Finding Validation
You walk into a lobby and you see a sign.
It says: GET YOUR VALIDATION HERE
and just for a moment, before you realise it’s talking about car parking, you wonder if it might mean something more…
Imagine there was a place that we could go to get ‘validated’. To be reassured that we are significant, valuable, an approved human being. Interestingly, most people act as though they think there is. They go to their wardrobes and look for validation in their clothes. They go to work and look for validation in their achievements. They go to their photos and look for validation in their relationships.
So where do we go to get the sort of validation that lasts a lifetime? Some people say lasting assurance lives in a healthy bank account. Others say you find it in healthy children. And still others, in a healthy relationship with God.
We had two speakers speak on the subject of Finding Validation and then enjoy a panel discussion with Justine Toh from the Centre for Public Christianity Panellists / Speakers
Max Jeganathan has an international understanding of the world’s quest for validation. His family came to Australia from Sri Lanka as refugees, and he went on to study law at the Australian National University, and then the University of Oxford. Max became a political and policy analyst, advising the Leader of the Australian Opposition. He now lives in Singapore and is the Director of Thinking Faith where he develops positions on the relationships between faith, politics, public policy, economics and moral reasoning.
Leisa Aitken knows how relationships work. She is a clinical psychologist with a Masters degree from the University of New South Wales. Her post-graduate training includes research into Bowen Family Systems (which explore couple, parent-child and individual relationships), as well as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (a type of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). In short, she understands how your relationships impact you, and what you can do to lessen the shock. Find out about the next exciting Edge at theedge.live
