are personal to each individual. Feelings, if we let them, ebb and flow with time.
Feelings can destroy friendships and marriages, especially when we choose to let
them stew and simmer in our minds.
Feelings are closely related to each other, and the difference between feelings are
often very minute. Love and hate our strongest emotions are often turned on and
off by the smallest of things. They are most vocal with those we love the most.
I love my wife, more than anyone else on this planet, but we can be joking with
each other and laughing together one minute and a single word or line can change
the mood. It is reflected instantaneously in our loved ones expression, we've hurt
them. Most times, these are caused by trigger words that push a certain button,
most times we aren't even aware, until the facial expressions change that we have
crossed a line.
Depending on our loved one, and our time and relationship with them, this
unintentional pain we caused can last for weeks, as we try and repair our
relationship with each other.
Feelings are surface emotions, truth on the other hand is more constant, more
stable. Jesus commanded us to love God and each other, that takes Jesus love out of
the feelings category and into the truth category.
I can choose to love anyone and treat them with love, even though my feelings
may hate them. That is why Jesus tells us to love and pray for our enemies. This
act takes the emotions out of the picture, and allows love to be a conscious decision.
All most all of us have family or friends that are addicted to something. The addict
plays with our emotions when dealing with them. They will tell us, we don't love
them if we don't give in to their addiction.
The truth is, if we really love them, we help them out of their addiction, instead of
re-enforcing their addictive behavior, whatever it is. Helping the addict recover is
true love, helping them feed their habit takes us back to feelings instead of truth.
As Christians, we bounce between feelings and truth, as we mature in Christ,
being ran by our feelings diminishes, as God's truth increases.
Agape love, God's love, unconditional love is a truth, not just a feeling!
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