I have an excerpt from Ms. Joyce Meyer who happens to be my advisor without her knowing. I love her book and it teaches me so much about life and decisions. I hope You can learn from this post.
Who’s the Boss, You or Your Emotions?
by Joyce Meyer
The daily ups and downs of our emotions are one of the major struggles we have with our relationships. Instead of riding the emotional roller coaster, we need to become stable, solid, steadfast, persevering and determined people. If we continue to let our emotions rule over us, there’s no way we’ll ever be the person we were meant to be. Of course, none of us will ever be totally rid of emotions, but we must learn to manage and control them—not let them control us. Life is no fun when we are controlled by feelings. Feelings change from day to day, hour to hour, even moment to moment. Not only do they change, they lie. For example, you may be in a crowd of people and feel that everybody is talking about you, but that doesn’t mean they are. You may feel that nobody understands you, but that doesn’t mean they don’t. You may feel you are misunderstood, unappreciated or even mistreated, but that doesn’t mean it is true. If we want to be mature, disciplined people, we must be determined not to walk according to what we feel. People often ask me, “How can I know for sure whether I’m walking in the truth or walking according to my feelings and emotions?” I believe the answer is found in patience. Emotions urge us toward haste, telling us that we must do something and do it right now! But godly wisdom tells us to wait until we have a clear picture of what it is we are to do and when we are to do it. We need to be able to back off and view our situation from God’s perspective. We need to make decisions based on what we know rather than on what we feel.
Let me give you an example from my own life. One time I had saved up money to invest in real estate to buy a house and lot of my own. I keep asking all my friends and family members for any property listings and contacts and I were into surfing one day whom I happened to read some property listings so I decided to contact the person to view the property. After seeing the photos attached I fell in love with the property and said to myself this is what I am looking for but there was one problem if Im going to purchase it I will lose all the cash I have and I don’t know exactly how long it will take me to make it an income giving property. My plan was to have an income-generating property because I don’t want to work for somebody anymore. At the same time I needed some money to get me thru to the months because I will be quitting my Job. The decision were critical because I was working against time. As there are another couple who really wants to purchase the same property. Actually there were three things I wanted that time: the house and lot, quitting my Job and I wanted not to be broke. What did I decide to do? I applied wisdom and decided to wait. The property—which really in everyday affairs there is always an opportunity to buy and sell property. The work- which will give me wisdom and daily experiences and interactions with friends and colleagues everyday rather than quitting and just waiting an income from a property. So I decided that the best thing was to keep my money and wait until I was sure of what I wanted most. Usually the wisest course is, when in doubt, don’t decide! When faced with any difficult decision, wait until you have a clear answer before taking a step that you may regret. Emotions are wonderful, but they must not be allowed to take precedence over wisdom and knowledge. Remember—control your emotions instead of letting them control you.
