SureHope Counseling & Training Center wants to wish you a very Happy New Year!
With a new year many strive for new goals. Even people who choose not to engage in “new years resolutions” do share a hope that the new year will be an even better year than the last year! At SureHope Counseling & Training Center we choose a topic to dive deeply into each year researching the theological, psychological and practical aspects of the topic and how it could apply to us all. This year, the focus will be on the topic of lamenting.
One of my favorite definitions of lamenting comes from Ann Voskamp:
Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, a God who has His ear to our hearts, a God who transfigures the ugly into beauty. Complaint is the bitter howl of unbelief in any benevolent God in this moment, a distrust in the love-beat of the Father’s heart.
Whenever you start to look at the topics of lamenting it is inevitable that the contrast between a complaint and a lament will be a focus. When we look at the research to see how complaining vs lamenting affect us physiologically, psychologically, spiritually and relationally it is an amazing difference!
As you look at this difference, questions such as the following may arise in your mind:
How do we communicate in lament vs complaint?
How do we practice lamenting?
What is the relationship between lamenting, praise, and gratitude?
What is the power of releasing emotion through lamenting?
How does complaining affect relationships vs lamenting?
How can we teach a child to lament?
How can we teach a teen to lament?
How could lamenting vs complaining help marriage?
So, this year, we as a team will be working to look at this topic thoroughly. We are looking to see how learning to process the day-to-day struggles in life all the way to the moments that are so crisis filled in the process of lamenting could affect our lives. Maybe, we could understand more about what God told Isaiah to share at a deeper daily level:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. – Isaiah 61: 1-3
Learning to live in a way of trusting the “love-beat of the Father’s heart” as Ann Voskamp explains and seeing how beauty comes from ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness would be a wonderful, life changing experience.
God bless,
Kelly Saylor – Learn more about working with Kelly here!
