September 9, 2010

September 9, 2010
In class today we talked about the experience of our class so far, related to beginning your in-class counseling experience. I don't know if you realized or not, but I was actually eliciting your cognitions about what your experience had been so far so I could evaluate how the class was helping you, and what we might do that would be more effective. This is typical for the cognitive approach. It is very collabrative.
I love how cognitive therapy is collaborative. And it reminds me how God (even though He has all the answers and all the power to do whatever He wants) is collaborative with us. He often reveals truth to us, then allows us to work to experience how that will look or to discover how we can apply His truth and begin to practice it. Of course He gives us some guidelines to help us, but He waits patiently for us to discover His ways. I can think of many of the Heroes of the Bible, alike Abraham...God revealed the promise of the coming son, but Abraham had to go through God's school of character development before God completed the promise. Joseph experienced the same thing...learning about God's vision for him related to the future, yet had to be prepared (humbled) before he was ready for his God-given task. I'm sure you could think of other biblical examples that show how God works collaboratively through us and even in spite of us!