Any value in digging up our "hurts" from childhood?

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Stope

Puritan Board Sophomore
I have friends who are taken by a fellow who, is a Christian, but hes almost like "Christian" version of Tony Robbins... He is encouraging them to "look inside", to really "grasp your past", to "wrestle with events that made you who you are"...

In other words, he seeking like "inner healing". But, I find there surely is some good to be derived, HOWEVER it just seems to put man at the center, it seems to be using Jesus as a guru to "healing", it seems to be really majoring on a minor... My question then is:

1. Is there a place for this? If so, what does it look like and whats the scriptural warrant?
2. What good and bad can come from really "looking in" and examining (not in the sense of "Examine" before communion) one own self and past and thoughts and such...?
 
There is little good in this. It often manufactures blaming others. Looking to the future is better.
 
Generally no, it's not a good idea. However, if people are harboring anger, etc., then pursuing that to the root in a Christian context can have positive outcomes. But a lot of it is person-specific.
 
Sometimes people really do have deep hurts they're pretending don't exist. It can help to admit them, but a Christian must also remember it is Jesus who brings true healing.

Some pastors like to quote M'Cheyne who said something like, "For every look you take at yourself, take ten looks at Christ." They usually quote it in the context of looking at our sin. But I suspect we could extend it to looking at sins committed against us. For every look you take at how you've been sinned against, take ten looks at Christ.
 
There is also the unintended consequences of trying to clear one's conscience. I have a cousin who was hurt deeply in childhood by a family member. In turn, he hurt others. Decades passed until he felt the need to revisit the hurt. He felt compelled to sooth his conscience, and thought bringing it up to the people he hurt (and asking for their forgiveness) would help. It had the opposite effect. He opened old wounds that caused more harm than the original offense. This shouldn't be used as a reason to avoid making things right, but wisdom should prevail.


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The Apostle Paul acknowledges his past but his focus was always forward looking and Christ centered.

Philippians 3:13-14; "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
 
The Apostle Paul acknowledges his past but his focus was always forward looking and Christ centered.

Philippians 3:13-14; "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Nice!!!
 
Much of confronting one's childhood comes out of Freudian (hence Darwinist) thinking.

From a Biblical perspective, we do see family problems passing themselves down from generation to generation. But recognizing this leads to seeing what sins we might be most predisposed toward. An alcoholic parent could result in our own bitterness or higher-than-average chances we'll have trouble with intoxication. However, our sanctification still requires looking to God's law and forgiveness, not our inward psychobabble.
 
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