Weighed down..........

     I copied this from an LDS Living article but neglected to write down the author- sorry-
"We do wrong because we make a decision to do so, and we feel guilty because we know we could have acted differently. That means we know we had other options than the one we chose. If we could have acted differently then we are free to act differently at that moment of choice.... Guilt is how we know we are free to choose. Nothing else we can say about our identity is as certain or fundamental. We are not born good or evil. We are born free."
     Then this from "The God Who Weeps" by Terryl and Fiona Givens:
"We can treat guilt as an emotional inconvenience and tolerate or rationalize it until we grow spiritual calluses to deaden the pain. Or, we can treat guilt as a healthy prod to action, as a pain that signifies deeper injury in need of remedy- and actual injury signifying real spiritual harm. Guilt is what we feel when we have positioned ourselves in opposition to laws and principles that exist eternally and independent of the mind." (In other words, not just opinions) "Every moment of every day our choices enact our loves, our desires, and our aspirations. And we are molding ourselves into the God or gods we thereby worship."
     I think about guilt a lot, probably because I feel it a lot. I feel guilt when I do or say something clumsy or incorrect. I feel guilty when I feel hurt or disappointed in someone I love because I don't know if I have a right to do that. Who am I to determine how someone else should use their agency to choose? On the other hand, I recognize that guilt can be an unjustifiable weight that impedes our forward progress or rise to happiness. The primary issue seems to be how to determine when our guilt is that "healthy prod to action" and when it is discouragement or self-loathing. Human emotions are so complex! I am truly grateful for words like, "let your hearts be comforted" and "I am with you unto the end" and "Therefore, dearly beloved.., let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." One of my very favorites- "Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me; And none of them that my
Father hath given me shall be lost." I know we have been admonished to "Be ye therefore perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect"- but that's not today and now. It's a direction to head.