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Showing posts with the label forgiveness

Religion and Self-Forgiveness

Most of the world’s major religions value forgiveness. In Christianity, forgiveness is a commandment with a threat. The forgiveness commonly referred to in the Bible is forgiveness of others; however, recently, psychological scientists have studied self-forgiveness.  Self-forgiveness is the unique case in which people are both offenders and victims.   People are often in the case of failing to live up to their moral standards, which results in harm to themselves. They may have felt guilty for abusing drugs or acts they performed against another. They rehearse the events and cannot seem to let them go. In short, they do not seem able to forgive themselves even if they have been forgiven by others or, advised by clergy that God has forgiven them.  This issue of living with unforgiveness is not just a matter of religious beliefs or argument because studies show that forgiveness is related to general and mental health (e.g., see Worthington, 2020 ). Thus, self...

Faith and Emotional Health

Ten Ways Spirituality Promotes Emotional Health I was asked to write an article about faith and emotional health. As a Christian, I naturally focused on Christian spirituality. As a psychologist, I examined recent publications describing emotional well-being. In this process, I came up with ten Christian principles and virtues linked to psychological well-being. The complete article can be found in Vital Magazine online ( Sutton, 2016 ). In this post I will just list the ten items and refer you to the magazine article for the content. 1. Strengthen Faith 1 Corinthians 13 2. Nurture Hope 1 Corinthians 13 3. Embrace Love 1 Corinthians 13 4. Express gratitude Psalm 95:2 5. Practice Forgiveness Ephesians 4:32 6. Share Generously 2 Corinthians 9: 6-7 7. Connect with Friends and Family Genesis 2:18 8. Share your concerns Matthew 11: 28-30 9. Manage Anger Ephesians 4:26 10. Enjoy a Sabbath Rest Mark 2:27 A quote from the article: "Emotional health goes ...

Christian Counseling: What’s Unique?

What Interventions do Christian Counselors Use? This is the final post in my series of findings from a 2014 survey. In this post I include list of interventions and the frequency they are used by Christian counselors. This list of interventions includes spiritual practices some Christians use or request when in need. In some cases, we expanded a common practice like prayer so we could obtain more detail. We included prayer types that might only be used by Pentecostals and Charismatics because little is known what that small segment of the counselor population might use. Spiritual practice Common Never Rarely Sometimes Often Most 1 Refer to Bible 74.4 6.80 18.80 46.00 17.20 11.20 2 Invite God’s presence 65.67 21.89 12.45 21.89 15.88 27.90 3 Pray about issues 55.42 18....