Mental Health Meets Faith
Body image has been an area of my life that I have had to be on guard for lies influenced by the media, my own unrealistic expectations, and the enemy of my soul. I have had to be intentional about replacing a lie saturated narrative about what makes me beautiful and replace it with Gods truth. Different seasons in my life have brought different changes in my body. In some seasons I have carried more […]
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5) I spend a lot of time thinking about thoughts. That may sound a little funny, but a long journey with anxiety has taught me that paying attention to my thinking is crucial. Prior to that, anxiety was often a debilitating force, wreaking havoc in the background of […]
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Eph. 2:10) Recently, I stumbled across this quote in a book I read: True freedom will only bloom in your life when you put on the truth of who God says you are. Knowing who God wants you to be is not the same as practicing who He wants you […]
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of the world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Rom. 12:2) One night as I was dozing off into sleep, an image came to my mind of one of those old computers, the kind that extended from floor to ceiling and took up a […]
Recently, I wrote a creative piece entitled Letting Go of Control and Splashing into Life. This piece was birthed out of a recent experience I had, during which I felt the Lord speaking to me about the role control has played in my life. This was not a new theme for me, as I have dealt with “control freak” tendencies over the span of my life. However, it did uncover a new layer of a familiar subject and brought […]
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. (Isa 61:1) Jesus read these words in a synagogue on the Sabbath in his hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19). According to the scripture, He read these words not long after he was […]
What are some of the elements of your favorite movies? Is it the suspense? Is it the feel-good vibes? Is it the true story content? What about the storyline of the overcoming underdog? When it comes to our lives, we all direct our own stories, or movies, if you will. For fellow Christians, we might ask, “Hold up. Doesn’t God direct our story?” I think the answer to that is yes and no. God loves to direct our lives, with his permission. He doesn’t […]
This morning as I was driving to church the beauty of the day struck me. The sky was amazingly bright and blue. I found myself thanking God and filled with joy. Along the ride, I began to notice that up ahead were massive gray clouds that appeared as a wall before me. Even though I was surrounded by blue sky, clouds loomed up ahead. As I arrived at my destination, at first glance, I could no longer see the sun. Dark […]
As I am writing this, it is September 29. I started graduate school this month. With the start of school, many of my lofty goals have gone out the window and much of my time is spent with a highlighter and a book in my hand. Although in my academic past, I have prided myself on being able to do it all and to achieve with flying colors, I have come to the rude awakening that this time […]
I like to hold on to things. Whether it be a relationship, a past season, reveling in the good times or processing through the bad, I have a difficult time letting things go. These past several months, I have been learning a lot about the art of letting go. There are times in our lives when God is asking us to close the chapter behind us and turn the page into the new thing He […]