Wrapping my Head Around Emotions

I started to think about this topic maybe a year ago. I am still trying to wrap my head around the subject and understand it better.  I have been stewing over the question, "Why do we need emotions, especially the painful ones?"

I started to think about this topic when I was learning about the three Nephites. In 3 Nephi 28:9. They are told that they will have no pain or sorrow except sorrow for the sins of the world. Their desire was to bring souls unto Christ while the world would stand. Could they not have done this task without feeling sorrow? Would they just cease to be able to do their work if they lost the ability to care?

I think that we can see people all around us who just don't care, they don't feel or they just don't see the importance. I am not sure if they don't genetically have this ability, or if they have never developed the ability to empathize. Have they just been hurt so much for so long that they have completely turned off their emotions? Has no one cared or loved them and it is a learned behavior? As you can see, I have a lot more questions than answers at this point.

The scriptures make reference to the heaven's weeping. They also talk about God weeping in Moses 7:28. He saw the earth as it was veiled in darkness and that caused him to weep. I guess the obvious part of this is that God loved his children righteous or not or he wouldn't have cared and he would not have wept.

This leaves Enoch with a lot of questions. How is it that you can weep, seeing that you are holy?  How can you weep when your creations are numberless? How can you weep when you are just, merciful and kind forever? How can you weep when you have taken Zion to yourself? How can you weep when peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of your throne? Enoch sees all of the good works God has done, the incredible characteristics he possesses, his amazing numberless creations, the souls he has taken up to himself and yet he still weeps. Enoch is still so confused.

How does God respond to this line of questioning?  He goes back to the garden of Eden and recounts that he gave man their knowledge and their agency. He weeps because he gave us the knowledge and the ability to make decisions and he weeps because of what some have chosen to do with that freedom. He commanded men to love one another and that we should choose him as our father and yet despite all of this some don't care about each other, some hate their own blood and some have chosen another to be their father.

Verse 27 states that God and the heavens weep because these children who were once children of God have chosen the adversary to lead them and be their father. They have chosen misery and suffering. All of this then causes Enoch to weep. Then God points Enoch to the Savior. I think this shows that God doesn't enjoy watching us suffer, but he is bound by the laws that govern the universe. He shows his love and mercy by giving us the Savior to make a way to overcome the effects of the law.

There is a lot of emotion in this chapter but it seems that at the root of this weeping is love. Seems strange in some ways. We are taught to love each other despite the fact that this can lead us to deep sorrow at times. It even leads God and the heavens to weep over us. Perhaps that is why some make the choice not to love. It can be immensely painful, and yet we are commanded to love and not just love our favorites but to love everyone. What kind of a world would that be? Also I find it interesting that God with all of his perfections never loses the ability or need to weep.