Discussion Board

Overcoming Our Mood Swings

Are we condemned to be passive victims of our moods? Must we simply say: "I feel great today" or "I feel awful today," and require others to live with our moods?

Although it is very hard to control our moods, we can gradually overcome them by living a well-disciplined spiritual life. This can prevent us from acting out of our moods. We might not "feel" like getting up in the morning because we "feel" that life is not worth living, that nobody loves us, and that our work is boring. But if we get up anyhow, to spend some time reading the Gospels, praying the Psalms, and thanking God for a new day, our moods may lose their power over us.--Henri Nouwen

Pinkrose,
I find your posts very comforting.
Thank you,
Eva

"Although it is very hard to control our moods, we can gradually overcome them by living a well-disciplined spiritual life."

Discipline is perhaps my biggest hurdle. I am very undisciplined. Any ideas how to change that?

Michael

In regard to spiritual disciplines, Michael, for me this means choosing to do difficult things because I believe this will please God. Start with the right motivation/reason and see where that will take you (1 Thessalonians 2.4). Once you start regularly (daily) doing one difficult thing for Him, then you can add others.

So ask yourself: What is the most important difficult thing that God wants me to do daily? Then do whatever you believe He wants you to do. If you focus your mind and will on this very important practice, you can do it...and you will be blessed.

May Father bless you as you look up to Him.

Pink Rose,
I am listening to what you are saying because I really have need in this area also. I find it hard to keep my head clear of the noise in the whirl wind of things that need doing around me. Yesterday, I just forced myself to sit very still in a chair and kept repeating, "Be still and know that I am God" Most of the time I run around like a chicken with it's head cut off , but my head is still on. I can tell it is there because it hurts
Eva

Eva, that is a wonderful thought for meditation! I hope your head is feeling better now.

Perhaps you and Michael would enjoy this book:

http://product.half.ebay.com/Celebratio ... 85&tg=info

Pay as little attention to discouragement as possible. Plough ahead as the steamer does, rough or smooth - rain or shine. To carry your cargo and make your port is the point.

Maltbie D. Babcock

Great quote, Emmet! Thanks for sharing!

However, that advice is often very difficult to follow. I suppose that most teachers encounter a lot of resistance in various forms from their students. Of course this can be very discouraging. I try to focus on the few (sometimes only one or two) in a class who want to learn. I tell myself that I am here for them and I must give them my best. I find that this kind of self-talk helps.

In regard to education, we can do little with/for those who are not ready to learn. Let us focus on those who are interested.

Pinkrose, your thoughts about education made me think about something I learned/realized/heard while teaching as a grad assistant back in college (about 100 years ago

Teaching is like triage. Some will survive no matter what you do. Some just won't make it no matter what you do. And the rest depend on you to make it or not- A good teacher concentrates their best efforts on those!

I notice that their are McDougallers who respond to posts with each of those views- some who expect you to succeed no matter what, some who expect you to fail no matter what, and some who seek to encourage and teach, knowing that most of us are somewhere in the middle.

I, for one, always appreciate the encouragement.

Blessings,
Jubilee

"It is through dying to concern for self that we are born to new life with God and others; in such dying and rebirth, we find that life is lent to be spent; and in such spending of what we are lent, we find there is an infinite supply. -- Glenn Olds

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.

-- John Newton

Clinging to God in Solitude

When we enter into solitude to be with God alone, we quickly discover how dependent we are. Without the many distractions of our daily lives, we feel anxious and tense. When nobody speaks to us, calls on us, or needs our help, we start feeling like nobodies. Then we begin wondering whether we are useful, valuable, and significant. Our tendency is to leave this fearful solitude quickly and get busy again to reassure ourselves that we are "somebodies." But that is a temptation, because what makes us somebodies is not other people's responses to us but God's eternal love for us.

To claim the truth of ourselves we have to cling to our God in solitude as to the One who makes us who we are. --Henri Nouwen

Love all of these quotes.

Oh, George Mueller is my hero! I love his "Answers to Prayer" and consider it my textbook for faith filled petitions and intercessions. That man truly was gifted in faith.

Here's a nice one:

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."
- C.S. Lewis