Bible Study

I figured that since I already KNOW this will make my life easier, I'm going to actually do it. Thus, we open the Bible...

And, we happen upon Isaiah 12.

Hmmm, interesting.

Is. 12 1 "In that day you will say: 'I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. 2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.' 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 In that day you will say: 'Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. 5 Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. 6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.'"

Wow... Verse two is really important to me at the moment. I've been all uptight and stressed and... at its most basic... stupid lately. "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation."

A few points I want to emphasize here... First, I really do have to choose to trust God and not fear. Many times this comes naturally. Lately, not so much. The wording that reminds me that it's a choice is the combination of "Surely" and "I will". It's a reminder. Yes, God is my salvation. He is that 'thing' that makes it possible to go through the days and nights without frustration, irritation, anger and self-pitty. And, I will trust Him. I choose to be free from fear.

For a long while I have been of the opinion that how/what someone feels is a matter of choice. This kind of emphasizes that to me. After all, one can choose to feel happy or sad. Someone else can't "make" you feel a certain way. Oh, don't get me wrong, other people can definitely be an influence, but at the very core of it, how one feels is a matter of personal choice.

For instance: The paternal parental unit can complain, whine, kvetch and futz around all he wants to. He can not, however, make me react. He can push the buttons (and believe me, he can push every single one of my buttons!!!), but I am the one who decides whether or not I react or act. If he makes some snide remark, I have the option of letting it go or getting uptight about it.

Ya know, as I think about it, I'm thinking that maybe that's what Forgiveness is all about. Besides, who is really negatively affected by self-pitty, anger and bitterness? The person harboring those emotions, that's who. If I don't want to feel self-pitty, angry and bitter, I have the option of choosing not to feel those things.

This: Emotions are, in my current opinion, reactionary. Most of human kind, again in my opinion, have a set of pre-programed emotional reactions. When someone smiles, a little piece of joy floats around. When you see something beautiful, that frequently brings out a sense of peace and happiness. Well, what happens if your programing got messed up early on in life? That's all the buttons really are. It's just a bit of pre-programed wiring. Push a button and get a response.

What would happen if I cut the wires? What would happen if I just made a unilateral decision to not be reactionary? And, what makes me think that this time this little infobit will stick? Since it seems to be familiar information, I'm thinking that I not only thought this before, but I've probably written about it before.

And, for that matter... don't you just love this stream of consciousness type stuff?

Regardless, how do I eliminate the strict button-reaction relationship? I must choose, every day, to guide my focus rather than being distracted by shiny stuff.

That said, there's something shiny outside. I must go investigate.

*chuckles*