Feelings,woe woe woe,Feelings (it's an old '70's song)

Day 4 reading assignment:
Gen 8:1-10:32
Matt 4:12-25
Psalm 4:1-8
Proverbs 1:20-23

I got an email today from someone very dear to me.  Time and divorce separated us from a bond we formed when she was just a little girl.  We became Facebooks friends this year but we never communicated directly.  I learned through Facebook that she was about to be married and I have wanted to contact her but I felt she wouldn't want to take the time to get reacquainted.  I felt it was best to just follow her through Facebook (not in a stalker-y way) and keep my distance.  So when her email arrived today I was more than ecstatic.  Then to learn that she (and at least 4 other people) actually read this blog was fun as well.

I know better than to rely on my feelings for anything.  My feelings make me cry at feminine hygiene commercials for Pete's sake!  My feelings, and the tears that accompany them are nothing less than a curse to me.  My husband says I just simply feel too much.  He's right of course.  It is why I don't like to go to church, or to weddings, first days of school, graduations, retirement parties, airports or anyplace there is music.  It's embarrassing.  It involves swollen eyes, a big red nose and a lot of snot.

My daughters know when they see my tears coming, they are to do whatever it takes to diffuse it.  Their standard line for these times is; "Oh mommy your butt looks huge in those pants."  This usually works and I pull myself back together.  I have based many bad decisions on feelings only to realize after the fact that the feelings changed.  I know many people who made BIG decisions completely based on feelings they did or didn't have .  Marriages and families have been destroyed because a spouse no longer felt love for the other.

First of all, while love produces feelings, love is a choice.  In a healthy marriage both partners wake up everyday and choose to love each other.  Granted there are some days one or both of them are merely behaving the way they wish they felt and good for them because eventually their hearts will get back on board again.  Secondly,  feelings are fickle.  They are not accurate measures of the rightness or wrongness of an action.

What does this have to do with today's reading? (you 4 readers out there ask)  Absolutely nothing.  One of the joys of seeing squirrels is the chronic randomness it causes.  I loved todays reading assignment and I may or may not comment on it on another day. For today, this one is for you Denae.  I hope you always choose love. xox



"The best romance is inside the marriage;
 The finest love stories come after the wedding, not before."
                                                                         -Irving Stone-