Up on the wall in my third grader’s classroom is the “word of the week”, visceral. The definition given to my daughter and her class mates is “characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect”. I’m not sure how a third grader grasps the understanding of this word, but it sure caught my attention. I’ve been thinking lately about our responses to things that happen in our daily lives. Sometimes those responses are led by emotion and other times by our minds. When hurtful events occur in our lives it is natural to respond with emotion, but often times that emotion can cause pain for someone else. When a child disobeys, a spouse disappoints or a friend neglects, we may feel justified in yelling (especially if we are tired) or inflicting pain in one way or another. We may in fact choose to wrongly believe that we couldn’t have responded in any other way. But the truth is that as soon as we make that conscience decision to engage our minds and let our intellect lead, the emotion we feel can be used for good and not for harm.
There may be a hundred factors that lead to someone responding with their emotions leading, but when a person is able to engage in self-control and respond thoughtfully, the potential for the infliction of pain is greatly diminished and the ability to bless others increases dramatically. Granted, we don’t always want to bless those that hurt us, but someone I know real well by the name of Jesus did this over and over again and He impacted the world for many generations to come.
Jill Johnson 
Very thought provoking. Unfortunately we can’t go back and think about our two choices and respond effectively. We can only try, in the future, to calm our bodies and think before speaking.
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I think I need to start a notebook, âShort Essays by our Daughter, Jillâ. You have become a great and interesting author! Your ability to have a listening heart/ear to the Holy Spirit, your life experiences and being an avid reader, have all helped you to be able to write creatively. Each piece gives something to think about and apply.
Your proud MomJ
JoAnn J
Note new email address:
JoAnn@JoAnnWestover.com
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The ending to this was very appreciated. My first reaction before reading the ending was that I didn’t want to be a bigger person lol…and then your ending called that out. It’s important to remember that we are representatives of Him…in all that we do.
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Your quality of writing capturing your inner soul (listening to the Holy Spirit) and putting it in words could be the beginnings of authoring a book. Dad
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Ya know, when you write like this it almost makes me see all those lessons you’re trying to teach me.
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