Let's Talk Christmas

[Lewis]

No Bodine' He is talking about trees.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Saw this posted on facebook:

"Santa's Christmas Prayer

The sleigh was all packed, the reindeer were fed, But Santa still knelt by the side of the bed.

“Dear Father,” he prayed “Be with me tonight. There’s much work to do and my schedule is tight.

I must jump in my sleigh and streak through the sky, Knowing full well that a reindeer can’t fly.

I will visit each household before the first light, I’ll cover the world and all in one night.

With sleigh bells a-ringing, I’ll land on each roof, Amid the soft clatter of each little hoof.

To get in the house is the difficult part, So I’ll slide down the chimney of each child’s heart.

My sack will hold toys to grant all their wishes. The supply will be endless like the loaves and the fishes.

I will fill all the stockings and not leave a track. I’ll eat every cookie that is left for my snack.

I can do all these things Lord, only through You, I just need your blessing, then it’s easy to do.

All this is to honor the birth of the One, That was sent to redeem us, Your most Holy Son.

So to all of my friends, least Your glory I rob, Please Lord, remind them who gave me this job.”

Warren D. Jennings"

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Hey, Claudya, didn't Luther pretty much invent the lighted Christmas tree? Luther must be like a celebrity over there.

...I tend to agree there is a big spiritual aspect in my personality order.

Maybe you'd be surprised to know that 'spiritual' means 'the things of the Spirit'--the things of the Spirit being peace, patience, self-control, joy, etc. So I'd say matters of personality are almost by definition spiritual matters. I guess the fundamental issue is, "what's driving my personality, things of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.), or things of the flesh (greed, lust, hatred, etc.)?"

But that doesn't mean that psychotherapy is useless. Psychotherapy will hopefully teach me methods of regulating and controling my thoughts and emotions so I can handle myself better. Only then I can hope to adress the spritual matters behind it without going aggro every five minutes.

Personally I think that the opposite is more true. But I suppose in some cases the outside has to be subdued first before the inside can be dealt with. Like a drug addict who has to spend some time in jail before the addiction that controls his life can be addressed.

There are promising therapy approaches to improving self control and dealing with negative emotions. I defintely need to feel more in control of myself before I dare adress the real issues.

I'm curious what some of those approaches are.

Self control of my emotions is what I most long for at this point. Although it wouldn't remove the real problem I guess in my case it would shrink the problem by quite a bit. When in some emotional distress focusing on God, reading scripture and having faith is barely possible at all.
But like I said that's me and things may be different considering your wife.

Actually, I'm sure it's very much that way with my wife.

A very intersting aspect of your response is that you seem to consider those "fleshly impulses" or negative and destructive emotions as a misguided sort of self protection and faith in God as a way to overcome that.
It makes sense. I'll ponder that idea.

I'm encouraged that you're not meeting the idea with denial and defensiveness. This idea of resorting to evil to protect ourselves instead of relying on God is probably best taught in the scriptures in James:

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God." (James 4:1-2)

I have my own history of out of control emotions which I now know were fueled by fears and insecurities. When I read this scripture it made me realize how my fits of rage, for example, were really just violent outbursts intended to get what I wanted to maintain my well-being. I realized I needed to be trusting God for that instead of trying to wrestle it for myself.

We all have to face these challenges to our safety and well-being. By nature we protect ourselves with our fleshly defenses--murder, hatred, witchcraft, jealousy, pride, wrath, etc. Nobody has to teach us to use those things to defend ourselves against perceived threats and maintain our well-being. We know them all too well by nature. What we all have to learn to do is rely on God to keep us safe. And when we do that the result is peace, joy, patience, love, kindness, etc. IOW, the fruit of the Spirit grows when and where we decide to trust God to take care of us instead of taking care of ourselves with the evil tools we use to do that.

(On a side note, I'm wondering if disorders of that kind can be kept alive despite best efforts of healing because some people just enjoy fighting that battle? All those emotional ups and downs sure keep things exciting. I've bee wondering, if I ever beat my demons, wouldn't I miss fighting them? )

Well it's definitely required that the person who wants to be set free from emotional distress has to love righteousness. That's why the spiritual aspects of this (love, joy,peace, patience...) are not an option for the unbeliever who has not even come to their knees in sorrow over their own sins to begin with.

Maybe that's where beating one's head on the wall comes in (now I wish I had included that part in your quote above). Some people want God's best, but they still have a fundamental love of, and sympathy for the wrong way they are doing things. I think that's where the element of suffering comes in that we talked about before (was that this thread?). Suffering for what we love to do wrong helps us change our minds about those things.

One characteristic of personality disorders is that the people suffering from them seem to have very rigid behaviour patterns and are much less flexible in regards to finding the most approbriate behaviour in response to a certain situationn than "healthy" people. You wife may be in such a situation. Even if she wanted to change she might find herself unable to.

I don't doubt it. The ways of the flesh are ingrained in us all by nature. I don't think anyone is able to change even if they want to. That's what the grace of God is all about. And I've learned that grace is inaccessible to the degree that we harbor resistance to the holiness of God's righteousness and justice. In plain language that means if we think there's something wrong with the justice of letting people take advantage of us while we sit there full of joy and peace then it's going to be all the harder to submit to that work of God in us then.

Would it help you considering your wife's personailty a mental illness rather than spiritual immaturity?

I've come to the conclusion that the power of sin IS a mental illness. We're all mentally ill in that sense. It's just that some of us are sicker than others, and probably for reasons we had nothing to do with. The Bible uses the analogy of illness to describe mankind's sin sickness. My experience is showing me that is very, very accurate.

But to answer your question, 'sort of'. I know that sin sickness can not be separated from our physical selves. When your body is sick, your soul suffers. When your soul suffers, your body suffers. I now know you have to consider both when dealing with sin sickness. Just skip a night's sleep and a couple of meals and that's easy to see.

Oh, this is supposed to be a Christmas thread, lol. But Allen did say he wasn't against anyone getting some spiritual support here. I see it's been Christmas Eve for you for a while already. I hope you get some Christmas cheer somewhere before it's all over. Did you watch 'Scrooge' this year? I recommend the 1953 English version. Great literature. Loaded with spiritual truth.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

No Bodine' He is talking about trees.

Carved up, or planted on the living room floor, Jeremiah says don't fear them. They have no power for good or evil.