Feelings, a way forward

I must say, I didn't use to think much about feelings. I'm an American male, in my 60s, and was raised with the ideas that crying was for females, that touchy-feely stuff was for females, that feelings were 'getting in touch with my female side.' You get it; feelings are for girls. And hey, I'm macho. That means I don't have to feel anything, and if I do feel something, it's going to get me in trouble sometime. So, "how do I feel?" Who cares!

Then I began reading some books on the subject. I do have more time for reading I suppose. The one that got me started was Peter Scazzero's book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ, which I review here. Emotionally healthy. Such an odd phrase for a 60s male. And Scazzero mentions that in his book!  I have believed and lived in the understanding that there are three components of the soul of man, that is, the will, the intellect and the emotion. And since I was right-brained, and academic, I focused my life on the intellect, and left my emotions to... um... to ... well, outside the box.

But Scazzero challenged me and I've been reading much on the subject since then. Seriously I had no answer to the monkey at the beginning. But now, I have a larger range to which I can allow myself to visit and sometimes even linger. There are levels of feelings and deep considerations of my emotional makeup. King David even mentioned that God, our shepherd, "restoreth my soul."

Does that mean I'm going down the road of self-help literature and self-centered emotional belly-gazing? Not at all. It means I'm reading anything and everything to learn about the 'me' God wants me to be. It means that feelings, which have a part of our lives, can be part of our lives! I'm not going to be controlled by feelings, but I'm going to let them have their place. King David, who certainly knew how to make God happy, .. Wait a minute. What? God can be happy? Pleased? Emotional? Yes, ma'am! See the link here. 

Not everyone will agree that these 'feelings' are emotions, but have a read at this website image about emotions, and see what you think? And then, take a few minutes and pray... ask God to show you about your own feelings? Evaluate yourself on the basis of those feelings? Are you doing ok? Are you needing some alone time with God to straighten some things out?

Of course, living in the feeling realm can be dangerous, can't it? We often make decisions that are feelingism, the belief that our feelings are paramount and must be obeyed.
feelings based. In the 21st century, people are often making decisions based on how they feel. "I feel offended that you told me..." "I want to be happy, so I'm leaving this (job, marriage, church...)" It could be well-titled



So with that as a warning, a boundary, if you will. What do you feel when you see this image?

  or this one?

It's a good exercise for you. 

It's a good exercise for me. 

Let's do this together and grow in that part of our soul. 

I hope you enjoy this.  Or do you have another feeling you want to express just now?