Springtime is the traditional time to clean your house from the winter blues. But after the shelf dusting, plant sprucing and remodeling, you still have to deal with the person in the mirror.
An internal spring cleaning may be long overdue.
Matthias Beier, professor of pastoral care and counseling at Christian Theological Seminary and author of The Violent God Image, offers his tips on how to dust off the winter blues from your spiritual life.
Believe you absolutely matter.
“Clean out your mind from ideas or voices that say you don’t matter. Do not reduce yourself to your circumstances, or how others see you. It may take some practice, but it’s something everyone can tell themselves, ‘I matter!’”
Let go of a violent God image.
“Part of what is important spiritually is distinguishing between images of God that let us live, and those that kill us. Learn to find a face in God that is nonviolent, loving us no matter what. Really question if there is violence being suggested in the name of God from other people. Be suspicious of those violent suggestions no matter who says them.
Forgive.
“If we don’t forgive we really carry a burden with us. Even if the other person hasn’t apologized, set yourself free. It’s a practice that says, I’m no longer defined by what was done to me. Those things weigh us down! Forgiveness is not about the other person it’s about oneself. God is not someone that puts big burdens on people, but helps them be set free.”
Believe love is real.
“No matter what your disappointments are, love is possible. Believe that you’re lovable. Because people who were treated like they were unlovable, tend to believe that. Don’t give up on loving! Believe that all the dead weight or emotional physical scars will not have the last word. Believe God’s love is stronger.”
Spiritual spring
cleaning Scriptures
Psalm 139:13-14
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Isaiah 1:18
“No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
