Teacher to Teacher, October 2008

Emotions Are Not the Enemy Every human being experiences the ebb and flow of emotion. Some ride an extremely tempestuous emotional ocean; others try to keep their feelings submerged. Teachers not only have to understand their own “mood tides “ but also need to be wisely aware of how students under their care are faring as well. Below is an excerpt from Ron Horton’s Mood Tides: Divine Purpose in the Rhythms of Life, a study of emotions as a natural and intended part of God’s plan for completing us as Christians. I t is true, and deserves emphasis, that even the good things of creation, those God Himself cares for and cares about, can become sinful preoccupations if our love for them is allowed to outrank our love for God. Music is a worthy love but not if it is loved more than God. Children ought to be loved as God loves them, but even parental love can be idolatrous if it exceeds a love for God. And so it is with all our worthy attachments. “Lovest thou me more than these?” was the searching question put to Peter by the Savior (John 21:15). It is evil to worship and serve the creation more than the Creator (Rom. 1:25), even in things legitimate and benign. Yet Scripture sanctions an affection for the natural goods that come to us from above, fleeting as they may be, if we receive them gratefully and in a wisely discriminating way. Duties derive from loves and are coranked with them. This truth was available to Israel long before it was page 6 Teacher to Teacher | October 2008 restated by Jesus. When challenged by a Pharisee to enunciate the first commandment in the Law—the highest of all duties—Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4–5. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” He coupled the first commandment with a second commandment “like unto” the first, quoting from Leviticus 19:18: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Having conjoined these duties from the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus underscored their fundamental, all-inclusive importance. “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40). That matters of duty are matters of love was reiterated by Paul, when he wrote that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10). A proper ordering of loves justifies and even enforces love in proper scale for all objects to which God has assigned value. The love of God requires the love of one’s neighbor, and the love of one’s neighbor requires as a benchmark the love of one’s self. The love of one’s body is a benchmark for the love of one’s wife (Eph. 5:28–29). The implications are vast. Until a man loves God supremely, he cannot love his wife and children http://www.bjupress.com/product/251082

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