What Good Are Emotions?

Last updated on: October 24, 2011 at 8:55 am by Amy Julia Becker

What Good Are Emotions? 2011-10-24T08:55:25-04:00 Amy Julia Becker

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My mother-in-law used to have a list of “feeling words” on her refrigerator. They were accompanied by a fill-in-the-blank statement, “I feel _________ when you __________.” The idea was that you separate the way you feel from the person’s action instead of blaming them directly for your feelings while simultaneously expressing yourself. We used to tease her about it, but years later I’m also grateful for that simple training in direct communication.

Our pastor has been preaching about emotions for a few weeks now. Fear. Guilt. Sorrow. Anger. Joy. (Full disclosure–until yesterday, either Peter or I had to spend the entire service in the nursery with Marilee, so I haven’t actually heard all of these sermons.) He’s talked about the value of emotions and the problems of allowing faith to exist purely in the rational realm.

When we were driving away from church last week, Peter said, “One thing it makes me think about is that emotions are always an invitation to pray.” I think about Paul’s exhortations to pray “in all circumstances.” I think of the Psalms–laments, diatribes, songs of praise.

I’ll try to be a little more creative than my mother-in-law’s formulation of it, but I’m grateful for her simple model of how to express what I’m feeling. Even more, I’m grateful for the invitation and the reminder that our emotions–positive or negative–are also opportunities to better know the living God.

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