Using Conflict to Strengthen Your Relationships
We can use conflict to batter one another. Or we can use it to sharpen ourselves and build deeper relationships with friends and family. The choice is ours.
Pushing Past Hurts to Build Deep Relationships
You’ve probably heard this quote by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Many of us dream of having great relationships with a spouse, children, co-workers, neighbors, friends or extended family. Even self-professed...
Why We Lie
Lying to others is deplorable. It erodes trust, the glue in any relationship. You don’t have to look to the political arena to see it either. Look at your workplace, in your home, and even in your own heart. But lying to ourselves (and to God) is worse than lying to...
Change Bad Habits with the Power of Replacement
Replacement is my new watchword. It’s my key to changing anything I don’t like about my life. This may seem simplistic and even intuitive but let’s see how well we measure up with this little quiz. The Vacuum of Habit If you answered true to any of these questions,...
Overcoming the Need to “Medicate” Emotional Pain
It is human nature to flinch and flee from physical and emotional pain. And the torment from abandonment, rejection, verbal abuse, and shame can linger long after physical trauma has healed. But because those wounds are on the inside where no one can see them and...
How Pain and a Pack of Stars Can Transform Your Intimacy with God
Intimacy with a spouse, a sibling, or a friend is difficult to achieve. And that’s with someone we can see. How much more difficult is it to build an intimate relationship with God who we can’t see? Five years ago, shortly after my husband and I separated, I’d walk my...
Tales from a Reluctant Rush-Junky
So today marks my first official day as a “self-supporting” full-time writer. And—no joke—I’m a little petrified. I’ve fancied jumping off this cliff for a long time. I’d stand a few feet from the edge gazing up into the bright, clear sky, feeling God’s warmth and...