Praise the Lord!
(And Other Expressions of Emotion)
Hallelujah!
Several years ago, I attended church at an inner-city
Washington, D.C. LDS ward. I was shocked when a few African American members
loudly called out “Praise the Lord!” during the sacrament meeting talks.
Initially, I felt their emotional outbursts were disrespectful and
inappropriate, but then realized they were based on cultural traditions. These
good people weren’t showing disrespect in any way. They were merely
communicating their love and devotion to the Lord and it certainly made church
exciting that day!
The Highs and Lows of Tolerance
Do you express emotion in public? Or do you tend to keep
your emotions to yourself? Universally, we all feel the same emotions
but culturally we don’t necessarily express them the same way. In Latin
American, Middle Eastern and African countries, people generally have a “high
tolerance” of emotional expressivity meaning they communicate their feelings
openly. Whereas in Asia, Scandinavia, and England, people have a “low tolerance”
and don’t show a lot of emotion publicly.
Emotion can be easy to misinterpret. According to John Ivers, emotion is "one of the things most easily misunderstood in cross-cultural differences." If a person doesn't show much emotion, we may not be able to understand what he is thinking or feeling. On the other hand, if a person shows a lot of emotion, we may tend to be offended or misinterpret his intent.
Emotion can be easy to misinterpret. According to John Ivers, emotion is "one of the things most easily misunderstood in cross-cultural differences." If a person doesn't show much emotion, we may not be able to understand what he is thinking or feeling. On the other hand, if a person shows a lot of emotion, we may tend to be offended or misinterpret his intent.
One challenge in teaching ESL students is trying to
understand their emotions. My Hispanic students show emotion freely so it’s
always fairly easy to tell how they are feeling and whether or not they’re
grasping the material. On the other hand, my Asian student rarely expresses emotion
so I’m never quite sure what she’s feeling or if she’s understanding what is
being taught. Although it might be frustrating trying to “read” certain
students, it’s important to keep trying to understand them.
Love Conquers All
Like
our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, we have a physical body and experience
emotions just like they do. Did you know that one
in six verses of scripture in the LDS standard works contains at least one
emotion word? In descending order of frequency, they
include the following: love, fear, desire, anger, peace, rejoice, joy, wrath,
please, and hate. Since opposition is part of the plan of salvation, it’s not
surprising that there’s a balance of positive and negative emotions mentioned
in the scriptures and that love is mentioned the most.
A
Final Amen
Whether
we express emotions freely or quietly, emotions are part of our world, culture,
“Differences
in Emotional Expressiveness", John Ivers BYU-I
“BYU Exhibition
Examines and Celebrates Life’s Emotions”, LDS Church News
Hi Jan, I am always looking forward for your posts because they're really inspiring. There are always enriching personal experiences, gospel connection insights, beautiful pictures and quotations. By the way, I didn't know that one in six verses of scriptures in the LDS work standard works contains at least one emotion word.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carine! I feel the same way about your posts. It's so great learning together.
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