Category: Story

People have various expectations for counseling. Sometimes they expect that after a couple of sessions their problems will be solved. Other times, they refuse to start counseling because they have been told to “suck it up” and “deal with it” when thinking about their struggles in life.

Even though counseling has been more widely accepted, we often still imagine it as it is on TV. You come in, lay down on a couch, and start talking about your problems. Meanwhile, the therapist sits there with clipboard in hand, nodding their head, and asking "how do you feel about that”? I often think of that scene from Freaky Friday where Anna has switched places with her mother, who is a shrink, and when she goes to mom’s work in her place, Anna is only supposed to ask, “And how does that make you feel?”. Now, don’t get me wrong, therapists DO ask that question…but that is not all we ask.

There are ...

Relationships can be difficult, especially if we invest a lot of our time and effort into them. When we do this, we create a vested interest and we want to see a return.  We were built for relationships (Genesis 2:18). God formed us in a way that we can have a singular relationship with a person or in a community where we can find support.  When it comes to relationships we are triadic beings: emotional, physical and spiritual.  While all three of these entities are not equally divided up, they do vary in percentages, as we need them to be at any particular moment in time. 

The first part of this triadic relationship pattern is our emotions. This seems to take a greater toll on us than we care to admit.   We will talk 24/7 if you let us but trying to get us to express our emotions in a careful and understanding way has us at a great disadvantage.  Men are at a greater disadvantage as we are usual ...

Do you ever feel like life is just passing you by? You spend so much time running from the past, and looking towards the future, that you’ve forgotten how to enjoy the present? Life is precious. In a blink of an eye, that baby that fit so perfectly in your arms, is now graduating high school with a whole journey ahead. You look in the mirror and for the first time you see the laugh lines and wrinkles, and remember the last time you laughed so hard your belly hurt. We talk about living out our story, about writing our own chapters, pages, and sentences, yet; we fail to stop and take the time to actually read what we are writing…to let the joy, the love, the pain that fills each page, seethe into our souls so that we can embrace each moment that makes up our stories.

Living in the present, is a skill that is so often desired, and yet so rarely achieved. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Take in the oxygen that fills our lungs and gives us l ...