Last week, we saw that allowing God and others into our emotions allows us the opportunities to live as wholly ourselves again. Expressing our emotions to others is a positive step towards reconnecting with ourselves and with God. Click here to read the first post in this series. Experiencing and expressing emotions in the presence of others opens us to the possibility of further wounding, but it...
Reconnecting with Ourselves
For some men and women in recovery from sexual addiction, learning that they have to become better at identifying, experiencing, and expressing their feelings in order to overcome the addiction is enough of a reason to begin trying to become better. This is a good reason. Trust the many who have gone before you. As awkward or odd as it may seem to you, this is a part of the process. And it is...
Revealing Shame
On the surface, shame can be seen as a tool which can keep us aware of our manners, our surroundings, our volume levels. There are those who will say that shameless people are the people who are brash, hasty, impulsive, or loud, and that a healthy dose of shame is what keeps each person a diplomatic member of our society. Any disobedient child who ran across the street without looking or said...
Emotional Muscle
Those struggling with habitual sexual sins most certainly walk in confusion about the meaning and role of emotions in their lives. Some let emotions rule their lives. Others try to stifle or cut off emotions as unimportant. Many do both without realizing either. The sexual addiction cycle is triggered by the presence of some type of pain or discomfort; the cycle culminates in the euphoria of...
Differentiating the Flesh from the True Self
As hard as it can be to believe, God differentiates between the sin that we do and who we are. This is true for every man, woman and child on the planet, whether a believer in Christ or not. God sees His image in us, even when we have been caught in cycles of ongoing sin. This can be hard to accept—that God still sees His beauty in us even at our worst. His ability to see His beauty in us extends...
I Confess
Confession has always been and will always be central to the Christian life. Many of us would like to think that when Scripture teaches about confession, it means something we admit to ourselves or keep between God and ourselves. Admitting the truth to ourselves is essential. Making confession before God is essential. But neither takes the place of confessing to another human being our sins. This...