Mental Health Meets Faith
Perfect love. Perfect love expels all fear. (1 John 4:18) I’ve known a lot of imperfect love in my lifetime. Conditional love, selfish love, love that wasn’t really love at all. I’ve known what it is to fear being intimately known, to be known with all my faults, my fears, my insecurities. I’ve known what it’s like to fear that if my weaknesses and vulnerabilities were to be uncovered, I’d be abandoned…rejected, alone. I have been blessed beyond […]
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:37-39) For the last few weeks, I have been writing about […]
Emotional Abuse: Escaping the Cycle Now, Consistency… I remember what I was thinking about in the final weeks before my wedding. I felt differently than I thought I would feel, but in a good way. The movies and my imagination have always told me that romance and love are strung together with one big moment after another. Everything is sudden and surprising. Everything is always new and exciting. As I prepared to get married, I […]
It has been on my heart for quite a while to write a blog series on dating relationships. As a newly married woman, I feel like I have graduated the dating phase so to speak. Looking back on my experiences, I’d like to talk about toxic/abusive relationship traits versus healthy life-giving relationship traits. I’d like to start by talking about a huge topic, boundaries, mainly physical boundaries. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul writes, “Do you […]
A couple days ago marked the one-month anniversary of being married to my best friend. Two years ago, I remember crying in the back of a church parking lot with my best friend. It was the day I was supposed to get married to someone else. The engagement had fallen through and I had made some bad choices along the way. I found myself in a giant mess trying to piece my heart back together. […]
In just over three months, I am getting married to the sweetest man on the planet. This man accepts me for who I am and loves me totally and completely, flaws and all. He appreciates both the crazy goofy side of me and jumps in the fun, but also takes the time to hear the serious and private matters close to my heart. His love feels like a warm, cozy blanket and I feel at […]
Recently I came across the following from Danny Silk on Instagram: I can and will choose to love. You have the CHOICE! In John 15:16, Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you…” Jesus chose us in the most difficult of circumstances. He chose you while you were in sin, while you were his enemy. Even before the foundations of the earth, He chose you. When Jesus says, “I choose […]