We are continuing in our series Emotions: It’s Complicated; 5 Components of Emotional Intelligence.
*First week we checked out self-awareness. WHAT can come from this; not WHY is this happening.
*Second week we checked out self-regulation. Control self, EAR (easily influenced, act unbecoming, relationship death)
*Third week: Motivation - propels us to reach a goal…but looking at the lines instead of the spaces (thinking backwards about the process)
This week: Decision Making - the capacity to identify and make responsible choices. Good decision-making involves taking action while understanding and accepting the outcome.
You remember the story of the 3 amigos that were throw into a fire as a death penalty for refusing to bow down and worship the king of Babylon?
Well, Daniel 1-3 has the details if you’d care to read (and I would encourage you to do so). But here’s what stands out to me when we’re discussing Decision-Making.
When we are maturing in our emotional health and gaining more emotional intelligence, we are moving to consider the consequences of our actions. Being self-aware we ask better questions and have a better mindset about who we are. Then, we become increasingly more capable of regulating our self and our emotions. From here we find a realignment in our drive and follow a better course of action. Our motivation changes.
This makes us more empathetic towards others and we feel their feelings (and they aren’t a threat to us) so we navigate the world more clearly and open than before. With this as our compass we naturally reformulate our decision making process. We go from caring only about ME, MYSELF, and I to looking at the outcomes and how others are effected.
When we do this in Christ, it takes it a step further. Instead of stopping at just global benevolence or the greatest generic good, we choose Jesus, the way of the cross, to lay down our lives.
And this is the story of our heroes today. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been given a place of leadership in the kings staff of advisors. The king made a statue of gold (90ft high) and made a decree that whenever the royal band played, everyone was to stop what they were doing and bow down to worship the statue. Anyone who refused would be thrown into the fiery furnace.
Our appointed advisers refused and the king was enraged. He cranked up the fire to max heat and had the young men tied up and thrown in. It was so hot that the guards with the prisoners were killed.
Even at this miserably painful and hopeless situation, the LORD saved these men and then king had a change of heart.
What’s this have to do with decisions?
The Hebrew advisers said this at the demand of the king: “We will NOT bow down and worship the statue but only our God. And He is ABLE TO DELIVER us out of the fire. BUT, even if He doesn’t, we will NEVER serve your gods or worship your statue.”
For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their emotional intelligence and depth of their faith empowered them to make a pretty big decision. And here’s what that means for us.
It’s not that we’re OK with the OUTCOME but we’re OK because we trust God with the OUTCOME.
--Win or Lose
--Succeed or Fail
--Triumph or Disaster
--Victory or Defeat
--Breakthrough or Breakdown
What decision are you up against? Is there something you’re stressing over or an outcome you’re trying to manipulate and control?
Would you choose to make trusting God the main ingredient in your decision-making formula and be OK because you know HE is in the OUTCOME?
#EMOTIONALintelligence
#DecisionMaking
#EmotionsItsComplicated
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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