Crucifying the Affections

We are required... to reduce to a subordinated action and in this sense to crucify the propensive principles; and also the natural affections, interesting and important as such affections are, so far as they are not purified in divine love and made one with the divine will. The natural affections, even in their more amiable and lovely forms, often gain an ascendency in the mind, and exercise a tyranny over it, which is inconsistent with the restoration of unity with God. How many persons make idols of their children, of their parents, or of other near relatives! It  is very obvious that such strong attachments, though they may be dear as the right hand or the right eye, must be crucified and cut off. "He, that loveth father or mother," says the Savior, "more than me, is not worthy of me. And he, that loveth son, or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. He, that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he, that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it."

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (1844) Part 2, Chapter 10.