Prodigal: I think that its a perfect place for the turtles to be.

Me: They have the perfect place to receive the son.

This is from the book Open Heart Open Home by Karen Burton Mains

The church should be the ideal environment to provide safe places for people to touch each other’s lives. Safe places are small groups with whom we can be who we really are in our brokenness and disability and receive assurance of acceptance and spiritual nurturance. We must have guarantees that confidentiality will be maintained; that what we say in the group will not be repeated outside. We must have massive applications of love and loving correction. We must find people who will be truthful without being harmful. When we find safety we are often able then to receive the strength we need to do the hard work of growth that we can only do ourselves.

Being a friend means that we do not repeat what is being told us in confidence. We show love, patience and acceptance. We then tell the truth in love and not in attack mode. We make sure that we look at ourselves and we are not contributing to the problem due to our own sin. This takes work and it is the first step is all about us and our own work.

Mark 10:29

And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org