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...
Perspective
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
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,...
Your Words Have Power
A new year brings a fresh start and hope for things to be different. Many of us make resolutions. Did you make resolutions? When you make plans for change, there is a real sense of optimism and hope that, this year, some things about your life could be...
Why Choose Gratitude?
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I Thessalonians 5:16-18 While in my early years of college, I met with my pastor to talk about God’s will for my life. I was seeking wisdom...
Let Us See
Do you ever need a fresh perspective? Are you ever so bogged down with your current circumstances that you can’t see the wonder of God around you? Yea…I’ve been there too. When I find myself in that cycle, (and it happens quite often) I need a reset. A change of...
Discovering A New Song Through Suffering
Honesty and openness in the conversation of suffering...it's what we need! Naomi, in the book of Ruth, expresses her pain openly, and feels no pressure to put on a face of pretense. Naomi saw and felt the reality of her suffering, and even more importantly, she saw...
Who Is God When You Are Hurting?
Twenty years after my only sibling and brother died, I struggled again. I wrestled with unanswered questions, trying to understand why God didn’t save him from taking his life. Through the lens of my grief and pain, I was wavering in my belief in who I thought God...
Donna
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV) I have had many tears and sorrows. They began when my fourteen-year old sister died of cancer when I was nine...