ACTION

Well, I guess it is quite real and practical to be talking about mastery over emotions. For me, I think that the most important step is the Acknowledge your emotions part. Being Christians and conscious about the need to be "good", sometimes we may find ourselves trying to psycho ourselves not to feel in a certain way. Which is a "good" attempt, but without dwelling too much into it, I think it is weird. Feelings are feelings. How can you control them? What you can control is your response towards them.

Just to give an example. Take a student worrying over an exam. Now, is it of any use trying to feel peaceful? Certainly not. Don't lie to yourself. Rather, what can be done is to trust in the Lord. That you can control. And as for the peace of the Lord, it is an external peace - from the Lord. But if we do not acknowledge to God that we are worried, then perhaps, just perhaps, we will not experience the peace that God can give.

I don't like to debate / discuss / talk about these, because it is just so difficult to see where your will ends and where emotion begins. How far can you control, and how far is beyond your control? What constitutes an attitude, an action or an emotion? I have no idea where each ends and the next begins.

I guess it is very vague and fuzzy when we discuss hypothetical situations and think about hypothetical responses. It is quite a practical chapter. Only when we are "Out There", then we will really know what it means. Sure, there is this much we can prepare, by reading the Bible, by praying, by setting our sights on Jesus. But thats the dressing room. The play only starts when we get into the situations.

The Lord is faithful. If we are serious about honoring God with our responses, He will guide us through it.

Greet all people in transit. Many difficulties you are facing. I pray that you will all go through it closer with the Lord.