Dealing with Emotional Temptations

Two weeks ago was pretty tough for me (Darren). I was experiencing a variety of small frustrations, and three frustrations that felt very big to me:

• I couldn't communicate with anyone.
• We couldn't find contact information to visit members of the church or people who had shown interest in learning about the church.
• My leg around my ankle started hurting badly after a run, enough that I was limping when I walked. From the symptoms, the internet was saying to plan on a 12 week recovery with no running!

At times I was feeling useless and hopeless. Sometimes staying in bed even sounded appealing.

I feel these types of thoughts and feelings are emotional temptation.

Churches often talk about sins, both of omission and commission and temptations to commit sin. I think it is less often that we talk about emotional temptation, but I think they all go hand in hand.

I believe that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are actual beings who know us individually and love us, and want us to learn and grow and be happy in this life and in eternity. I believe they gave us commandments to help us to find that happiness. Keeping the commandments helps us avoid many of the traps that steal freedom and happiness, and helps us draw closer to God so we can better receive his help and guidance.

I also believe that Satan (the devil) is real and hates us and wants us to be miserable. He doesn't care how he accomplishes that. He is happy when we become self-righteous and prideful, or when we break commandments. He is also happy when we forget our divine identity, or become depressed and despondent. In any of the above situations he can lead us towards misery and unhappiness and away from God.

Satan's purposes and goals are in direct opposition to the purposes and goals of God and Jesus Christ.

This all leads into my approach to these types of feelings -- these emotional temptations.

When I feel emotional temptations I fight them. I think of Satan trying to tempt me to be miserable and  I consciously refute him and those tempting thoughts. "No that is not true." or "That is not what I really want." "God loves me even when I don't feel I'm succeeding." I try and focus on other good things and not dwell on my frustrations. I acknowledge the negative thoughts that I feel, but find other positive thoughts and feelings to dwell on. I also pray for help to deal with what is frustrating me and the frustrating feelings themselves. And, I just keep moving forward, trying to focus on one little thing at a time.

I survived that difficult week, it was challenging, but not overwhelming, and my three big frustrations are less frustrating now. We have learned multiple ways to get contact information and it is not as much of a problem. My leg is feeling a lot better and I've done some short easy runs without pain. I still can't communicate but I see a little bit of progress.

I can see that I am much better at handling emotional temptations now than when I was younger. Interestingly, the cleaning I detailed in the last post was also a help. It was physical and could be broken into steps. I could see the results and be focused on that rather than on being frustrated with other things that I couldn't immediately solve.

I want to point out that there are times when these approaches are not enough by themselves. There are times when we need additional help. We can get additional help from our families and friends, and from professional counseling and from medications. God has given us all those resources to help us find happiness and all have their place.

This is all part of life. We are here to experience the good and the bad, the temptations and the joy. There are no magic pills or prayers that will solve all our problems. We are here to learn and grow and progress! In the end, we can all be healed and fulfilled through the perfect and eternal healer, Jesus Christ.