For most of my life, I have had a complicated relationship with my family. Due to past and present wounds, it can be hard for me to want to talk to a few select members. While I have expressed my feelings, nothing has changed. My therapist once told me that if I shared my feelings…
“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 Knowing when to let go of a fragmented relationship is a serious decision that requires God’s wisdom. You can…
For our 25th wedding anniversary, my husband and I decided to take a trip to see the other part of the country that we had not visited before. Day after day, as we traveled and saw many great sights, we had a great time. However, as our physical bodies began to tire, our communication skills…
The idea of finding your soulmate is deeply ingrained in our American culture. Just think of every Disney princess movie where we see the young girl waiting patiently for her soulmate and prince charming to sweep in for that happily ever after! When we buy into this idea of the need to find our ‘perfect…
Staying connected when life gets full is really hard. I want to be my husband’s best friend, but that is really hard to do when we work, our kids play sports, and we have a big family that requires a lot of time and attention. A lot of days, we barely make it to the end…
As beautiful and wonderful as Sarah is described in the Bible, it seemed she had a moment of parental misdirection, thinking she had come up with a way of solving her and Abraham’s childlessness by giving her handmaiden to him to fulfill God’s promise of a son to her husband. Sarah’s seemingly parental misdirection didn’t…
Attending a Bible college, I saw people getting engaged and getting married. From a young age, my college friends were taught the importance of getting married and how much their lives needed to center around marriage. Women are often taught that our worth is linked to marriage. If a person is married, people treat them…
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Philippians 4:6 NLT When you’re upset with someone or you feel hurt by them, the last thing you typically want to do is pray for them. Our human nature when someone hurts you is to…
The apostle Paul knew that believers can be different in personality, expectations, past wounds and experiences, and how they express themselves, so he provided helpful instruction for how to maintain unity. I find his instruction especially helpful when it comes to the different ways family members grieve. In Philippians 2, he told believers to make…
After studying more than 3,000 couples in his Love Lab, Dr. John Gottman has discovered that the most important issue in marriage is trust. Can I trust you to be there for me when I’m upset? Can I trust you to choose me over your friends? Can I trust you to respect me? Couples that…