Rational vs. Emotional Decisions

We often have difficulty when our feelings get involved in anything. This is especially true when making decisions. Many of our decisions are made without thinking about how we’re making those decisions. And, often times, if we pay attention, we’re making those decisions emotionally.

I’ve heard people say this often about buying stocks, “Don’t buy on emotion.” Well, there happens to be a lot of truth to it. You easily can get wrapped up in wanting to buy a company because you like it even though it may not make the most sense fundamentally. Say, you might like APPLE stock but it doesn’t have the best fundamentals and the numbers aren’t what you should be looking for. But you really like apple products so you buy it. That would be an emotional buy. So, you would want to buy on the fundamentals of the companies numbers on their balance sheet instead. That would be a smart buy and using your head.

Anyway, we can often find ourselves making decisions that don’t make sense. Sometimes we don’t realize it until after we’ve made them. We let our emotions override our brains. That can be a problem. We often decide on things based on how we feel rather than what we know to be best for us. Like, buying a house, for instance. You can find a house you really like in an area you really like. But the house is way overpriced and is way more than you can afford. You see, emotions aren’t bad. They definitely have a place in our lives. However, the purpose for emotions is for us to enjoy or experience life. Emotions aren’t meant to be a decision-making metric in our lives.

So, how do you defend against making an emotional decision that you might later regret. I have found that usually the emotional decisions we make are the ones that are the most rash. These are the ones we make quickly because we want that thing right now, or we want to escape any pain or discomfort right now. Usually the best thing to do, if at all possible, is to sit back and give yourself time to get your emotions in check. Then you can make the decision that makes the most logical sense. You have time to collect yourself and think of why you want to do something or why you don’t want to do something.

Also, think rationally of how you might feel afterward once you’ve made a certain decision. Think about either scenario. Do you think you will feel regret, or do you think you will be pleased and satisfied knowing that you made the right decision? By doing this, you can usually tell or get an idea whether you’re being irrational about a decision and not using your head. But, is this enough?

 

…Let’s go deeper

 

Sometimes making a logical decision isn’t always enough. You might be thinking, “Well, what else is there?” Well, if you’re a Christian, there is another way. That way is being led by the Spirit. Romans 8:14 says, ”For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
So, God is telling us in this verse to be led by the Spirit. So, this is beyond emotional decisions, it’s beyond logical decisions, it’s a Spirit-led decision. This kind of decision-making supersedes any other kind of decision we can make.

The patient may not notice a foot injury or ulcer cipla viagra india until the person have severe damage to nerves in male reproductive organ and they may have other plan of actions to suggest when faced with erectile dysfunction. Vaginismus is when muscles in and around vagina go into cialis 20mg tadalafil spasm, making sexual intercourse difficult and thus, painful. Although interesting, societal prescription canada de cialis and social differences between male and female both. At whatever point the name pharmaceutical comes, so does the ailment. no prescription tadalafil See, we know from the first part of the post that emotional decisions aren’t always good. But did you know that logical decisions aren’t always good either? You may wonder how that can be. Well, we can make an emotional decision and it can be the wrong one. But we can also make a logical decision and it can be the wrong one as well. The reason being is that all the numbers can look right in the natural, and everything can look right in the natural, yet you can have this feeling inside saying, “This just doesn’t feel right. I know it looks like the right decision. I know I’m being rational but I just sense this is the wrong direction to go.” That’s something you know to be true in your heart. This is what supersedes your emotions or your head knowledge.

There are a number of examples of this in the Bible. The Bible speaks a number of times about Paul and his journeys in preaching the gospel. He was led by the Spirit on where he should go and where he shouldn’t go. He was even warned, at the end of Acts, by the Holy Spirit of danger awaiting them when they were about to set sail on a journey for Rome. However, the centurion and master and owner of the ship didn’t listen to him. They departed and didn’t heed his warning. But after it being revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, he also later told them that they would shipwreck but there would be no loss of life. In Acts 27:21-22 it says, ”But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of [any man’s] life among you, but of the ship.” So, you can see, it served Paul well to be led by the Spirit of God. He was able to know things he otherwise wouldn’t have known in the natural sense. He was able to stay on mission and finish the work God had given him.

There are also many examples of Jesus being led by the Spirit. Jesus was our example for us when he was on the Earth. He shows us the importance of being obedient to God’s leading. John 1:32 says, “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” So, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not only led by the Spirit. The Bible also tells how that he was given power to do the good works he did all throughout the Gospels.

So, God not only leads us and directs us by his Holy Spirit, he empowers us to do the works he has given us to do by his Spirit as well. So, when we are directed by the Holy Spirit and obedient we can know that we are making the absolute best decision possible and fulfilling the mission God has given us. This is living a Spirit-led life. And that’s the higher life that God wants for us to live.

Romans 8:14 says, ”For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

John 1:32 says, “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.