At first glance complaining appears to be nothing but negative. If someone were to put a glass of water in front of you filled up halfway, what would you see? Would you see a glass half empty, or would you see a glass half full? As you know the half empty perspective is considered pessimistic. This ...
How Lamenting Leads to Spiritual and Mental Growth
When practicing the skill of lamenting it leads to spiritual and mental growth. You may be asking how is this so? To engage in lamenting, you eventually start to answer certain questions that tell you where you are in your relationship with God and how to work through the emotional and spiritual ...
Teaching Teens to Lament
Our initial reaction to teens needing to learn how to lament may be incredulity. What do teenagers need to lament about? What significant loss could they be experiencing that would benefit from deep processing and require healing? I agree that not all teens may be experiencing intense grief and loss ...
Lament: Bringing Our Complaints to God
“Life begins with tears; it’s simply part of what it means to be human—to cry is human” (Vroegop, 2019, p. 25). Life is indeed messy. It is part of the human condition to experience pain, sorrow, and suffering. It is not something most seek out or enjoy but work hard to avoid. We may try to ...
Why Grieve Childhood Trauma?
While not everyone can boast of having an idyllic childhood, neither do most people prefer to point out their parents’ flaws. Many cultures (including Christians) might consider remembrance of negative childhood events as disloyal or dishonoring to elders who went before us. Still others might ...
