As I work with Christian folk in my practice, I pick up an overriding theme - "I want my behaviour to be more in keeping the values that I profess. I know how I want to be, how I want to relate to others, but I keep on falling back to old habits which seem to undermine my efforts."
Isn't this the story for all of us? We sincerely go forward, desiring to be that good person that we believe we can be, but the reality of our daily life is that we keep on failing; keep on falling short of the "standard" that we set for ourselves.
Acknowledging this pattern, possibly in much the same way as Paul recognised it in his own life when he said, "I cannot understand my own behaviour. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself doing the very things I hate......Instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want." (Romans 7:15, 19)
Shedding light on this human condition of ours can be a helpful movement toward self-understanding rather than exacerbating our normal inner tension by relating to ourselves in negative, harsh ways.
