by Diana Howard

Created on: January 24, 2009   Last Updated: May 29, 2011

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Emotions are given by God and are necessary for our preservation and our health.  I do not believe that trusting God requires that we remove the emotional component from whatever experience we are facing, rather emotions should be controlled by what we value and by what we actually believe.

Imagine that you are a little child and you are facing the kitchen stove.  The flame on the burner is lit and is as fascinating to you as any serpent.  Your hand reaches out and ouch!...you get burned.  You have never been burned before, and have never even been toid about it, prior to the incident.  Therefore you had no emotions connected to the act of  "being burned" one way or another...just an insatiable curiosity  Now, what if mother had told you that the stove would hurt you.  Upon approaching the stove, you woud automatically feel fear...that is if you believed what your mother said and valued her warnings.

Throughout my life,  my emotions have tripped me up and and various times, making  it virtually impossible to simply trust Christ.  I was raised in a upper middle class home, by a chronic worrywart,  during a time when money and possessions were people's motivation for getting up in the morning. As all young children are, I was encouraged to get an education, so that I could join the herd of individuals who, like lemmings, leave school only to jump into excess, greed and debt; all in the hopes of finding fulfillment and achieving a better life. My mother wanted me to marry and have children and so did my grandfather, who every year would bet me a box of cookies that I would be married by the end of that year.  If these things are your focus...you're already in trouble.  Face it, we are told that if we follow the social formula of our culture, that those things that we achieve will sustain us and bring us happiness...value and acceptance. 

I fed on these lies for nineteen years and then thankfully I discovered Jesus before it was too late. I had a deep love for God as a child, yet I didn't understand the full Gospel.  I was still living in the "performance" mode and thought my own goodness and adherance to my religion, (which shall remain namless) would get me heaven and the "good" life on earth.  Now, I discovered that instead of a religion, I had a Savior, Brother and Best Friend, who loved me so much that He left His throne in heaven

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