Journey along with me as we find freedom in our daily lives!
Giving All Year: Our Holiday Traditions
It’s the most wonderful time of the year again. Andy Williams sang it best letting everyone know there will kids jingle belling, parties for hosting and hearts will be glowing. Loved ones will be near and it will the happiest season of all. I’m going to be super honest here and say I only care for certain parts of the Christmas season. What? Yes, it’s true. Hang with me here. There’s too much pressure to get Christmas right. We stress at getting all the gifts ready, Christmas cards out the door, baking cookies, and not to mention teacher...
read moreDevotion: Many Samaritans Believe
This devotion was recently published, and I hope it brings some encouragement during this season. Today’s Reading: John 4:39-42 Many Samaritans Believe 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and...
read moreHonoring your parents
Honoring your parents is something I haven’t always done well. In fact, this post is hard for me to write this year. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, and long conversations on how to make our relationship better. My husband and I discussed several questions on the way home from visiting my family last year. As Thanksgiving approaches and we’re headed back into family time, we want to navigate this well. We want everyone to enjoy our time together and create special memories. As we discussed this topic, my husband and I had some interesting...
read moreHope in Hardship
Hope in hardship is one of the themes of my story. Hope means holding onto courage when you feel like giving up. Courage keeps up moving towards hope. How does someone keep hope during hardship? Give yourself grace. Grace is an undeserved gift. Sometimes the gift is recognizing you’re exactly where you need to be in your story. You don’t have to be as far along as someone else. Whether you’re just leaving your perpetrator or have been out of the relationship for 15 years, giving yourself grace will allow you to enjoy life. Finding and...
read moreWhat is Emotional and Psychological Abuse?
Abuse comes in many different forms leading to different consequences and reactions. Ultimately it is always about power and control. One definition of emotional abuse is: “any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, or any other treatment which may diminish the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth.”1 The perpetrator’s hope is to undermine the self-worth and dignity of the one they are abusing. Often the emotional abuse is carefully constructed so only the victim can understand the depth of...
read moreWhat is Verbal Abuse?
Abuse comes in many different forms leading to different consequences and reactions. Abuse ultimately is always about power and control. The partners’ goal is to maintain power in the relationship and figure out how to control the other person. Verbal abuse is when a person forcefully criticizes, insults, or denounces someone else.[1] Characterized by underlying anger and hostility, it is a destructive form of communication intended to harm the self-concept of the other person and produce negative emotions.[2] While those definitions are...
read moreThe day I met a prophet
This past Sunday was an ordinary day which became extraordinary. On the way to my friends house, I sensed God telling me to stop and buy some homeless guys a sandwich from Subway. There were 3 homeless men hanging out on the corner of Colfax. A little annoyed because I wanted to go to Jimmy Johns, I went into Subway wondering what I was getting into. Going to Subway I walked in and was greeted by a friendly kid behind the counter. Curious, I asked the Subway worker if the homeless guys had been fed. He said no and I told him I wanted to buy...
read moreWhat is Financial Abuse?
Abuse comes in many different forms leading to different consequences and reactions. Abuse ultimately is always about power and control. The partners’ goal is to maintain power in the relationship and figure out how to control the other person. Financial abuse is one of the ways an abuser gains control of the situation. Financial abuse occurs when one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s access to economic resources, such as their source of income, credit cards, etc. This form of abuse is often prevalent and very subtle. The...
read moreRebuild or walk away?
The older you get the harder it is to maintain friendships. Life ebbs and flows, friends move away, and people move on to other circles. Moving this last year and additional health issues caused me to be in a funk. I wondered if this was my new reality or something else was happening. Part of my issue was thyroid cancer and thank goodness it’s gone! The cancer was causing exhaustion and a low-level depression while wreaking emotional havoc on my body. During this time a good friend of mine stopped being friendly. As we met to talk through our...
read moreDigital Detox
This summer I decided to do a digital detox. What a hard thing to tackle. It tested my patience to not be in the know. I wondered what was going on in others lives, but this time gave me space to be present with others. This is why it started in the first place, to be present in my little kids lives. Summer’s are always such precious times as families. Take a step back Taking a step back from the news, social media and other outlets truly helped me to refresh. It was such a lovely summer of refreshment. I’m thinking a much shorter digital...
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