This Week's Quotation:
Resist anything that leads to moodiness. Our prayer each day should be, “Let the joy of the Lord be my strength.”
~Mother Teresa
Moods Be Gone
Jerry Kvasnicka, Wired for Love
How often do we find ourselves excusing behavior that is less than life-enhancing by simply saying, “Oh, I was in a bad mood”? Or we observe disgraceful behavior in another person and we quickly excuse it as being the result of a bad mood that we assume is just temporary and will disappear once the person gets back on track.
It might be the flare-up of an old resentment. Or a night without much sleep. Or simply the deteriorating condition of the world. Does this or anything else justify projecting a foul attitude to anyone we might happen to encounter in the course of a day?
I think it all comes down to control. What is controlling our expression? Is it our emotional state? Emotions are instruments of perception and we can habitually react to all kinds of sensations and feelings our emotions bring to us. But how silly and life-defeating to react to information that is conveyed to us by our emotional messenger!
The remedy is what has been called “emotional intelligence,” i.e. no matter what we feel, we continue to be controlled by the Truth of who we are, what I would call the Ordering Power of Love, the Angelic Reality at the core of our being. We no longer slip into emotional control by bad moods or even good moods.
This releases our emotions to be what they were created to be: simply ways of experiencing life and energizing the flow of Love through us. Banishing moods is really quite simple, just let the Love that you are flow uninterrupted and no matter how you feel, greet everyone you encounter with a smile.
About Open Windows
We, the authors of this blog, dedicate it to the transparent exploration of the world's sacred scripture and enlightened spiritual thought. We believe that the original inspiration of all faiths comes from a common source, named and revered in a myriad of ways. With that understanding, the innumerable symbols, beliefs, and practices of faith cease to divide. They become open windows to a common reality that inspires and unifies us. We find deeper insight and nourishment in our own faith and from the expression of faith from others.
We hope these weekly quotations and meditations speak to your heart and soul.
Well spoken, Jerry. Good advice as always. “He mood” should describe a cow, not me 🙂 Positive spirit does not mean being in denial about pain and inner agitation …. but I need not vomit these feelings all over others in the vicinity. We have all known people who are emotionally up and down like a roller-coaster. God counts on us (like an abacus) to be reliably UP to shine the light in a world of darkness. How can others count on us for inspiration, orientation, and leadership if they don’t know whether we will be running cold or hot on any given day that they hope to see us? Thanks for your thoughts on this — and for your own UPPP example. Love, Tom C.