Two birds with one stone
One of the requirements for the paper is that I talk to the professor before I start, so I’ve already done that. The paper will be called "Counseling Applications (or Implications) from the story of David and Bathsheba" or something like that.
I’m thinking of an outline that would go something like:
A) Introduction
The topic
Why I chose it
B) Brief overview of the life of David
The shepherd boy
The psalmist
The anointing
The hero
The friend of Jonathan
The hunted
The honorable
The warrior
The king (harem, palace, ark, success)
The turning point
The decline, his sons, his death
C) Salient details and commentary
The disengaged (he’s not at war like kings were expected to be)
The seed of lust
The adulterer
The schemer
The murderer
The cover-up
The confrontation of Nathan
The repentance
The consequences
D) Useful constructs for counseling
What led to the failure?
How did his sin affect his kingdom, family, and relationship with God?
Why does the Bible honor David so much?
Kings and Chronicles are soft on his failure
David’s sins are not mentioned in 1 or 2 Chronicles at all
Bathsheba becomes the mother of Solomon
Solomon becomes part of the genealogy of Jesus
Remembered as a man after God’s own heart
E) Conclusions
Implications drawn from the story
The power of sin
The power of sex
The consequences of sin
The value of repentance
The values of God
God’s amazing plan and redemption
What do you think?
posted by Ted at 11:45 AM
5 Comments:
It looks like an outline for about 50 pages! I'll have to get my APA book to help out on the formatting.
The story speaks of God's willingness to forgive and use a person who is sinful and sins in a public and horrible manner as much as the effects of sin itself. I see hope for those who sin, and are afraid of losing their relationship with God. God is willing to restore people who sin and restore them fully.
More later
G
Wow, Ted! I agree...sounds like the beginning for a thesis. If you can cover all that in 5 pages, I would love to read it (really!). Great topic.
Sorry, no help on APA, I am an MLA girl to the core!
Hey, no worries about being the upstart that bumped me from Phyllis' page...I'll get over it....sniff, sniff..... ;-)
See ya at HG :-)
ellen
Ted, I just found out you have a blog. Cool. Ann and I preached on David and Bathsheba once. You are welcome to look at it if you desire. One of our primary sources was Leap Over a Wall by Peterson.
Hey dad, sorry I haven't commented on this sooner, but hopefully it'll still be helpful.
What is the thesis of your paper? From your outline, I assume your thesis goes something like this: "The life of David contains several themes which are useful constructs for counceling such as the power of sex, sin and consequence, the value of repentance, God's amazing plan and His redemption."
This thesis leaves out why these are useful constructs, however. If sex is powerful, there are consequences for sin, repentance is valuable, God has an amazing plan, and He redeemed David, then so what? What is their practical use? What do you mean by "constructs for counceling?" It seems like a vague term, although I'm sure your professor knows what you mean.
I think also that your whole (B) section will be redundant. It seems like more introductory material, and the relavent parts will be discussed in establishing your themes later in the paper.
This leads me to the layout of your points. You could cover all of the points in your (B) section if you order your paper chronologically, addressing the "Salient details" as they arise. However, I would be more in favor of addressing each theme and presenting your support for that theme, and then wrapping up each paragraph with how it is a useful construct for counseling.
Anyway, to recap: the things you have listed as "conclusions" I think are really just themes found in the story of David. What is the connection to counseling? If there is a connection, then so what?
I have no doubt that you'll do wonderfully, you are a very competent student. Just don't write like an engineer! Have fun storming the castle!
Love,
Justin
P.S.: Ya think it'll work?
Hi Justin,
Thanks for the comments. I'll have to post the entire paper when I get it written.
I'm not sure I like the section heading titles, and will have to rethink those. I will talk about why this section of scripture provides useful lessons to someone counseling a man at various stages of life, and I won't be redundant in section B. Section B will only have one (at most 2) sentences that overlap the rest of the paper. It is a good point that I could combine sections D and E more and just make E just a 3 sentence exit, so we'll see how that comes out.
Bless you!
Ted
p.s. It’ll take a miracle!
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