One of my Seabury neighbors told me my "Generosity" post got him thinking... and feeling GUILTY!!! We laughed. But I got to thinking: guilt isn't from God (that's right, my Lutheran and Roman Catholic brothers and sisters...).
I think guilt might be from the devil, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Guilt makes us feel like we're "bad" people, that we've messed up, that we don't deserve love. I think God wants us to know that we have power, that we're loved, and that even though we've messed up something, we can start over, again and again.
We have power!!! Let's use it. To free up our own lives so we can feel God's love for us, and to to help other people have better lives and realize that God loves them, too. Guilt just mires us in uckiness.
(Hopefully I haven't made anyone feel guilty for feeling guilty, here.)
yeah, i struggle with this. every emotion is useful i think--and isn't guilt an emotion? or maybe not...but every emotion tells us something. but i have long taught and tried to incorporate guilt being useless... i don't know, thanks for making me think about it again.
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