Am I Doing the Right Thing?

[Hermit7]

Just today, I had thoughts basically saying that if I do my laundry that I would be damned or lose my salvation.

I have this system in place to deal with these thoughts (counter-bargains so to speak). But later on in the day, I had doubts that maybe there was a loop-hole to my system.

So I made a "decision" to basically say to God that, "God you know I want my salvation. So I'm going ahead and doing my laundry. I give all these worries and these bargain issues to you to deal with and I trust you won't damn me or take away my salvation for doing my laundry."

So I just went ahead. I still have worries, but the bottom line is--did I do the right thing?

-Hermit

 

[OCD=Owie]

I believe so! That's the type of thing you need to condition yourself to do. The hard part, of course, is getting past all of the fears and worries. Try not to dwell on your decision. Just make decisions like that, and don't entertain any thoughts that you might be sinning or losing your salvation.

The more you think about it, the more freaked out you will be. The only way you can win is if you stop the excessive fear-driven debates and reasonings.

 

[Hermit7]

Thanks Owie, your comments are encouraging. Yeah, the laundry thing has always been an issue for me ever since I moved out. Just recently I finished it, but a lot of thoughts pummeled my mind all throughout--telling me I sold my salvation away and such.

I'm just trying my best to ignore them. But I'm not sure if this is helping. Any ideas on what to do?

-Hermit

 

[kaykay9.0]

Yes, you did the right thing!!!! Proud of you! Ignore those stinking' OCD thoughts!

 

[OCD=Owie]

Well there's not too much I can say that I haven't already said in other threads. I know that one thing that helped me identify OCD thinking was paying attention to when I started to freak out about something.

For example, I used to have really bad germophobia and hand-washing. One of the places I most disliked was the bathroom because of toilets and such. I would walk around in the bathroom with my arms pressed close to my torso that I wouldn't accidentally touch a wall or the sink or the toilet. This wasn't because I had a small bathroom, but because I was under the influence of OCD. Even though I had a good six inches or more between me and the wall/sink/toilet, I would walk past one of them, and after I had passed them, I would soon start thinking, "Oh, I think this part of my arm touched that when i walked by!" And I would examine the information I had in my brain relating to that specific moment, and, naturally, my OCD exagerrated what I thought was my memory of the event. I soon was so scared that I had actually touched something, that I would usually wash in response.

After awhile though, I realized that these fears always came shortly after passing the thing I was afraid of. Up until that point, I thought that I was washing in response to a real memory of me physically touching the sink or whatever. That tipped me off that my OCD was just exagerrating every little fear that I had to the point where it no longer made any sense.

So maybe you could check to see if you do the same thing with your fears about vows. Don't worry if you can't. Everyone's OCD is different!

 

[omanid]

Yes!

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1