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Making Your Life Easier TM
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Insights on Living E-letter March 2004 issue
Guilt The U.S. legal system states that we are innocent until proven guilty. Then why in our daily living do we judge ourselves guilty until proven innocent? We feel guilty when we do something we didn’t want to do or don’t do something we wanted to do. The guilty feeling arises when this action or inaction conflicts with who we are. We are beings who are created in love, by love, to love. Feelings of guilt surface when we are not true to this core aspect of who we are, who we belong to and how we are meant to act. Feelings, in general, are really cool because they are our body’s way of communicating to our brain. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to push these feelings aside because we are so busy with day to day living – there are more important things to do! I encourage you to think and act differently when you have a feeling. Move toward what you are feeling. Don’t push it away. Embrace it. Ask questions around it. Why am I feeling guilty? What did I do or not do that brought this on? Allow your mind and body to collaborate in discovering the source of the guilty feeling. There are times when the guilty feeling will be the result of a wrong doing. And more times than not we are harder on ourselves then any penalty of law or those we have wronged. Try to correct the wrong doing as best you can. Learn from it. Ask how you could have done it differently and commit to not doing it again. Tell yourself that you did the best you could at that given moment. Now, you are more knowledgeable about the situation and yourself and can act in a different way. Let’s take a look at God’s perspective on guilt in John 8:4-11. The Pharisees had caught a woman in the act of adultery and the penalty for this was being stoned to death. The Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus and wanted to know how He would handle this issue. As they addressed Jesus He stooped down and wrote in the dirt with his finger. Jesus said to them “All right stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dirt. Upon hearing and seeing Jesus’ response each of the Pharisees left, one by one. Jesus asked the woman “where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” She said, “No Lord.” Jesus said to her, “Neither do I, go and sin no more.” (1) (One of my many questions to Jesus is “what did you write in the dirt?” I image it was the Pharisees wrong doings. What do you think?) Jesus knew this woman was guilty. He forgave her and encouraged her to move forward in her life by not letting this mistake hold her back from the greatness He created her to experience with her life. Yes, we too can learn to forgive ourselves and others. When we do this, we empower ourselves and others to reach for the greatness we were created to experience with our lives. “Go and sin no more.” 1. John 8:4-11 Are you interested in working on this? Call BAM! Coaching to get started.
Copyright © 2004 BAM! Coaching. Permission to distribute this material via email, or individual copies, is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for non-commercial purposes and will not be sold. To reproduce "Insights on Living" E-Letter in any other format, including Internet websites, written permission is needed from Barbara Monahan. |
Copyright © 2004 BAM! Coaching, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
BAM! Coaching, LLC.
