The Choice to Investigate Your Life in Search of Truth
THE THIRD BIG LIE:
“It does no good to look back or look inside.”
“Let us . . . examine our ways” (Lam. 3:40
NKJV).
When you are willing to take a look, you may
discover some areas that need work and that when
worked on lead to healing.
Following are twenty questions that will aid
in taking inventory of your life:
Starting as early as you can remember, who were the people in your life that hurt you?
Was there anything you did to bring on that hurt, or were they solely responsible?
What was your reaction to that hurt? Did you forgive them, hold on to a grudge, or seek revenge?
In what ways, if any, could you have altered your reaction to the hurt?
Starting as early as you can remember, who were the people in your life that you hurt?
Did they do something first that hurt you, or were you acting without provocation?
Arrange your list of those you hurt in the order of the most damage to the least.
What was your reaction when you first realized you had hurt each person?
What have you done to rectify the problem caused by your hurtful actions?
How could you make restitution?
Are you aware of your five greatest strengths? Write down what you think they are, and then ask five people to tell you what they think they are.
Are you aware of your five greatest weaknesses? Write down what you think they are, and then ask the same five people to tell you what they think they are.
What have you done to misuse your strengths? How have you been a good steward of them or wasted them?
What have you done to use your strengths well? Ask those five people where they have seen you use them well.
What have you done to correct or work on your weaknesses?
What could you do to work on them further? Make a list.
What could you do to make restitution to those you have hurt?
Who could help you walk through a path of forgiveness toward those who have hurt you?
Write down a plan to contact those you have hurt, and begin contacting them if it would not cause greater damage. What things did they tell you about yourself as you discussed the past?
What person could be your partner in truth? How could that person help you discover the truth about yourself and motivate you to continue to work on the areas that need help?
If you take these twenty steps, monitoring how you feel along
the way and journaling those feelings and other insights, you will
come to know yourself better. You will be taking what you know
and using it to uncover what you do not know.
“Those who are sad now are happy,
because God will comfort them” (Matt. 5:4 NCV).