The school counselor has much knowledge and information at his disposal, and counsels many people of many different backgrounds. Sometimes he or she will deal with a pupil who has outlandish wants or ideas which may be difficult, impossible, or not even have any basis in reality. At the same time, the pupil will sincerely believe in these proposals and actually consider them possible. As the Christian does the worst disservice to a friend by not telling them the gospel of Jesus Christ to try to keep them out of hell, so the counselor does the worst disservice to his charge by not dissuading him or her from impossible and unrealistic goals.
However, this has two problems. The first one is the temptation to "call a spade a spade" and describe the goals for the foolishness they are. The counselor must be careful to respect the thinking, planning, and wants of the person being counseled while tactfully addressing the ideas. The second problem is in accurately addressing the plans. Many of the most successful people have succeeded at plans that other people called impossible, such as Moses succeeding at leading 2,000 to 3,000 people through the Red Sea.
Dealing with such a problem entails first calming and appeasing the offended sensibilities of the counselee. This will require much tact and meekness in the face of indignant anger. The counselor himself may also be indignant when confronted with the possibility that he or she did something wrong. Thus, the counselor who encounters such a problem will have to tread lightly, "convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2b).
Usually a counselee is on good terms with his or her parent, and the counselor will not need to contact them because the counselee communicates all relevant information on his own. Occasionally the counselee does not want the parent to know of his or her plans, or even of the visit to the counselor. However, the counselor may...