Sir Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)

In everyone of us the deepest emotions are constantly caused by some
absurdly trivial thing, or by nothing at all. Conversely, the great
things in our lives — the true occasions for wrath, anguish, rapture,
what not — leave us quite calm.

Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881)

Respect in yourself the oscillations of feelings: they are your life
and your nature; a wiser than you made them.

George MacDonald (1824-1905)

There is no feeling in a human heart that exists in that heart alone
— which is not in some form or degree, in every heart.

Joseph Collins (1866-1950)

By starving emotions we become humorless, rigid and sterotyped; by
repressing them we become literal, reformatory and holier-than-thou;
encouraged, they perfume life; discouraged, they poison it.

Thoughts:

What stimulated Jesus’ anger?

How is this related to Jesus’ love?

How is the anger of Jesus like or unlike the anger we most often
feel?

Does the Bible present anger as an essential characteristic of God?
Psalm 85:2-3, Psalm 78:38, Psalm 30:5

What effect does exhaustion have in handling emotions?

How can "acting a part" help us feel the way we want to
feel — more self assured in a trying situation, more cheerful when
things go wrong?

Strategies to beat bad moods:

Smile to cheer yourself up Relax to reduce anxiety or fear Look your
best to increase self-confidence Keep cool in a crisis Understanding our
own behavior Attitude affects behavior and behavior affects attitude and
can be more complex than what appears on the surface.

When we read the Psalms, and see in them our own emotions and
struggles — we can find a GREAT release. It is all right to be human!
It is all right to be ourselves! We do not have to fear what is within
us or squash the feelings out of life. — There is a way out. One
reason why emotions frighten us is because many people do not know how
to express or release them. In our culture, the recognition and
expression of feelings are not encouraged — especially negative
feelings. Feelings are feared. To feel anger well up within and to feel
that we are on the verge of losing control is a frightening thing. For
Christians there is the added pressure of the notion that it’s morally
wrong to feel anger or sense tension. "If only I were a ‘good’
Christian" we tell ourselves or "If only I were really
trusting the Lord." So we feel guilt over the emotions which well
up inside, and all too often, we deny this very important aspect of our
own "personhood."

In studying Psalms 73 we can see a process of working through
emotions. the writer begins with strong, almost uncontrollable emotions.
We see how he struggles with them and we see how he brings his feelings
to God, or relates them to what he knows of the Lord and His ways. In
the beginning — How hard it seemed! What good was it to be good?
Frustration, envy, self-pity as he faces his inner state. Then — he
tried to think the problem through, but "it was oppressive to
me." He went to God to pray in his sanctuary and God gave him an
answer by focusing him on the sinner’s destination. This new perspective
changed the writers feelings. His past feelings were "senseless and
ignorant, I was a brute beast before You." His emotions did not
accurately reflect reality. Yet when God showed Asaph reality, his
emotions changed. v 23-26

Real life always holds struggles for us. There is nothing wrong with
them — they are not bad, they are a part of being a human being. The
honor of being a Child of God is that, because we know God, our emotions
can be brought into harmony with reality. We can face all our feelings
and still find the freedom to be ourselves with God as we allow His
gentle transformation as we grow towards all that we want to become.