Blonde hair, blue eyes and a wealth of talent. She was my first born; Beautiful, funny, smart and excelled at anything she put her mind to from track and field, dance and figure skating. She had a beautiful voice and sang like an angel. She had the drive and determination of an Olympic athlete. She could have done anything she wanted but ended up doing none of the things she dreamed of because deep inside her lived a little girl who felt unworthy.
Read MoreWhack! Strikes of pain shot through my butt as we slammed into yet another pothole. I moaned softly, strained my neck against the window and lifted my eyes to the flaking roof of the van. When would we get there? Or rather, the more pertinent question: when was I going to get there? Emotionally, physically… spiritually. I sighed and turned my head to watch the billows of dust surface in our erratic wake.
Read MoreEvery young girl dreams her own fairytale. Though each story is different we do all want the same thing. It isn’t that we all dream of being saved by princes, that’s not the case at all. What we really dream of is being the confident heroine of our story, admired for our inner strength, beauty and wisdom. We want to love and be loved.
Read MoreThe best way to describe how it feels to have a loved one battling addiction is isolating.
It’s difficult to relate to other people because your life is chaotic and spinning around unhealthy, unpredictable behaviour. It’s hard to make commitments, like volunteering for church activities or children’s school trips, because you’re overwhelmed and never know what will happen from day to day.
Read MoreGrowing up, I was one of those bubbly, almost-always happy little girls who found delight in chasing lightning bugs and drinking fresh lemonade on the back deck. I had fear like any child, especially when faced with being apart from my parents overnight, but I tended to live my life cheerful and smiling.
Read MoreFor the month of August, we’re going to be talking about anxiety and how to combat it God’s way. I’ll be grouping anxiety disorders in with “non-disorder” anxiety for the purposes of this article, even though I realize they’re very different but because spiritually-speaking, the treatment is the same.
To prepare for the month ahead, I want to start by laying down a very basic understanding of anxiety.
Read MoreThe truth shall set you free.
My husband says I’m pretty, down-to-earth, sweet and sometimes, a little bit offensive. Being true to myself, I’m going to go ahead and publish this article.
I know this is a highly-criticized point of view but I'm going to say it anyway... The biggest (and most dangerous) lie about addiction is that it's a disease.
Addiction is not a disease.
There. Said it.
Read MoreDon’t rush, no pressure.
Everyone who knows me well, knows I love Justin Bieber. I’m sorry if you just lost all respect for me but I'm Canadian so I’m going to claim ignorance. The Biebs has gotten wiser in his trials and there’s some real nuggets of wisdom in his songs (albeit grammatical errors but wisdom nonetheless). One of my favourites is, “You ain’t gotta make your mind up right now, don’t rush, no pressure”.
Read MoreOh Jonah, what have you done?
There's a popular belief that being a Christian means we should be living exceptionally blessed lives. A belief that simply believing in God will open up the heavens and solve every problem. While God can solve every problem, not everything has a simple solution. Changes almost always come after a period of suffering.
There's also a belief that once we become Christians we are expected to stop sinning completely and anything less than perfect is simply, no good.
Read MoreHe and I met at a concert on New Year’s Eve and little did I know it at the time, but my life was about to dramatically change. We were married and I relocated to New York with my then, four-year-old son. For the most part, the change was slow and went mostly unnoticed. With moving and the excitement of the city, I was too preoccupied to see anything out of the ordinary about my marriage. It wasn’t until I became pregnant that I noticed my husband’s facade of lies start to crumble.
Read MoreGet up, be baptized and wash your sins away.
My husband, my oldest son and I were all baptized on the same day. We also publicly dedicated our one and a half year old to Jesus. It was beautiful.
Why did I get baptized, you ask? Honestly, I've just never done it. This is going to sound really stupid but I didn't want to get wet in front of all those people. I have this hair, you see.... let's say, it was an act of obedience.
Read MoreForgiveness is one of those things I think we all have to struggle with at one point in our lives. No one is immune to being hurt so forgiveness becomes an important part of our human relationships.
To get a better understanding on this often very difficult subject, I asked some of my favourite fellow bloggers, writers, speakers and Christian influencers: “What practical advice would you give to a women who’s really struggling with forgiveness?”
Read More
