There is a word that makes me wince whenever I say or hear it. Not that it is a ‘bad’ word, but it is a word that seems to hold some baggage for me and many others. Maybe you are one of those people. What is that word, you ask? That word is boundaries. I learned...
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Why We Do What We Do
Can you imagine what it must have been like traveling the 2,170 miles of the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to the Oregon Territory? Let’s say that you were among the first to travel in 1811 when the trail was only wide enough to use by walking or on...
How To Find Your People
A year ago, in the middle of the school year, our family moved to a new state following a dark season of loneliness and disappointment. I prayed in desperation for God to help my kids recover. I prayed He would provide them with just one good friend. But friendships...
A Thirst For Worth
Have you ever felt you weren’t enough? Enough for your parents, enough for your spouse, enough for your friends, even enough for God or yourself? The longing to be enough can often lead us to search for our worth and value in achievements or in relationships. The...
From Pain To Purpose
…but no one could heal her.” ( Luke 8:43) NIV Have you ever been in a place of painful uncertainty, desperate for answers? I have. And I have desperately wanted to be in a much different place. Uncertainty can be such a lonely place, but isn’t it a space...
Generation To Generation: Transmission of Dysfunction and How to Stop It!
Dysfunctions tumble down through the generations, “piggybacking” on each other. Some of us have been victims of multigenerational tidal waves of dysfunction. To whatever degree you’ve been negatively affected by family dysfunction, I want you to know: It didn’t start...
Hope Realized
The previous conversation left us wanting, for its definition of hope turned out to be mere wishful thinking. It offered no surety, no rescue from despair. So, is there more? Yes, there is more. We have another definition of hope. Used in a spiritual context,...
Hope
What is hope? What have you heard about it? What do you think it is? Sometimes it seems hope is offered as a vague antidote to suffering, leading to more questions than answers. “Just have hope!” people say. Is it a magic medicine that cures all ills? Or,...
But, GOD!
It was May 13, 1999. I hung up the phone with my dad, sobbing in confusion and shock over the news he had just given me. My brother was gone. He had taken his life after a long battle with depression. I couldn’t fully process the reality of his death and I didn’t have...