You can’t always follow just your heart.

For those who know me, they know that I love the bachelor.  I know it is pretty terrible moral wise and not that realistic, but it is amazing drama television.  I don’t like drama in my life, but I need a bit of it in my television shows. However, this last bachelor, Peter Weber, had a phrase that drove me crazy, and that was “I am just following my heart.”  Now, although that is a standard phrase for the show, I will say that this bachelor would use this phrase a lot more than other bachelors and especially after he made a significant mistake or would ignore red flags.  This of course would leave me yelling at the television, “Don’t just follow your heart. You need to listen to your brain. You can’t just make decisions on your emotions.”

Now while this show is not supposed to be serious and not supposed to be something I take to heart, the idea of always following your heart can sometimes be a problem that myself and others can fall into.  This is the idea that emotions determine a lot of our decisions. When we are angry, there are times we can jump to doing or saying something that we will later regret. The Bible has some verses that also showcase this concept.  

In Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” This sounds like a harsh verse, but it is really just a very honest reflection on how our heart can easily lead us astray.  This is especially our heart that is made of flesh from our human emotions. There are times when our heart can lead us to incredible anger, frustration, hurt, and any other kind of emotion that soon can turn into sin or hurting someone else.  

Another verse comes from Proverbs 28:26 “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” Now although I said that you have to listen to your brain, your brain and therefore mind can often also be under the influence of emotions.  The emotions can cloud your judgement in both your brain and heart. The point is to listen to the wisdom that you have developed from the Lord that will help you guide the right decisions that you should make, even when you are under the influence of emotions.   

This also can come to decisions in our lives.  Getting back to the bachelor, he (or she on the bachelorette) is trying to pick out his wife or the woman that he wants to be with for the rest of his life.  That is a major life decision, and if you are focusing this solely on feelings and emotions as opposed to whether or not you are a good match, then the love may not fully last your whole life.  

Now while emotions are not a bad thing, in fact they are completely healthy.  The Lord has blessed us with feelings such as happiness, sadness, joy, peace, and even frustration, especially godly frustration.  We are not made to be robots that do not feel, but we are people who can experience all of the life moments to their completeness. However, overreacting to those emotions and letting your emotions take over before you adequately think about things and make wise decisions.   We need to be able to feel the things that we feel. That is how we live life to the fullest. Being told not to feel emotions, doest really make the emotions go away, but rather that just leads to stifling or muting what is really there. Emotions are a positive thing, but should not be a main reason or way we make decisions because that ultimately will lead unwise decisions.  

I have especially learned that this year as I have become a teacher.  I have learned that there are times when I need to step away from a student or a situation when I am starting to get upset.  I know that there are times when I need to step away from certain students, so I will not get angry with them. I know there are times I have to choose to talk to students after class, as to get rid of my anger and be put in a situation that is calmer and more productive.  However, I still have a lot to learn when it comes to this. There are still times I will get upset with a student before I give myself the chance to calm down. This is something that I have been growing in as my first year of teaching is ¾ done. This is also something that I hope to grow in more and more each year in my teaching career.  I will be continuing to pray over my emotions.