Website owner:  James Miller

Mental Health

   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