“The Lord’s Divine Providence Has as Its Goal a Heaven from the Human Race. I have explained elsewhere that heaven did not originate in angels who were created angels at the beginning, and that hell did not originate in a devil who was created an angel of light and was cast down from heaven. Rather, both heaven and hell are from the human race. Heaven is made up of people who are involved in a love for what is good and a consequent discernment of what is true, and hell of people who are involved in a love for what is evil and a discernment of what is false.” (Divine Providence 27)
All posts by Abby Smith
Changing My Life – One Emotion At a Time
I’m sure that I first heard the phrase “emotional intelligence” in the Psychology 101 class I took at university. While I have a vague recollection of thinking it was a cool idea it didn’t really click for me. But now, 10 years later, it is making a daily difference in my life.
Emotional intelligence has a few different definitions. Here’s Wikipedia’s brief definition:
“Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.”
I find that succinct but not very inspiring. This is most likely the sort of definition I was introduced to in school. It makes sense, but has little influence when you don’t understand the depth that this seemingly clear and understandable string of words is really describing.
Continue reading Changing My Life – One Emotion At a Time
Getting Back to the Warm Fuzzy Feelings
Marriage is a complex and layered thing. Loving (and continuing to learn to love) another person is a full, and deep, and nuanced experience. To see someone, learn their way of speaking, understand their body language, know how they think and act, understand their moods, and decide that you love that person and want to be forever with that person is a thing that is dense with knowledge, emotion, and a connection to the spiritual level. It can look like a simple natural world thing of daily interactions, but sometimes we can see and feel more of these layers than usual.
Continue reading Getting Back to the Warm Fuzzy Feelings
Prepared as a Bride
Some of the first passages of the Bible I memorized and learned as a child were the last chapters of Revelation. For nearly as long as I can remember I have known the words about the “holy city, New Jerusalem… prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:3). Even as I memorised it I liked the imagery but didn’t understand the idea.
My dad is a General Church pastor, and I have been raised with the ideas of the New Church. The church organization has significantly affected the trajectory of my life since that is what dictated where my family lived. I am now married to a General Church pastor, so still most of the major life decisions I’m making are directly affected by the church organization. This impact hasn’t always been easy and tidy, and after years of ups and downs I have at times seriously questioned the benefits of a humanly established church organization. Recently I had a few things connect for me about the teachings of the church being the bride and wife that have helped me resolve some of these questions.