a questionnaire - identifying your false beliefs

I don't know about the guys, but every woman loves a questionnaire!

Last week we talked about how wrong beliefs are the root cause of all our sins and most of our negative emotions. But how do you identify your wrong beliefs?

Here's a helpful questionnaire from a seminar on burnout I went to recently.* You might like to print it out and fill it in. In a day or so, I'll share some of God's great answers to these wrong beliefs.

Catching your false beliefs

Here are some common beliefs that people live by. How would you challenge them? Choose two or three that influence you a lot, and make a commonsense and a biblical challenge for each.

1.Demand for approval (Everyone must like me.)
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2. High expectations (I must be thoroughly competent and achieving, and always get it right.)
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3. Condemning the offender (If I, or others, make mistakes or do wrong, we are bad and worthless.)
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4. Low frustration tolerance (I cannot stand frustration, unfair treatment or rejection.)
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5. Emotional irresponsibility (I’m not responsible! Someone else can handle that.)
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6. Anxious over-concern (I must worry about things that have potential for problems. What if…?)
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7. Problem avoidance (Avoid difficulties and responsibilities in life. Let’s have fun! Self-discipline is a struggle.)
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8. Historic determinism (It’s not my fault. It’s just how I am! It’s so and so / such and such which is at fault.)
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9. Need for perfection (Situations and people should be good and it’s awful and horrible when they are not! Everything needs to work out how I imagine it, or I can’t cope!)
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10. Passive happiness (Happiness should just come to me. I can’t be bothered! Why doesn’t life work out for me?)
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*The seminar on burnout was at MTS Challenge Conference Victoria, and was led by Janet Reeve who teaches pastoral care at BCV. She adapted these questions from Charles Taylor's The Skilled Pastor: Counselling as the Practice of Theology.

image is from artnoose at flickr