Infatuation

What is infatuation? Is it something bad or good? Can it be controlled?

Let us first separate infatuation from infatuation so as not to confuse these two different concepts.

The world offers us its version of infatuation, promoting it through all media and cultural sources of information. This stable influence has formed in us a certain way of thinking and a certain understanding of this feeling.

But there is also God's view of this peculiarity of the human soul, which helps to understand what is happening in a person, and what a blessing it can be.

Let us consider God's way.

Infatuation is God's gift to the human heart, which the Lord placed in us in His image and likeness at creation. Like any other gift, infatuation is a natural God's blessing for every person, to adorn our life, delight hearts, unite us in strong unions of friendship and love. It is an adornment for any communication and can quickly find the necessary words and perform amazing acts just like that, from the whole soul. It is the most powerful stimulus and interesting motive for convincing another person of one's sincere desire to become his close friend.

Infatuation is conceived in our communication with each other as a starter of love, which is very small compared to the world ocean of God's Agape, but it naturally introduces the heart into this endless space and retains its properties of inspiration to periodically renew established relationships. But you cannot go far on a starter.

Infatuation is a combination of visual and auditory contact, biochemical processes of the organism, mental perception and spiritual values directed at a specific person who caused sympathy in my mind. And now in more detail. My worldview, which began to form from birth, created in my heart an image of the beautiful and good. The culture and mentality of the society in which I grew up endowed me with spiritual values that taught me to define the good and beautiful. And when I meet this image in the face of my neighbor, then biochemical processes begin to come into action, which inject into my organism corresponding hormones that affect my mood, perception of reality, world feeling and desires. My mind connects to the ongoing processes, forming certain proposals, analyzes all the pros and cons, makes a conclusion and transmits this package to my will, which gives the go-ahead for the continuation and development of further relationships or blocks these thoughts and feelings at the very beginning of their maturation, standing up for the defense of my spiritual values and priorities.

All this happens inside a person very quickly with harmonious interaction according to those spiritual criteria that are the driving or restraining force of my human nature.

Is infatuation something temporary, or is it something stable? This question is difficult to answer unambiguously. Everything depends on the culture of the person and the situation in which this property began to manifest and develop itself. It can flare up and grow into a strong principle, or it can fade away without leaving a trace.

The problem of incorrect understanding of what infatuation is as God's gift can be found in my heart corrupted by the world. God did not endow us with what would become a curse for us, but if any God's blessing is taken to the extreme, it will be called sin.

The enemy of the soul has taken the sensual nature of man as a weapon and has taken care that these lower forces of man's nature should control the higher forces—reason and will. In such a perverted subordination, sin is inevitable.

In our organism there is an interesting hormone dopamine, which actively affects the pleasure center in the human brain. At the top of the lower forces of the soul are infatuation, appetite, sexual attraction, craving for the novelty of discoveries and social relationships. These are natural internal stimulators that delight our heart thanks to hormonal dopamine stimulation. Dopamine does not create pleasure for me, but stimulates me to seek pleasure. It also has the name: "molecule of addiction." And the opioid system, when I get what I want, produces in the mind a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure. And addiction can bring me to the state of madly wanting to receive pleasure. When dopamine creates a very persistent call to action, then my mind begins to analyze how best to embody what is desired and present it to the will in the right spirit. If this hormone were absent, we would lose interest in food, in reproduction, in communication and would become who knows what, not knowing why we live. It is interesting to note that when there is satiation with natural pleasures, my opioid system is depleted, and I lose interest in many good and useful things, and my memory remembers the first sensations of euphoria and begins to provoke me to unnatural stimulators of pleasure, producing an excessive amount of dopamine in the process. As a result, my flesh finds artificial substitutes for the lower forces to satisfy my emotional and spiritual needs. These substitutes can become exciting unhealthy food and drinks, alcohol, drugs, computer games, changing partners, masturbation and other offers from Satan's arsenal.

If I do not understand the biochemical relationship of my mind with feelings and thoughts, then many internal things can begin to control my will and impose on me carnal pleasures as something inevitable.

Hollywood has tried very hard and has imposed on the world its concept of infatuation. And this model of relationships between the sexes has imperceptibly penetrated into God's church, imposing its values as the norm of life. A conflict of interests has resulted, which is simply impossible to resolve peacefully. Someone wants to live according to the Hollywood model, considering it a romantic blessing, and someone becomes an opponent of all feelings, believing that principle and law should be in the first place, and love will come itself as a consequence of obedience.

As a result, we see hasty marriages that fall apart as quickly as they were created, or unhappy families that exist according to the principle of law, where spouses never understand when the long-awaited feelings will come. Of course, in both cases there are exceptions, where a hasty family or principled brethren find love for each other. And this is presented to us as an example of a working model.

I think that playing the lottery when creating a family is the most tragic thing that can become a catastrophe not only for two, but also for their offspring and close environment.

The mind must not only control my feelings, but also have wisdom to use this gift of Heaven so that everything contributes to my happiness and the happiness of those with whom I come into contact, without causing harm and temptations.

The Lord made everything in us perfect and beautiful, and now wants to teach us to manage this correctly and receive pleasure, delighting the Creator with our happiness.

1. Please read: Eccl. 3:11-13; 7:29; 44:3; Ps. 138:13-17; Prov. 15:7; Song 1:1-3; 2:9-14; 4:7; 6:10; 1 Cor. 15:33; Matt. 7:16-20; Rev. 14:8 in light of this topic.

2. What did you understand from this topic?

3. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind?

4. Is infatuation something good?

5. What is the difference between infatuation and lust? Is there a difference?

6. Do you understand what mechanisms of the body come into action when a person falls in love?

7. Can infatuation be eternal?

8. Do you think we will fall in love with each other in Heaven? Or is this the lot only of earthly beings?

9. What do you understand from the expression "infatuation never passes"?

10. Until what age is it allowed to fall in love?

11. Is it worth creating a family with someone toward whom there are no feelings?

12. Can one create in oneself a feeling of infatuation, or should this come naturally?

13. What is the strength and beauty of infatuation?

14. Has anyone ever fallen in love with you? How did you realize it? And what did you feel?

15. Is it possible to fall in love with one person many times?