ignoring or trying to take away pain and embrace it?” To do so, Arterburn offers several questions that may uncover our masks: • Why am I so angry? • What am I missing? • What are my unmet expectations? • What do I need vs. want? • What do I need vs. what others want from me? • What am I learning? Once you dig deep enough, look for the 3 j’s: • jewel: What is the lesson you need to learn? • Jesus: Where is the Lord in your circumstance? • joke: Where is the ‘joke’ in your situation? Ouch! Stephen Arterburn, Founder Women of Faith Conference
Women of Faith Conference encourages women of all ages to grow in faith and spiritual maturity through a relationship with Jesus Christ and an understanding of God’s grace. Arterburn presented his views during the 2009 conference, A Grand New Day, which took place in Washington, D.C. as well as other cities. Arterburn suggests that learning scripture in and of itself doesn’t transform the believer inasmuch as it doesn’t change one’s circumstance. “True transformation occurs when you can see things from God’s perspective,” he said. He continued, “when we leave behind what we want, and ask what desires does God want for me, we experience transformation.” “What if,” Arterburn continued, “we stop
Our pain often hides deep within because we layer it with busyness: work, hobbies, care giving, and even ministry may mask true feelings. But the pain never really leaves; instead, you just cover it up. “What if instead of keeping the peace, you decide to make peace? When things go wrong, we oftentimes try to please,” said Arterburn. “Now’s the time to stop ‘keeping the peace’ and mix things up in order to ‘make the peace!’” How? Begin by being honest with yourself and honest with God about the secrets in your heart. Once you get down to the root of anger or pain, making peace requires dealing with the conflict. If you avoid conflict, or don’t know how to manage it, you can be at a loss. But in order to move forward, to move past just simply venting, resolving conflict is at the heart of making peace. [continued from page 34]
Beauty for Ashes FALL 2009 •
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