I am so thankful you have gotten the help you need and are sharing your journey with others. My experience has been similar. There are real physical and neurobiological effects (including trauma) that in my opinion Biblical counselling cannot get close to treating. A huge takeaway for me from therapy with a licensed professional has been the whole concept of "both/and," not "either/or." I've lived in fear so much of my life and I can now see how that was the outworking of so much bad theology, and it took a very real toll on my physical body. I believe God loves us and wants us to heal-- that will look different for everyone, and that's okay.
Thank you so much for writing this. I can relate to all the extremes because Inwent through similar. I thought everything was idolatry and all emotions were bad. Instead of being able to love my family, I was angry and anxious all the time and I believed that I had answers for everything. The good news is, my relationship with my children is good now, and much of the anxiety relating to God has calmed.
I see you have the Be Thou My Vision book. That helped me a lot in the height anxiety over pandemic stuff. 😅 Honestly, that kept my faith in tact.
I am very happy to see where you are now and dare I say...proud of you for being able to write this and publish this publicly. These are not easy things to speak about in the church.
Thank you for sharing your story and writing this.
“If I viewed the Bible as sufficient, I shouldn’t need secular counselling—according to biblical counselling, secular psychology will do more harm than good. For that reason I suffered in silence, believing that if I could just smash my idols, strengthen my trust, love myself less, and memorize enough Bible verses, I could fix it all. Scripture should be enough for me.”
You described what I’ve been wrestling with for years. I cried reading this and then I promptly made an appointment I’ve been putting off with the secular postpartum counselor several professionals have been recommending to me. Thank you.
I am so thankful you have gotten the help you need and are sharing your journey with others. My experience has been similar. There are real physical and neurobiological effects (including trauma) that in my opinion Biblical counselling cannot get close to treating. A huge takeaway for me from therapy with a licensed professional has been the whole concept of "both/and," not "either/or." I've lived in fear so much of my life and I can now see how that was the outworking of so much bad theology, and it took a very real toll on my physical body. I believe God loves us and wants us to heal-- that will look different for everyone, and that's okay.
Thank you so much for writing this. I can relate to all the extremes because Inwent through similar. I thought everything was idolatry and all emotions were bad. Instead of being able to love my family, I was angry and anxious all the time and I believed that I had answers for everything. The good news is, my relationship with my children is good now, and much of the anxiety relating to God has calmed.
I see you have the Be Thou My Vision book. That helped me a lot in the height anxiety over pandemic stuff. 😅 Honestly, that kept my faith in tact.
I am very happy to see where you are now and dare I say...proud of you for being able to write this and publish this publicly. These are not easy things to speak about in the church.
Wow! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 Thanks Lara.
I appreciate your thoughtfulness on this topic. It’s giving me some things to think about and mull over.
Thank you for sharing your story and writing this.
“If I viewed the Bible as sufficient, I shouldn’t need secular counselling—according to biblical counselling, secular psychology will do more harm than good. For that reason I suffered in silence, believing that if I could just smash my idols, strengthen my trust, love myself less, and memorize enough Bible verses, I could fix it all. Scripture should be enough for me.”
You described what I’ve been wrestling with for years. I cried reading this and then I promptly made an appointment I’ve been putting off with the secular postpartum counselor several professionals have been recommending to me. Thank you.