Yesterday we talked about how important relationships are as we deal with the difficulties in our lives. Before that we talked about how our guilt and shame effect our relationships with ourselves. So now is a good time to talk about how these things effect our relationships with others.
When we thought about how close and trusting our relationships are, did you question why there is distance between certain relationships you have compared to others? Think about that distance and see if any of that is attributed to guilt or shame. They may be hidden under words like "private" or "guarded" or "safe". Sometimes when people don't accept us we can feel a type of shame where we feel less valued, as if there is something wrong with us. Certainly we need to protect ourselves from people that are distructive to us, but there shouldn't be much keeping us from continually getting closer to good people.
Remember conviction and confession draw people closer, guilt and shame pull people farther apart.
Prayer: Pray that God would show you the true nature of your relationships, whether they're affirming healthy practices or illuminating the unhealthy.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
3 comments:
As a Baptist, I never gave up anything for Lent, like chocolate, candy, or TV. But in the last many years, Baptist churches & literature are encouraging people to let go of an unhealthy habit or to add a spiritual practice in the days before Easter. Letting go of acting out of guilt & shame could be an example. A spiritual practice to add could be contemplation, prayer, reading a Nouwen book or developing a scripture-reading plan.
Building stronger healthier relationships with God, family & friends is important and it only takes 21 days to form a new habit-plenty of time before Palm Sunday & Easter. If you’d like help working through these things, start journaling, reply to the blog, come to a gathering, or make an appointment with a Convergence staff member. Let us pray with you.
Good fill someone in on and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you for your information.
Genial fill someone in on and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you for your information.
Post a Comment