“Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8
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I strongly
believe that God has called me into the field of counseling. Through out this
processes I have felt the Lord molding me and working on me. I agree with the
authors when they say that it is important for us the counselors to reflect
Christ in our work. In order to be able to do that we must first get to know
God and let him into our lives and let him use mold us and use us. The author
states four characteristics of effective counselors, which are; love,
trustworthiness, authenticity, and self-awareness. I think the best way that we
can find these things are by going to God first and getting to know him better.
Everything we
are learning in class and the skills presented in this book are very important
for us to know. We must take time to learn to connect to a client or learning
how to explore the problem and ask the right questions. However like they
stated in the book by using the example of us learning how to drive, it wont be
until we are out there in the field counseling others that we will truly learn
how to be counselors. However I believe right now is the right time to allow
God to mold us, work in us, and for us to seek him so that we can become more
like him. I am convinced that if we attempt to learn to love the way that God
loved us, if we set out to learn how to be trust worthy and authentic like
Jesus was, and if we continue to seek the truth of ourselves then we will
already have a very good start at becoming counselors.
I cannot agree 100% more with you, Erica. Being molded like clay in the Potter's (God's) hands is one of my favorite metaphors to how I view God's ever-changing work in my personal life as well.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting that through these counseling courses, we all write papers about ourselves in which to reflect our pasts, concerns, problems, etc? All for the purpose of helping us grow as counselors? Of course, it is for our benefit! If the program did not challenge us to look into our core and encourage us to evaluate ourselves...then whoa, who knows what baggage we would bring into actual counseling with our clients! I believe the program allows these assignments for the purpose of molding us and to reduce as much baggage as possible that we bring into our counseling rooms. But, the real secret....(not so much a secret)...the real source of change...is God working in us. Allowing God to prune us. To cut off the bad branches and throwing them into the fire, so that we grow and bear fruit. Christ-like fruit in which we hope will reflect to those around us-family, friends & others.
Thanks for your response Kenny. I agree with you that it is for our own benefit and the clients that we are take this time as students to explore what is in our insides. Once we’ve come to realize the good the bad and the ugly that is inside then we can bring it to God and like you mentioned he is our source of change. He will help us make the adjustments that we need to be able to help others, without having our personal baggage get in the way.
DeleteErica,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, you are certainly on key when you said that we can find the four characteristics (love, trustworthiness, authenticity, and self-awareness). mentioned in the book by going to God. Often times I think that we get so caught in trying to do everything ourselves, that we forget that we can go to God to find the answers. By establishing a relationship with Him, we are able to gain skills and accomplish a lot more than we ever though that we could on our own. Like you stated, we just need to let God be able to mold us and show us the direction He would like us to go.
Thank you for sharing.