Emotions in battle mode?

I have had those moments when I just wanted to say or doing something, but if I did, I knew the backlash would be more than I wanted to receive. It is a battle of the mind and will over emotions at times, isn't it? We 'think better' than our emotions tend to lead us on occasion - perhaps making 'emotions' one of the hardest and most fickle things we have to deal with once we get our mind under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. Doing wrong is easy - doing right is a bit harder at times. Behavior matters, no matter what anyone says - behavior stems from all three - mind, will and emotions.

Doing wrong leads to disgrace, and scandalous behavior brings contempt. (Proverbs 18:3)

Back in the day, teachers used to give out little 'awards' to students with great academic achievements, including those who consistently exhibited good 'classroom behavior'. As you might have guessed, I might have received a few notes home to mom saying I was a bit of the class clown. She may not have put it that way, but it was my mode of operation in elementary school, somewhat in middle school, then full-blown in high school! I really didn't consider my behavior wrong, it was just silly, sometimes a bit inappropriate, but it got people to laugh. I thought if they laughed at my weirdness, I wouldn't be so 'weird' to them.

My emotions were all over the place in those days. I didn't think anyone really liked me, maybe because I didn't like myself. I was using sarcasm, 'funny actions', and the like to cover over being very insecure. It wasn't until I invited Jesus into my life that I began to realize those 'emotions' I was telling myself were true and honest appraisals of how others saw me were actually quite wrong. All my 'class clown' actions were just driving them away - even though they laughed. Sometimes we 'do' things thinking they will have a different effect than they actually do. We count on them to accomplish something, but it kind of backfires on us.

It might be hard to hear this, but God is very concerned with our behavior. He wants it to reflect his grace and love, even when it is hard to let those 'actions' outweigh what our emotions are telling us to do at that moment. His hope is that we will let emotions lead us less and less, trusting his Holy Spirit to lead us into right actions even when the mind, will, and emotions are in 'battle mode' against each other. Just sayin!