REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Three

Going Back in Order to Go Forward

A Deeper Look
Joseph was born into a complex, blended family where Jacob, his father, his two wives, two concubines and their children, all live under one roof. Joseph was Jacob’s favored son. As a result, his brothers grew jealous, leading them to sell him to a merchant who took him to Egypt. For the next 13 years, Joseph lives first as a slave, and later, as a prisoner falsely accused of rape.

Read

• Genesis 50:15-21

Study

• Imagine yourself in Joseph’s shoes sitting in a prison cell without any hope of freedom. What thoughts, feeling or doubts might you have about your family? About yourself? About God?
• Through miraculous intervention, Joseph is pulled from the pit of prison and made the second most powerful person in Egypt. After their father dies, the brothers begin to worry. What assumptions are the brothers making about Joseph?
• Why do you think Joseph weeps?
• Joseph responded with forgiveness. How might you have responded if you were in Joseph’s position?

Journal

• Divide your journaling with three boxes. Journal about each question in the appropriate box.
• Box one: List the life messages you received from your parents (e.g. don’t be weak. Education is everything. You must achieve to be loved)
• Box two: List any “earthquake” events that sent “aftershocks” into your extended family (e.g. abuse, premature or sudden death/loss, divorces, shameful secrets, etc)
• Box three: Look at the first two boxes and summarize what messages about life/yourself/others you internalized. Fill those messages in the third box.
• How do these messages compare with messages about who you are and how life is to be lived in God’s family?
• What might be one specific message from your family that God is revealing to you today that you want to change?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero