Is guilt always a bad thing?

Question

Do you feel guilt more of a good or a bad influence in your life?

Answer 1

No, not a bad thing if it really is for something you did and something you can fix. Shame, on the other hand, is what is bad. It is this deep unshakeable feeling that you are bad, dirty, contaminated.

In humans, there seem to be pairs of things in different degrees:

1. Sadness vs. Depression
2. Guilt vs. Shame
3. Fear vs. Anxiety
4. Cold vs. Flu

Sadness, guilt, and fear have their places and are healthy to have every once in a while. But to have them all the time or the deeper forms, there is a problem.

Answer 2

Of course guilt is not always a bad thing. It is the way you handle guilt. all emotions can be a healthy reaction. I also don't see it as having been a good or bad influence in my life. guilt is an emotional response to an outside stimuli. Without a healthy sense of guilt humans would be monsters. We need this emotion to pull back the reins of our aggression, tempers, sarcasm and a myriad of other human touches. As long as guilt does not become a weight that will be destructive it is often a good thing.

Answer 3

Guilt generally means that you have done something bad and you know it...If you have remorse and you stop doing what makes you guilty then you have learned the lesson well...

Now conviction on the other hand is a prompting in your heart that is trying to keep from doing something you may regret or become guilty for....

How can you feel guilty for something which is good?I would say if you have a strange feeling about something good that has happened that would be more like Humility which is a wonderful and powerful thing!

Answer 4

In moderation, guilt is a good thing. It's an emotion that reminds us that we care about the world and the people around us when we either wrong them or contemplate wronging them. Without any guilt we'd all be sociopaths.

In excess, guilt is a very bad and paralyzing influence.

Answer 5

Guilt is like a measuring stick for your conscience. Without it, you would not know when you are doing something or about to do something that is wrong. I think it is a good thing. To not have guilt in your life then you would not know right from wrong and look at how people with not moral guilt effect society.

Answer 6

I have guilt issues as a mom; I never feel as though I have done enough for my family, or that I have done the right thing. But that's my own little hangup.

I think if guilt is deserved, then it's a good thing because it reminds you not to repeat the act that made you feel guilty. That's why we have consciences.

Answer 7

Guilt can have a positive or negative effect in ones life. A clear conscience is a really good thing, and guilt can mess with you till you straighten the situation.

On the other hand, we have to remember that conviction is opposite from condemnation.

Guilt is good if not kept long....

PEACE.....

Answer 8

Guilt can be conviction for committing a sin, or it can be inflicted upon a person by another person or the devil as a torment. Guilt that is justified can make a person aware of sin and encourage them to repent. Sin should always be repented so that guilt can be dealt with and dismissed. A person who cannot vanquish guilt lives in the past and retards God's efforts to spiritually advance them. We should always live in the forever present, which is where God lives, taking today as it is and not worrying about tomorrow or unnecessarily fretting about the past. God expects us to deal with our failures and move on. If God has forgiven you, then that is enough. It should be easy for you to forgive yourself, but, alas, we find it so difficult to forgive ourselves. God is always loving us, but we have trouble loving ourselves and forgiveness of the self is an essential start of loving the self. When I say loving the self I am not speaking of conceit, but self respect and self-satisfaction of what God has given you. Fixation on guilt removes dignity and replaces it with a sense of worthlessness. God never creates a worthless person. None of us are throwaways.

Answer 9

Having guilt is a good thing even if it makes you feel bad. If we didn't have guilt, we would feel free to do terrible things to each other and we'd all be republicans.

Answer 10

Guilt can be a bad thing if it's for no reason, i.e. if a loved one dies and you feel that it's your fault when it's not. But guilt can be a good thing if it motivates you to do the right thing and/or apologize to the person you wronged.