Accumulation.

Every now and then, when I am faced with making decisions, I have finally began to trust my gut feeling on what is the best direction to take. The interesting thing is that sometimes, the best decision doesn't seem like it is the best decision at the time. Sometimes you come across situations that, whether you chose one way or another, it is a win-win or a lose-lose situation.
This is where my random questions get to brewing. What exactly is a gut feeling? I have found that sometimes I have warning flags going off to stay away from someone, or I sense that something just doesn't seem right. On many occasions in the past, I didn't have any rational reason for feeling warning flags or feeling like something wasn't right, so I went against my feelings, basing it on the fact that it wasn't a logical feeling. Later down the line, maybe an hour, two weeks or a year later, I come to find out that my original gut feeling was actually accurate. If I would have trusted that feeling, maybe it would have prevented me from a hardship that I faced.
Gut feelings can be put under different names; discernment, instinct, intuition, hunch, etc. I have began to try and figure out what exactly this feeling is and how it can come to be of great importance in our decision making.
I look back on my life and think of how many sermons I have sat through, how many books I have read, how many conversations, experiences and interactions that I have been a part of.
Each day, our mind processes information, feelings and patterns that take place. Some of our days are very ordinary, we may get up, watch a little TV, go to the park, call a friend, but in these ordinary events, our discernment, instinct, intuition begins to develop.
Now, I believe that those who trust in the Lord and seek wholeheartedly to follow His ways, God gives a supernatural discernment. He can place in us a feeling that an ordinary, unimportant decision is not quite right or just the right thing.
On the other hand, I don't think that the discernment that God gives us, just shows up out of the blue. I believe it is an accumulation of sitting through Pastor's sermons, hearing right from wrong, reading the Bible, understanding events in history or parables, learning from friends and family, their triumphs and mistakes. We can build our discernment from listening to music or having conversations that are uplifting, that bring glory to God. It is the daily ins and outs that train our mind and heart to do instinctively the right thing. If we run into someone that gives us an uneasy feeling, I believe it is an accumulation of the wisdom we gain through out our life.
On the same note, if the ordinary ins and outs in my life play an important role in my gut feeling development, then I begin to take a look at what I am doing in my every day life. If I watch bad movies, listen to ungodly music, gossip with my friends, cut corners at work, treat my spouse poorly. Am I going to develop patterns and habits that when I am at a fork in the road, trying to make the best judgement, are they going to help me to make a wise decision?
Sometimes, the developing of our discernment is not based solely on the rights from wrongs, but from the good verses the best. I can settle with compromising, but when I am stuck at the fork in the road, I want my gut feeling to scream the wisest decision. I am challenged that my small, insignificant decisions, can save me from a world of trouble and pain. That indeed, would be a spiritual gift from God.