The Feelings Deceive

"Feelings are much more powerful than our rational mind."
Isaiah Henkel

This is the reason I am convinced that the devil can create jealousy and angry actions within us during our most emotional times.

"Feelings" come and go, they are not reality or based on facts. Since they can be easily manipulated by others and by difficulties in life, we must make "choices" to evaluate our own feelings to see if they are accurate or something we should ignore entirely.

The evidence that feelings are not accurate is seen when we watch a heart wrenching movie. Sometimes we cry during a movie that has tender or profound events in them, but the story is not real, its acting and has not happened to us, and yet we cry. Our feelings are telling us that the movie events are happening to us, but they are not.

When someones says something to us or does something for us we can interpret what is said or done in terms of our own feelings at the time, often having nothing to do with what was meant by the words or actions of the other person.

When someone is held in low regard or with contempt, everything they do will be seen as bad or stupid. When someone is held in high regard and in godlike status, everything they do will be seen as special and perfect.

If someone is an angry person they may interpret an instruction meant to be helpful, negatively because they are expecting praise, the instruction is perceived as demeaning or mocking when it was not at all intended to convey this.

A joyful person who is not angry or in a bad mood will hear the same instruction as the angry person, but receive it with thanks, feeling the instruction was very helpful.

When pride and jealousy are present in someone, they are far more likely to interpret everything as an insult when it comes from the person for whom they have contempt.

When we can interpret things in truth rather than being led by feelings, we will be able to discern the intent in our interactions with others.

Selfish and indulgent parents who have a "golden child", the favored one who can do no wrong and a "scapegoat child", the one who can do no right, they are interpreting their likes and dislikes toward the children based on their feelings.

No one is all bad or all good, but the selfish parent will believe by their feelings that one child is accepted and the other not, based on how they feel around that child. There can be no sensible and rational evaluation of the needs of the children when they have been assigned roles based on feelings.

The Golden child makes the selfish parent feel special by his continual agreement with the parent. The Scapegoat child is devalued because he has an authentic personality not dictated by what others want him to be. Selfish parents are continually dominated by feelings over reality.

Selfish parents want their children to be just like them, thinking like them, walking like them without a sense of individual personality. Often the favored child becomes a narcissist because he or she is indulged and praised excessively in the family, they grow up to expect this in their adult years.

The scapegoated child is excessively mocked, demeaned and devalued to the point of causing doubt in them, making them believe they are incapable of success.

The subject of this post is mostly concerned with feelings. When we are dominated and motivated by feelings we will not only make mistakes we will destroy relationships and inhibit progress in spiritual growth

The Golden child "feels" a sense of superiority, that in reality does not support reality. His feelings leave him assessing his activities as highly successful when in truth they are not nearly as productive as the golden child chooses to believe.

The Scapegoat child "feels" a sense of inferiority that in reality does not support reality. Often the scapegoat believes their accomplishments are not worthy of mention or encouragement, this is what they have been trained to believe about themselves by narcissistic parents.

When an entire culture has moved from the rational to the irrational, we will see an emphasis on feelings that defy reality. Silly and petty actions and reactions will be the norm, welcome to our world now.

2 Timothy 3:1-5
"3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."