Changes That Heal
This is a book that I took a long time to pick up but then couldn't put down easily. It's a great read. It is really a self assessment guide. It's a good balance between psychology and Christianity.
The start of the book asks if you are dissatisfied, depressed, anxious? Or whether we have challenges coping with life and relationships?
Whatever your responses to the questions, this is a great reflection on Grace and Truth and how those translate into relationships with self, others and God. Truth should be consistent not dependent on how life is going or what is now politically acceptable. Grace allows us to forgive and accept forgiveness. Time is also introduced as a factor that helps with healing from hurts which are a result of a lack of grace and truth being experienced by us.
These things help us to bond with others and how we bond affects our relationships with everyone in our lives. Bonding affects our feelings of acceptance and love or indeed isolation, addiction and all sorts of problematic thinking and actions.
Then there are sections in the book dedicated to boundaries and responsibilities. Realizing what we should be responsible for (our thoughts, attitudes, words, actions) and what isn't within our control and shouldn't be; the actions, thoughts, feelings (within reason) and attitudes of others.
What struck me the more I read is how first of all, I wanted everyone I know to read this book and also how the more I read it, the more I realized how my life has been affected by many of these things. It was refreshing and trans-formative to be very reflective and try to practically apply lessons learnt from the book in my everyday life and change how I process information from others and my environment. ACCEPTING that sometimes "staying in my lane" means allowing others to make their own decisions and that my influence on that should be limited has been difficult and will remain a work in progress probably for the rest of my life but, at least I have accepted that too and I am working on it... Be it slow progress.
Back to the book. Really, please just get a copy and read it. However, it also delves into how we process good and bad experiences and how that colours our view of the world and our development as people, especially adults. As adults, we are expected to handle life and juggle many aspects of it. The end of the book brings together all the items I have placed in italics and bold and so many other things to help us be better, stronger adults.
The most useful non-fiction book I read in 2018! A great way to start the year, the right way too.
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