As 2018 begins, my thoughts continually go toward the psychological bent our culture is experiencing. Friends of ours told us how in their small, rural town, psychology classes are now mandatory in the high schools. Sadly, there is not a Christian high school option in their area either, so the youth are all getting taught these philosophies that are counter to God's truth. I began re-reading The Truth War by John MacArthur last night as a way to get my mind straight for the coming year on some of the battles we, the Church, are facing.
Throughout my adult life, I've read and listened to sermons about human emotions, and something that has stuck out to me lately is the reality that hormones don't make us have wrong thoughts or actions, rather they make it harder to control our thoughts and actions. As women, we can play the hormone card, and depending on how we were raised, this can go several ways. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? And out of the heart come all manner of evil.
Think about it--when you have your cycle, Ladies, is your temper is shorter with your husband and children, but not with your friends?
I recall having postpartum issues after my son, and in hindsight I probably could have said something to my midwife. Instead I went to a nouthetic counselor for 6 weeks even though it meant driving one hour each way with a nursing infant in tow and my husband having to take off work to watch our 2 older children. Once I had to take the older children, who were very small themselves. The reality is that the counseling helped me deal with deeper seated issues that were a part of my thinking but which got uncontrollable with the flush of hormones I was dealing with. In the end, that time in the Word has proven priceless to me.
Would anyone have balked at my talking to my doctor (midwife) about the struggles I was having? Of course not, and it may not have been wrong to do, but this is just an example of how we as believers may short-change God by immediately going to a quick fix when we have emotional or mental struggles. Sometimes we can find ourselves in a situation that causes us more harm than good.
Do I think people with mental problems just need more faith? No, I sure don't. But I do think sometimes they have misplaced faith which has contributed to their problem, or that they have no faith in the true God which will lead to problems. The foundation we have matters critically to the life we are living.
Trust the Lord, trust His word, and don't be afraid to be different from the world.
Christianity and Psychology
Throughout my adult life, I've read and listened to sermons about human emotions, and something that has stuck out to me lately is the reality that hormones don't make us have wrong thoughts or actions, rather they make it harder to control our thoughts and actions. As women, we can play the hormone card, and depending on how we were raised, this can go several ways. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? And out of the heart come all manner of evil.
Think about it--when you have your cycle, Ladies, is your temper is shorter with your husband and children, but not with your friends?
I recall having postpartum issues after my son, and in hindsight I probably could have said something to my midwife. Instead I went to a nouthetic counselor for 6 weeks even though it meant driving one hour each way with a nursing infant in tow and my husband having to take off work to watch our 2 older children. Once I had to take the older children, who were very small themselves. The reality is that the counseling helped me deal with deeper seated issues that were a part of my thinking but which got uncontrollable with the flush of hormones I was dealing with. In the end, that time in the Word has proven priceless to me.
Would anyone have balked at my talking to my doctor (midwife) about the struggles I was having? Of course not, and it may not have been wrong to do, but this is just an example of how we as believers may short-change God by immediately going to a quick fix when we have emotional or mental struggles. Sometimes we can find ourselves in a situation that causes us more harm than good.
Do I think people with mental problems just need more faith? No, I sure don't. But I do think sometimes they have misplaced faith which has contributed to their problem, or that they have no faith in the true God which will lead to problems. The foundation we have matters critically to the life we are living.
Trust the Lord, trust His word, and don't be afraid to be different from the world.
Christianity and Psychology
No comments:
Post a Comment