Spiritual Discernment Paper

While reading the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, I did not expect to come across a spiritual discipline that would be a perfect combination of my own idea of spiritual formation, and a wonderful way to connect with the Lord. What I mean by this, is that I was wanting to create a gratitude journal, but I wanted it to be deeper than just a list of things that I was thankful for. That is why I fell in love with the idea of writing responses to the questions that were posed in the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, but still taking a few minutes to write a list of things that I am grateful for! A journal like this is also a great way for me to see the strong points in my day or week, and the areas where I need improvement. Since journaling has always

The voice of vocation is mostly discerned through the heart; therefore, one must consciously be aware of the matters that occupy the heart. In John Neafsey’s “A Sacred Voice Is Calling,” Neafsey asserts “The voice of vocation is the voice of God” (Neafsey, 6). By hearing the voice of God, we’re able to reach the destiny God predestined us for in life and especially in our vocations. In order to hear the voice of God, you have to be able to discern between the many voices you hear every day, the voice of your conscience, and God’s voice. You do so by: consistently managing the matters of the heart- monitoring what you allow to physically and mentally enter into your heart, learning to discern between those things by familiarizing yourself with

Evidence has linked a strong relationship between spirituality and medicine. There is a positive correlation between a patient’s spirituality or religious commitment and health outcomes. A spiritual assessment as a part of a health assessment is a practical step to incorporating patient’s spiritual needs into practice. The FICA Tool and HOPE Questions provide serve to assist clinicians in the spiritual assessment process. By examining the research done using these tools, it has been determined that the FICA Tool is easy to use and provides basic data on a patient’s spirituality. The FICA tool is both reliable and valid. The HOPE Questions are

What role do values play in selecting a career in the helping professions? Values are important in selecting a helping profession because they help individuals choose a career that corresponds with their interest. Knowing my strengths and weakness help me choose a career that met my needs. Also, knowing my weakness helps better prepare me for my helping

In providing basic health care in hospitals, medical practitioners should not only focus on giving physical treatment to patients but also provide spiritual and psychological assessment and management for them. This practice as suggested by many studies (see Chapman, 2003; Eberst, n.d.,) can help the hospitals develop a new method of healing that is more holistic in approach. The Joint Commission (2005) recommends spiritual assessment program which can help the medical officers to know the needs of the patients aside from the usual physical treatment. It will help them

A spiritual and psychological inventory can be useful in helping someone to determine their current state of wellness. Kathleen Dowling Singh (2000) talks about how a spiritual assessment is helpful when people are close to dying as they begin to honestly and urgently examine their lives. Singh (2000) also suggests that regardless of how much time we have left to live, answering the questions in a spiritual inventory will help provide direction to our lives. The following questions were developed for this purpose and were used for an interview, the responses from the interview follows in Appendix A.

Throughout history in the United States, we have multiplied the amount of individuals who are considering or participating in the fields: social work and/or counselor. These career fields are not always positive because individuals see situations that makes them cringe. However, there is a lot of rewarding aspects of these specific fields, each individuals learns how to help individuals with hard situations, help parents understand about why a child is acting a certain way, and help individuals who are seeking help for a various of reasons. Having a career you are passionate about should not matter if you are getting paid a million bucks to a dollar, it should be about the love and compassion you have to help a person in need.

As I started to read the required material for the first week in the book. It stated that if you are looking to make a lot of money human services is not the career of choice. I started to think, people who make six figure are not happy because they decided on a career basic on the salary. In life it is all about happiness, don’t get me mislead money plays a big part in everything. But happiness is the key living a long life, choosing a career because of money simply will make a people not love their career. Human services are my choice for a career because money wasn’t my primary focus, helping people in tough times was my concentration. Everyone needs help in their lives and I decided that a career human services, will always be about

At work our manager decided to do something fun for the office to raise office morale. She got individual photos of us and stuck them on magazine pages. My photo was put on a 4 year old boy hanging from monkey bars for a Target advertisement. This magnified how I had felt most of my life. That people considered me to be the immature one. Therefore, when having to choose a discipline from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the one that resonated with me the most was discernment as the desire is “to delight in and recognise the voice and will of God”.

When making career decisions that are in harmony with one’s self and with the will of God (Christian, 208) one should be praying for wisdom to make godly decisions, sensing inner

A spiritual journal is an honest record of my spiritual journey. This is my place to record my prayers and hopes, struggles and hurts, thoughts and questions about my personal and spiritual life. This is where I document how God is speaking in my life. A journal is a tool that can help me go back and recall the times I wandered, the things I've learned and places where I grew up as a Christian.

I think back to about six months ago when I was sitting at home in Evansville, Indiana. I knew that I was going to be coming to Liberty University for seminary in the spring and it was time to choose the classes that I would be taking. I was working to try to fit everything into my schedule and figure out which classes were offered when. As it turns out, there were only about 4 that I could feasibly and logically fit into my schedule. I had an idea of all of them except one. Discipleship Ministries 520: Spiritual Formation. To be completely honest, the topic was foreign to me. I could deduct off the two words that it was about being formed spiritually but that was about it. I know that I will get into this later

Spirituality is a solitary journey. Regardless of your situation—whether you are a loner, a part of a group study or have numerous close friends with which you collaborate and advance, ultimately the only one responsible for your progression is yourself. In my relatively short time exploring metaphysics, I have noticed a variety of social situations. These range from people with a light curiosity whose spirituality is nothing more than a passing fancy, to the casual observers or skeptics, and all the way to the more hardcore ones who integrate metaphysical practices into every facet of their lives. The mindset of the individual will greatly influence their progression and experiences with energy work. I would like to start out by advising people to remain grounded and level-headed whilst interacting with people on spiritual topics, especially if they are in relation to the more intermediate to advanced techniques. Ultimately, people are quite capable of faking things, of interjecting subtle manipulations into their words through the keyboard and computer screen. There are even ways of 'faking' your energy signature, of making it seem to be something far more grandiose than it actually is. This seems obvious, but it bears repeating numerous

Throughout the semester I have developed an understanding for the spiritual disciplines; silence, solitude, and Sabbath; which has taught me how to live an intention Christ-centered life. The disciplines have not only helped my personal daily life, but they have also helped me better understand Christ himself. I can, without a doubt, say that I know that God gave us the gifts of spiritual disciplines to help guide us in the crazy culture we live in. I have gained a new appreciation for the maker of our world as He has gone out of His way to love on us, and all He asks us in return to practice disciplines and grow closer to him. The disciplines have have taught me that seeking God is about more than just saying a prayer before bed. Instead, it is practicing the disciplines and seeing His faithfulness through the actions. My practice of silence has taught me that the world is a loud place full of so many distractions. This specific practice has helped me seek God, in a deep way, by committing to listening to him in silence rather than wondering why I could never here him in the midst of the crowds. My practice of solitude has become a sort of Bible study time for me. A time to be alone and remember all the good our King has done and will continue to do for us. My practice of Sabbath has helped me start of each week with a positive outlook. Surprisingly it has also given me a deeper understanding of academics as well as it forces me to get my homework done before my day of

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883) said, “Each man has his own vocation, his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.” (p. 112). He was speaking of the gifts granted us by God to fulfill the plan that He has for our life. Discovering and utilizing those gifts is part of the decision making process in career counseling. Christians advocate the use of spiritual discernment in order to guide the decision making process. Properly interpreting the will of God for one’s life is at the heart of each of our choices including those choices involving vocation.