Counseling with Each other

This week I learned about the importance of counseling with those we love and the importance of expressing how we feel in a loving way. When we express our pain to someone we love with blame, then that person will automatically become defensive. Say someone you love likes to make jokes that hurt your feelings. If you were to confront them in a way such as,"You know, you are such a jerk when you say things like that and it is the reason why I have low self esteem", they are most likely to become defensive. You just insulted them while trying to express how you feel. But if you were to express how you feel without blame, then it evokes compassion. For example saying something like,"You know, I don't appreciatedwhen you say those things because it hurts my feelings". You are telling that person that they have hurt your feelings and what they did to hurt your feelings. Confronting someone can be very difficult, but if done in the right way, you can receive positive results.

A scripture that I love is Proverbs 11:14. It states,"Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety". I love this scripture because it talks about the important of counseling with our council. I recently had an experience that has strengthen my testimony in counseling with our councils. This morning, my two roommates (who is my best friend and cousin) got into an argument. They are both pretty suborn so I knew that I would probably have to step in if things were to be resolved. I remember learning about a family council meeting and decided to apply that principle to this situation. Although one of my roommates really did not want to sit down and talk about things, I pleaded with her until she agreed. I started with a prayer to hopefully bring in the Spirit and then let them talk. I was sort of the mediator and made sure that no one would cut each other off or make sure that no one would roll their eyes. It was amazing to me that after we had sat down and talked, how we were able to clear things up. It ended up just being a lot of miscommunication that resulted in feelings being hurt, but after talking it out we were able to fix everything. I am so grateful that we decided to do that and I know that it really strengthened our friendship with each other.