Christians are to have the right heart attitude when God allows trials in their lives. It is, however, very easy to respond in ways saying, “This is so unfair” and “Why me?!” But the Bible calls them to respond in a different way. The Biblical response to struggles is, “…[to] rejoice in our sufferings…” (Romans 5:3-4). Then James 1:2-4 says, "Count it all joy." Finally 1 Peter 1:3-7 goes on to say "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though fire tests it—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Christians are to respond with a proper heart attitude towards God knowing that God is teaching them and growing…
Acts shows that the church must be careful to present itself distinct from the world, not just on obvious issues, but its servanthood to the “Lord of all” in all of life (Rowe 269). Christ’s command to love one another so that others may know that they are His disciples (John 13:34) can be lived out through temporary and permanent orphan care. These acts are vital parts of showing a picture of the gospel, the church’s mission, love, and ultimately bringing glory to Christ. If the church is failing to love through its support of foster care and adoption, then it is failing to obey Christ. Contrastingly, the church should be active in its involvement and support of temporary and permanent orphan care. In conclusion, foster care and adoption are supported by Scriptures and are crucial aspects to loving others as Christ loved the church (Philippians…
You made the statement “The world turns off those who project a religious plastic perfection, for they know it is all a charade. What draws people to Jesus is an authentic relationship with God featuring ups and downs, and yet a desire to worship in the midst of pain and struggle.” Your statement made me realize that I had completely overlooked the Lament Psalms impact on those who do not have a saving relationship with God. I agree that the Lament Psalms are a great example of an authentic relationship with God and that those who are not Christians tend to appreciate that kind of authenticity. If those around us can somehow observe us as we interact with God during difficult times, they will better see the value of an authentic relationship…
I’ve always believed that some things are so complex that only God can see reasoning and benefit from them. A more than perfect example of this would be the heart wrenching life story of my beautiful friend Talia. As long as I’ve known Talia, she has had to go through more than most people in their entire lifetime; though everything, Talia stays strong and has hardly fallen weak. At the age of seven, Talia was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, an extremely rare and dangerous cancer. Talia is now twelve years young and still vigorously fighting her cancer. Throughout these tough times, Talia goes through chemo, blood transfusions, platelet transfers and surgeries. Talia simply radiates her strength,…
Does being a Christian affect how a helping professional perceives their role in helping others? I believe that being a helping professional from a Christian perspective entails understanding God and His purpose for humanity. Humans were created by God to be His representatives on earth. A Christian helping professional realizes that God created humanity in His image with the ability for us to seek and worship Him. As a Christian, helping others needs to be approached from a holistic standpoint, meaning we care about our client’s mental, physical, and spiritual being (Boivin, 1991). God cannot be compartmentalized when helping others, instead His presence is part of the whole healing process. We cannot be whole if part of us is still unhealthy, this includes our spiritual being as well. We can help others with their mental or physical problems, but until we address our client’s spiritual wellbeing the healing process will never be complete.…
It is not easy to dedicate your energy, time, and everything that you have to help another person in need. My mother was ill for four years with breast cancer (I was in high school) and I was her caregiver, as my father was working long hours. At any given time, when she needed me, I was there. I know that her life was not easy while she was battling this horrible disease, and it was definitely better for her to leave this world, but sometimes, I still want her around and I would do the same, even more for her. Once she passed away, I felt that I lost the purpose of my life. It took me a lot of time to somehow move on with my life. Learning about the caregiver strain during my schooling makes me think that I was the one who needed help, while I was taking care of my mother somewhere else (in my home country, Bosnia and Herzegovina), where there is no resources available. Basically, I was on my own along with my father and my brother. Caregiving for patients with cancer often requires multidimensional support that extends across psychical, psychological, spiritual, and emotional domains (Honea, Brintnall, Given, Sherwood, Colao, Sommers, & Northouse, 2008) Caregiver strain is very sensitive subject for me, and I really like to learn as much as I can, so I can assist my patients with the help that they…
3.) What are the patients’ and family caregivers’ expectations regarding nurses addressing their spiritual needs? ((Johnston Taylor, 2006, p. 730)…
Interpersonal relationship thrives in the presence of hospitality. Love can bring out hospitality. When a person has the love of Christ inside, he or she would naturally act hospitably to people. A guest living at a hospitable person’s house would feel warm and comfortable. For example, during my stay at my friend’s aunt and uncle’s house, they gave me their own bedroom because their small house did not have a spare room. They saw to tiny details…
Basis of Responsibility: The place of relationships and feelings of people with faith, between each other, is just like the body; when one of its parts is afflicted with pain, then the rest of the body will be affected.…
