Journey Together
I rattled off some details about my life, slightly nervous to bear my soul to a complete stranger. So goes it when you begin a relationship with a new therapist—one part medicine, one part confessional.
Without too much warning, she asks me point blank,
The Bible can offer us peace and comfort during times of anxiety, grief, and depression; however, if you are having symptoms that go beyond what you can handle, I strongly encourage you to reach out to a medical or mental health professional. Bible verses about anxiety can pave the path to reducing stress and remind you that God loves you and is there for you.
Writing can be a therapeutic way to process meaningful events in your life. Leaving your family’s religion, or any religious group can be emotional and even traumatic. When I first wrote my own story of leaving Christian Science, I found that it took lots of time to recall and process all the details and steps. I didn’t just wake up one day looking for a change; in fact, there were lots of small incremental signs in my life that Christian Science wasn’t working and was actually harming my relationship with God. If you’ve already left Christian Science, I’d like to encourage you to write your story.
With each passing year, I appreciate my marriage to my husband more and more. In talking with my writing friends, we began talking about the joys of “everyday” normal life (after Covid). When the world is shaken and everything turns topsy turvy, taking stock of the normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill things often brings peace and comfort. I think we can all safely say that everyday love is something special. That’s why I wrote this poem about everyday love.
The Book of Psalms, or the Psalter, is often where most people go for comfort and guidance in the Bible. This chapter of the Old Testament includes 150 songs and poems written by David, Solomon, Moses, Asaph, the sons of Korah, Heman, and Ethan. In the new book, Spurgeon and the Psalms, publisher Thomas Nelson (Maclaren Series) has adapted short devotions from Charles H. Spurgeon’s The Treasury of David: An Original Exposition of the Book of Psalms…in Three Volumes before each of the 150 Psalms in the New King James Version (NKJV).
Most good stories begin somewhere in the past. While some avoid looking back, I find that looking back nearly always informs how I want to move forward, even when I’m stuck. As a young adult, I was drawn to the discussion of ideas, introspection, deep thinking, and conversations with adults. This is my journey to becoming a writer.
I’ve been a self-employed, Christian business owner for more than twenty years. Undergirding my philosophy of how I operate my business are principles I’ve extracted from the Bible. I don’t profess that I have it all figured out, but I do know that the more I focus on God and establish my daily quiet time with him, the more prepared I am to serve others well through the work I do as an entrepreneur.
There are a handful of Bible verses that are often quoted as platitudes. We hear these verses so frequently that they often lose their impact. We may hear them in passing, on the radio, or quoted by well-meaning family or friends. One such verse is Romans 8:28.
Already late, I stood in line to check-in for my doctor’s appointment. I arrived on time, but then the office told me that my appointment had been moved to a different building–across the Kaiser medical campus. Now I stood queued up for a second time, waiting for nearly ten minutes while the receptionist conversed with the person in front of me. Why do I have a tough time waiting? I knew I needed to read some Bible verses about waiting to get my mind straight again.
Do you remember the Staples commercials from years ago where the red EASY button was available and when pressed, it solved everyone’s problems? There was something everyone could relate to about wanting a button to press to instantly find a solution to your issues. What if things were easy?
If you told me I’d be a minivan-driving mama of four when I first got married, I wouldn’t have believed you. I had no idea what lay ahead, and how my faith, becoming a mom, and driving a minivan would shape me.
Motherhood changed me, and my minivan got me there.
Never exposed to the role of blood in biblical Christian theology, I couldn’t fathom what blood had to do with one’s faith. But, as I learned more about God and what he did for me through the actual person of Jesus Christ (not the “Christ idea”), I slowly started to understand this ‘blood of Jesus.’
