Our Blog
Our Blog
An ongoing series of informational entries
An ongoing series of informational entries
Our Latest Blog Entry
Our Latest Blog Entry
March 12, 2021
The Attributes of God:
The Bible says to praise God for who He is, especially in prayer. Much of the Psalms are a good example of this. Many times I focus in praising Him in a few areas such as God’s love, and then spending the rest of my prayers asking Him for things. My thinking is affected when I realize that God is “personal”. He is taking care of my mind, my heart, my body and every other aspect of my life. I have a personal relationship with Him, and He answers my prayers. He affects my life being a living God, He is alive and I do not depend on anything outside him. My emotional state is affected because He loves me with an incommensurable love; by His grace I am saved and have eternal life. Love is such an important part of God’s character that the apostle John wrote, “God is love.” This means that God holds the wellbeing of others as His primary concern. His mercy and persistence shows me every day that He cares for all humans and His offering of salvation and grace to us is always there for us. 1 Corinthians 13 defines love, and to see love in action we need to study the life of Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of others is the ultimate act of love. God’s love is not a love of emotion but of action. His love gives freely to the object of its affection, those who choose to follow His son Jesus.
I believe that His love, benevolence, grace, mercy and persistence could be used in counseling with Christians. Also, the Bible says that God is just, but it is His character that defines what being He just really is. He does not conform to some outside criteria. Being just brings moral equity to everyone. When there are evil acts, justice demands there be a penalty. Since God is perfect and has never done evil, no penalty would ever be necessary; however, because of His love, God paid the penalty for our evil deeds by going to the cross Himself. His justice needed to be satisfied, but He took care of it for all who will believe in Jesus.
I will bring those truths into counseling with a Christian client first of all by showing God’s mercy and love with my own behavior. Not only being professional but merciful and empathic with the client, letting him/her know that for God’s grace we can live a new life, that Jesus paid the price for our deeds on the cross, and he can erase anything from our life and make us white as snow. Also letting him/her know that God is always with us and we only need to let Him abide in us. He is alive and His love, grace and mercy endure forever.
Miriam Letty Cardozo MS., LMHC
Founder of Hope and Healing Counseling Center
754-208-9100
<‘//>< Helping people recover and empower them to achieve successful lives
Our Second Blog Entry
Our Second Blog Entry
May 17th , 2021
The Discipline of Simplicity
Summary
Foster (1998) states that the discipline of Simplicity is freedom and Superficiality is the curse of our age. Simplicity is an internal attitude that results in an external life-style. It begins with having a divine center; when we lack of this divine center the insecurity lead us to a crazy attachment of things. The mass media convinced us to crave things that we do not need or enjoy. We live in a consumer society. The much things we have the better/beautiful/successful we are. The Bible declares that wealth itself belongs to God, and one purpose of the year of the jubilee was to provide a regular redistribution of the wealth (p.82). Jesus declared opposition to materialism of his days, but intends that we should have adequate material provision. There is a big difference between asceticism and simplicity. Simplicity put possession in the right perspective, rejoices in the generous provision from God, and knows contentment in poverty and abounding. “Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us” (pp. 84-85).
Personal Application
I agree with Foster that the central point of the Christian discipline of Simplicity is Mathew 6:33. We need to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all the other things will come in its proper order. Nothing, neither the desire of a life-style must come before the kingdom of God, because it will be idolatry. I have the problem to have more clothes that I can wear and I need to change this in my life. When we rested and depended on God we are set free of anxiety. But the most important thing is to have simplicity in the bottom of our heart; it is not worth it to live without things and with an oppress heart desiring the wellness of others. A sincere heart who seeks His kingdom. We are stewards for what we have as a gift from God, and we need to make our goods available for others as a inner attitude of simplicity.
Professional Application
I think that the discipline of simplicity could benefit clients that are hoarders, are addicts to buy things or have some kind of compulsion. We can consider as important points in the process of change to buy things for their usefulness rather than their status, considering the clothes buy what we need; stop trying to impress people with your clothes and impress them with your life (p. 90). Also we can help our clients to reject anything that is producing an addiction in them. Learn to distinguish between a real psychological need or and addiction (compulsion). Develop and habit of giving things away is a way to liberate us from the attachment that we could have with our possessions. We can help our clients to enjoy things without owning them, like the nature, parks or public spaces. We have the creation as the most beautiful thing we can own, it is our and we are part of it. I wish I could say to all my clients that the best thing to do is seek first God’s kingdom. Foster says and I also desire that “God give us the courage, the wisdom, the strength always to hold the kingdom of God as the number one priority of our lives. To do so is to live in simplicity”(p. 95).
Our First Blog Entry
Our First Blog Entry
January 15, 2020
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