The third-grade student looked up sheepishly at his teacher after grading his own paper. Several red marks stood out on the page, silent accusers of his incompetency -- or so he feared. But the teacher's eyes brightened when she saw his paper. "Oh, you caught yourself!" she said. "Good job! Did you know that mistakes are valuable? You can learn from them and figure out what to do next time." A weight lifted from the boy's shoulders. He had caught himself! He had done a good job! Now he could figure out how to better solve the same problems next time. This is the power of regret. Continue Reading
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9 Ways to Enjoy a Better Christmas This Year
Perfect timing. For three weeks, we've been talking about Western cultural values and how they negatively impact our relationships. Now Christmas looms. No other season brings out the best and the worst in us quite like this one. But there's good news. The deepest darkness makes the best contrast for light. So let's come up with creative ways to counter-act these undesirable traits: consumerism, materialism, pleasure/entertainment-dependency, pain-avoidance, image-sensitivity, information-addiction, productivity-driven, utilitarianism, and entitlement. 1. Contentment vs. Continue Reading
9 Cultural Values that can Ruin Your Relationships – Part 2
Last week, we looked at how consumerism, materialism, and love of pleasure affect our relationships. Today we'll tackle three more negative cultural traits that can undermine your sense of connection to other people. Remember the list of traits? Here are all nine: Consumerism — getting stuff and using it up Materialism — choosing things over people Pleasure-dependency — gotta be entertained Pain-avoidance — don’t want to hurt Image-sensitivity — looks are everything Information addiction — craving to know it all now Productivity-driven — accomplishments matter Continue Reading
9 Cultural Values that can Ruin Your Relationships – Part 1
Welcome to a blog mini-series! For the next three weeks, we're going to examine nine core values common to our culture. These values negatively affect our relationships every day. They hugely influence the way we see ourselves and others in terms of worth and acceptance, how we relate to each other, and how we cope with the pain life brings us. By the end of this series, I hope you'll be able to recognize these patterns -- and with God's help, swim upstream against their influence. You'll find most of these paradigms in "The Immersion Experience," a curriculum by Dr. David Continue Reading