Website owner: James Miller
From whence come emotional and mental problems? Why are so many people so deeply confused and unhappy in this life? I believe the answer lies deep in attitudes, viewpoints and values. Confusion, unhappiness, and emotional problems come from wrong attitudes, viewpoints and values. What kind of attitudes and viewpoints are we talking about? Attitudes and viewpoints pertaining to what? Attitudes and viewpoints relating to God, to Right and Wrong, to ourselves, and to other people. Man is different from the rest of creation. He is different from the other animals. He is a moral creature. He has within him the knowledge of right and wrong. For mental balance and health he must live true to that knowledge. He must be firm in following Right. At the same time he must maintain the proper attitudes and feelings toward humanity about him. He must strike the right tone in his relationships with them. He cannot allow himself to be influenced for evil by them on the one hand. On the other hand he cannot allow himself to turn against them, be angry at them, hate them or dislike them. He must walk a fine line. His first love must be to God and to all that is honest, decent, right and good. But he must also be able to understand and love his fellow man in spite of all the badness that he sees in him. He must be independent minded enough to walk a separate path from his fellow man and at the same time he has to be a true friend to him. He must honestly love him and yet not be influenced by him. He walks a tightrope. If he forsakes God and his knowledge of Right and Wrong he gets into trouble (emotional trouble). And if he turns against his fellow man he gets into trouble. He must be a true and honest friend of both God and his fellow man. In spite of all the abuse, scorn and ridicule his fellow man may heap upon him. It is a tricky maneuver. God has said "You must love your neighbor" and it is in fact critical to mental health. Surrounded on all sides by a Satan- led society whose priorities and values are all confused and wrong you must be strong and independent thinking enough to find the right priorities and values and to adhere to them. You must dare to be different and to walk a separate and lonely road for you will find few, if any, companions on it. Yet, on that road, you will find emotional health, mental balance, happiness --- and friendship too. For man has within him a good side as well as a bad side. Apr 1987
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