Problems Are Solutions in Disguise

Happy birthday to me.  Happy birthday to me.  Happy birthday to me-e.  Happy birthday to me.

Two things are hard for me to grasp.  First, I am 80 years old today.  My wife says 80 years young today. (Thank you, Dear.) Second, I am launching my blog today.

Welcome to this First Edition.  It is my hope we will become prayer partners and close friends in the ensuing days.

If you’ve read our brief bios, you know New Hope, for over 30 years, is a teaching/counseling ministry.  So let me go to teaching.  And if my teachings raise questions or you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask them through our e-mail link or call me.  I’ll get back to you privately.

Over the years people have asked, “Tom, where do you start when people come to you for counseling”

“I start from the beginning.”

Problems are solutions in disguise.  I know this sounds like an over-simplification of all you have been struggling with for much too long, but it is not.  And it is not up to me to tell you what is the matter with you. It is up to you to tell me.

We do not use temperament analysis testing.  TA is good and has a purpose, but from my perspective, casting you as a personality-type puts you in a box and this may give me for-drawn conclusions that would not be fair to you.  I want to get to know you personally. 

To get this information I start with three questions:

What is the problem as you see it?  In other words, tell me in your own words what caused you to seek counseling.

What have you done about it?  Tell me in your own words your best or lest efforts to resolve the issue(s) that brought you to counseling.

What do you expect me to do for you?  This may seem like an odd question seeing that I am a counselor, but it is not.  I will not deal with every problem that comes to me.  People have asked me to counsel them in matters that are illegal, immoral, unethical or un-Biblical.  We do not do that kind of counseling.

Over 25 years ago God designed a counseling plan which we have followed without compromise. This book has a starting place and a stopping place.          

We call it, Living Principles from the Living Word:  A Biblical Approach to Communication and Problem Solving.

This book is made up of impact statements based on a verse, passage or biblical principle teaching change, and the anatomy of change; problems, and the anatomy of problems; things people do to solve problems that don’t work and why they don’t work; and three basic tools that will solve the problems we encounter in life.

As a blogger, I have set a limit of 500 words per entry. The word entry is word number 478, so I’ll close here.

See you on, (Hmmm.) 9/11.