Freedom

“Get that thing out of here!” I shrieked as the snake slithered down the hall and out of sight. “Aw, that thing is more afraid of you than you are of it,” Tom said. I cast a withering look in his direction, every nerve in my body on edge, poised and waiting for the creature to reappear. Of course, I …

My family and I recently relocated to the sunny state of Florida. The sun is always shining, and the drivers are always angry. The rules of the road here are mere “suggestions” to your average Floridian, and it’s taking this slow-backroads-driving girl some getting used to. One Sunday morning, I was driving to church on a winding, residential road. The …

Congratulations. You made it through the first few months of the year. With all the negativity and heightened emotions, it’s nothing short of a miracle that we’re all still here in one piece. Take a deep breath. We’re going to make it. As a way of offering a breath of fresh air, I want to take the next few moments …

Have you ever felt let down by God? I have definitely been there. One time in particular jumps to the forefront of my mind … I remember the feeling of being under water. Wave upon wave of pain. I described it to others as the throbbing pain you get when you slam your finger in the door combined with getting …

You’re heard the proverbial question, “If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?” Our minds flash back to that stupid mistake (or series of mistakes) we made as teenagers. Or we think of the first marriage. Or the second one. Or the third one. We may feel that residual pang of regret, even if …

Blindsided, flattened as if by a freight train, and covered in toxic slime. Ever felt like that? Chances are, each one of you has been mistreated so badly at some point in your life that you were left dumbfounded. Interactions with abusive (or just plain mean) people can leave you feeling as though you’re covered in a funky, debilitating slime. …

I spent the first portion of the year forging through Brene Brown’s Living Brave semester. This online course delved into her two bestselling books: Daring Greatly and Rising Strong. During the 12-session class I pressed into challenging introspective work that caused me to turn my emotional insides out, dissecting them with microscopic analysis. Some days were really ugly, like dumpster-diving …

I recently landed on a Facebook post that referenced a Coast Guard – On Scene article about recognizing when a person is drowning. As I read, I began to sense the Holy Spirit resonating a spiritual reality in the description of someone who is caught in “Instinctive Drowning Response.” In the article, Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., identifies the natural form …

Identity theft is scary any way you look at it. But there’s one kind that trumps them all. A few months ago, my husband and I did something I had been dreading for years. We cleaned out the attic. Depending on your age, you may or may not know that back in the day, one was required to keep important …

It’s there in every look, every conversation, every relationship — that gauzy veil that separates us from each other. We talk about safe things — the rain, how busy we are, how we can’t wait for Friday. But the moment things start to edge toward vulnerable, we blush over the nakedness of our souls and gather the veil a little …