automatically wrong, or is there more to it than that? One thing I really struggle with is when I feel certain things, I automatically get upset with myself for having felt them at all.<\/p>\n\t
“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered<\/em>” (Proverbs 28:26).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Feelings reflect your mood, but your mood should not be the basis of your decisions. Thus, my feelings are really neither good nor bad. They are only my current emotional outlook.<\/p>\n
Let me illustrate. Suppose I have a really annoying neighbor who plays loud music at all hours of the night. Suddenly, the nights are quiet again and I find out that the annoying neighbor is in the hospital. I may feel happy about the quiet, but I should not celebrate over a person being ill. “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; or the LORD will see it and be displeased, and turn His anger away from him<\/em>” (Proverbs 24:17-18). Here my reason has to reign over my emotions. People need to be treated with respect — even annoying people. It doesn’t mean my feelings are bad, it is just that the situation caused my feelings to be inappropriate if I focus on the wrong thing (my convenience or my concern for a fellow human being).<\/p>\n
If a person follows his feelings, he will naturally make decisions that benefit himself because those are the things that make him happy. In other words, there is a tendency to become selfish. But God teaches us to put other people ahead ourselves. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others<\/em>” (Philippians 4:3-4).<\/p>\n
Thus, we are not bad because our feelings are incorrect. It simply means we are probably focused on the wrong thing at the moment. Therefore, I need to make adjustments to focus on the right things. When at a funeral, I should be daydreaming about where I’m going to spend my next vacation. When at a celebration, I shouldn’t focus on my sore muscles from yesterday’s gym session.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: When are emotions wrong? If you feel something, does that make it automatically wrong, or is there more to it than that? One thing I really struggle with is when I feel certain things, I automatically get upset with myself for having felt them at all. Answer: “He who trusts in his own heart…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[506,546],"class_list":["post-55228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-emotions","tag-feelings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43285,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-know-if-my-feelings-were-genuine-when-i-received-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":55228,"position":0},"title":"I don’t know if my feelings were genuine when I received Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You may not know me, but I have seen what you wrote and you seem wise. I ask that you give me a genuine answer. Here goes pouring out my heart's doubts: I am not sure that I have received Christ. I don't know if my feeling was genuine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19643,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-have-a-sex-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":55228,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to have a sex change?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The greater part of my life, I dare say my entire life, I have felt that I am in the wrong body. I am a female but have always felt that I should be a male. As young as 2-3 years old I have had these feelings. Is it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51471,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/emotional-decision-making\/","url_meta":{"origin":55228,"position":2},"title":"Emotional Decision Making","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Genesis 37:32-35 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Repeatedly I find people making decisions based on their feelings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Usually I get contacted because those choices have gone wrong and the person wants to know why. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But I can\u2019t help but notice that this isn\u2019t just a problem in moral choices. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6619,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/emotionalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":55228,"position":3},"title":"Emotionalism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 20:18-38 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we look at the various denominations around us, it is hard to miss their enthusiasm and the emotional quality to the things that they do. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They really get involved in their worship. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The bigger churches services are large productions. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A friend once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60784,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/of-moods-and-motivation\/","url_meta":{"origin":55228,"position":4},"title":"Of Moods and Motivation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jason Moore There are days I don't feel like working. There are days when I'm around people that I don't want to be. I'd rather not smile. I'd rather be alone and not be bothered. Moods are peculiar things. Like the weather, they're hard to predict. They are affected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50776,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-pray-when-i-dont-feel-like-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":55228,"position":5},"title":"How do I pray when I don’t feel like it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been good at praying. Recently though, I just feel like my prayer life is going downhill. It started with my nightly devotion and now with my morning devotion. I am just not in the mood to pray. I know how important prayer is, so it worries me.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}