My Marriage: Twenty Five Years on the Anvil of Time
Marriage puts our character on the anvil of time. Our impurities are revealed then burned up and beaten out until we are sharp and strong. Only then do we understand the hard and humbling aspects of marriage are forging something infinitely greater than two separate people.
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.
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...
The “Mundane” Things in Marriage Make or Break It
I could spit on every romance novel I read as a teenager. They deluded me into thinking that marriage was one, long romantic adventure. What a crock. I’m not down on marriage. I endured four difficult years of separation because I believe so profoundly in marriage....
Intimacy with God is a One-Size-Fits-All
A little more than four years ago, my husband and I separated due to sin in my husband’s life. I soon found out was there was quite a lot in my own and it was primarily due to my shallow intimacy with God. It is my default to try to play god in my life and in...