Here is a thought for your consideration. Growing up many of us heard our parents say things like “If you can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything at all.” I always marveled at the irony of that statement. It would be a rude thing to actually state out loud that you could not say something nice about someone. Therefore making that statement was saying something that wasn’t very nice…and therefore shouldn’t have been said. It brings up an interesting point. There is a thought that seems to be etched in our minds that seems to require some correction. It would seem that some think we must feel good about doing or saying something in order to for us to act upon it. Otherwise we are being hypocritical. “If I don’t feel like being nice to people then I should not pretend to be nice to them because that would be phony and I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I’ve got to keep it real.” Surely this is not so. There are many things we do and say even though we do not feel inside what is being manifested in our words and actions. For instance, I rarely “feel” like paying taxes or driving on the right side of the road. They are done because I am motivated by something else to do it. Obedience is my motivation. Being kind to people is commanded whether we “feel” kind or not and so we follow through with kindness. Of course being kind is an easier task to accomplish when we feel kind but the lack of feeling does not absolve us of our responsibility to God to exercise it in every instance. It is more real to do the right thing even when what is inside of our sinful deceptive hearts encourages a different action than it is to follow the whims of our every notion to only “do it if we feel like it”.