While evaluating my own perceptions about quality of life and health promotion when caring for a dying patient with a lingering illness such as cancer I found that I have a lot to work on. Being a strong “Alpha” female I do not find myself feeling sorry for myself and usually do not accept that type of attitude in other people. I am a person who finds the cup half full instead of half empty and have a strong sense of competitiveness in life. There are times in my life that things have not gone the way I planned but I also have a strong sense of faith, a true belief in God, and the trust that He has a greater plan than I do so I must put my trust in Him. People must help themselves in order to receive help, no one is just going to show up at the door and state, “I thought you were in need of something so here I am here to give it to you.” There are plenty of programs that are out there to help anyone who is struggling with many different things in life all most people have to do is some research and then ask. As I read the profile of the Thomas’s, as a cancer survivor myself I do understand how she is feeling but I was also slightly frustrated at her for just giving up, worse yet for putting a lot of this on her husband who is already probably feeling helpless as it is. Lying in bed crying all the time is not going to do any good to anyone. There are many options for her, she is just choosing to ignore them and feel sorry for herself. So my main goal for myself is to remember that not everyone deals with these situations as I do and to listen to her and how she is feeling. Projecting my beliefs and feelings onto her is not going to help her as she might feel as if I am not listening to her and incorporating her into her own care – taking away her autonomy. Maybe instead of solving the problem for her or telling her what she should do I could ask her what…
As we read scripture, we see how important our lives are to the Lord, and what we are called to do with them. In Mark 17 Jesus tell us to, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people” This statement proves to us that we should being doing our best to lead others to Christ. In Matthew 6 we are told not to worry about our daily needs, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Also in Luke 12 we are given similar advice. These few verses are just the beginning of the beautiful blessing the Lord has in store for us.…
I think this verse is absolutely amazing. In this verse, you can clearly see how much Jesus cares for his children. Like he said, he would "lay down his life for his sheep." To know someone who would care so much about you to actually do that, well that would probably be one of the best things you could experience. In fact, if you look the word "care" up in the dictionary, you would find something similar to this "to show concern for." And that's exactly what God is doing each and every day of our lives, each and every moment. Not only does he care about us who already know and love him, but when he says "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen, I must bring them also," he means he cares for the ones who've turned their back on him, who don't know him. That's how awesome our God is. He cares for those who don't even know him. And he wants them to know him. So how are they going to? Well you see that's when we come in. This addresses my question earlier. We know we should care about everyone, but are we really doing so? I don't mean just for your loved ones, the people you already know. Well, of course you have to care about them. I mean about the lonely homeless man on the street, the single mother who needs somewhere to go. What about them? You see there are so many people who are in need for someone to just care, to show that they really do matter to…
A little girl came home from a neighbor's house where her little friend had died. "Why did you go?" questioned her father. "To comfort my friend’s mother," said the child matter-of-factly. "What could you possibly do to comfort her?" asked the father. "I climbed into her lap and we cried." (The Story of Jesus). We all go through troubled times. How sweet it is when someone comes alongside to hold us, to cry with us…to comfort us! Likely, there are some…perhaps many…among us today who desperately need someone to say, “Come, climb into my lap. Let me hold you and cry with you and bring you comfort.” If that is you, be encouraged. Look up. Smile. Comfort can be yours today! Yes, we all face troubled times. And one of the words that certainly can help us endure such times, is the word: COMFORT.…
We must remember one important thing. God is not a human being. He is a spiritual who will never fail or forsake his children. He is always there to love, listen, and comfort us. In all circumstances and stages of life, wherever we may be, whether good or bad, God is there for us. When we place our wholehearted faith into his hands, God will always encourage and provide us with everything that we could possibly need or desire. We should never be afraid to call on God or to trust in His love for us. If we place our trust in Christ, we will begin to live life more fully and heighten our spiritual growth in the Lord.…
Through my faith I have learned to believe that we must all do on to others as want others to do on to us; including being kind to others. I had the opportunity to help my sister in law Angie not too long ago. Angie is a single mother of 4 and has 5 grandchildren. A few months ago she was with nowhere to turn; had no place to live and had no job. At this time she had two of kids and her oldest grandchild with her. You see Angie has a great heart and will always help someone in there time of need. There was no way I was going to turn my back on my sister in law so I asked her to come stay with us while she got her situation worked out.…