In the light of her comments about things not changing or getting better, I wonder if telling her the depression/mania situation will probably never change, like Paul’s thorn in the flesh, and that she’s going to have to learn to live with it would be helpful. I wonder if we need to help her see […]
misplaced affections
Show me a person who has lost hope and I’ll show you a person who has misplaced affections. When the weight of our problems outweigh the weight of the Gospel in our lives, we are not far from discouragement, anger, and despair. Counseling solutions.
When Troubles Come Thick
by Douglas Wilson There are times—and this may be one of them for you—when troubles come thick, and there seems to be no end, and you cannot touch the bottom with your feet. Man is born to trouble, as Scripture says, as the sparks fly upward. But here is the encouraging word. “I waited patiently for […]
Suffering Is a Relational Matter
Does anyone care about me? Am I alone? Does anyone love/respect me? Where is God? If Jesus died for you, and he did, then he cares for and about you. If you are in Christ and he is in you, and you are and he is, then you are not alone. If God so loved […]
Gracious is the Lord
Lisa is a counselor here with the Center for Biblical Counseling. She is married to Csaba Leidenfrost who for the past 25 years has been a translator for Wycliff Bible Translators and the Bakwe people, in the Ivory Coast. For the past several years Csaba and Lisa have been stranded here in the states because […]
Suffering Through Grief
Grief is the word we use referring to the variety of emotions we feel when dealing with loss. There are generally three kinds of events that can cause grief: The first is when someone close to us dies; the second is when we lose anything at all; the third is when we don’t receive something we […]
Something Beautiful
by Lisa Leidenfrost What happens when life goes in a direction that you don’t want it to, that wasn’t supposed to happen to you? You have to yield your ideal of what you had wanted for your life and give it to God, offer it up as a sacrifice to Him. Then leave it there, […]
You’re gonna’ get squashed!
In the midst of promise, Jesus guarantees we will suffer. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “You’re gonna’ get squashed!” is a fair vernacular paraphrase. Hemmed in, harassed, and distressed. […]
contentment requires enormous strength!
Gaining contentment does not mean losing sorrow or saying goodbye to discomfort. Contentment means sacrificing itchy cravings to gain a settled soul. You give up one thing for another. It’s hard. Hard, but sweet. You are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” You “have nothing, yet possess everything.” First Timothy 6:6 says, “Godliness with containment is great […]