A Gift For a King: Offering Jesus a Birthday Present
A few years ago a friend shared with me an important part of how she celebrates Christmas every year; she…
Christianity
How to Make Your Time with God Meaningful, Long or Short
Are you satisfied with how your spiritual life is going? Are you more like Jesus than you were a year…
How to Find “Your People” When You Need Help
Isolation is dangerous. But connecting is often hard. In my work with people this is almost always the most challenging…
Trying to Stop Your Bad Behavior? Who Has Your Heart?
Ask ten people what sin is and you’re likely to hear about the ten commandments, the words God wrote with…
What Messy Families Tell Us About the Kingdom of God
Family is messy! You don’t get to choose your parents, your siblings, or your extended family. Any parent will tell…
Deep Transformation: How to Become Different from the Inside Out
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. You’ve probably heard that before. But you may find yourself…
Two Questions God Loves to Answer
God hears our prayers. And there are many different kinds of prayers; intercession, thanksgiving, repentance, asking for needs, spiritual warfare…
How to Pursue Intimacy Whether Married or Single
Your heart craves connection. Humans can’t survive in isolation. The irony is that today we can be more “connected” than…
Why a Christian Can Expect Both Suffering And Breakthrough
As followers of Jesus we should have the most complete and accurate understanding of reality. We know what’s happening behind…
How Did We Get Here? Your Sexual Story Matters
When I talk with someone for the first time who’s asking for help I usually ask, “What’s your story? How…
5 Things I Wish the Church Knew About Single Christians
Many single Christians find the single life really difficult. And I’ve experienced that myself during the many years I lived…
How People Change: Becoming Who You Were Meant to Be
I’m so glad I’m not like I used to be! I was a seriously messed up young woman. But I’m…
How to Stand Firm and Overcome When Facing Spiritual Opposition
If all it took to experience wholeness were a few good facts in your left brain and a few pleasing…
5 Ways to Befriend Your Feelings as a Follower of Jesus
Feelings are fickle. They’re real, but they’re unreliable. Emotions can be affected by everything happening both inside you and around…
Don’t Rob Your Spiritual Life of the Joy and Wonder of Mystery
What’s the best way to enjoy a spectacular sunset? What are the three steps to knowing you’re in love? Or…
Why Selfishness Doesn’t Work, and What to Do Instead
Being unselfish is in many ways quite “selfish”. That is, unless your goal is to live isolated and miserable for…
The Difference Between Lust and Healthy Desire
When the enemy can’t get you to fall into the ditch on one side, he’ll work hard to hurdle you…
Addressing Sin Issues in Others with Grace and Truth
We humans easily fall into ditches. Trying to be zealous for God’s way of righteousness, we fall into the truth…
Getting God from your Head to your Heart
Some of us (me included) naturally approach life first from the head. We studied hard in school, and when a…
Why Prayer is Not Enough: What to Do When You’re Still Struggling
For the follower of Jesus who is feeling close to Him, the words “prayer is not enough” may seem like…
What’s Unholy About Holy Week?
Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love Holy Week; I just don’t love “Holy Week.” Perhaps as a shorthand way…
What’s Required for Healthy Sexual Discipleship?
A spouse feeling hurt and lonely because their partner seems uninterested in sexual intimacy. A young (or not-so-young) person heavy…
Healthy Ways to Choose Intimacy: It Could be Dangerous
People are messy, and therefore relationships are messy. The closer you get to people the messier it gets. Your heart…
Three Steps to Becoming Whole After Being Sexually Harmed
Nobody wakes up one day and says, “Today I want to mess up.” You have a story. You came to…
Your Journey to Sexual Wholeness Will Be Opposed
I hear from people every day who are facing opposition on the journey to sexual wholeness. If all it took…
Sex, Love, and Intimacy; How do They Connect?
Sex, love, and intimacy are (or should be) related in some ways, but they’re not the same. Too often people…
Beyond the Valley: Moving Forward When You’ve Lost Trust in God
It didn’t require a genius to hear the pain in her words; “I’ve lost trust in God.” If you feel…
Do You Know God in All of These 10 Ways?
What’s your mental picture of God? A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is…
Who Do You Want to Become This Year?
Imagine it’s this time next year. What would you like to be true of you then? You could drift along…
A Birthday Gift for Jesus
A few years ago a friend shared with me an important part of how she celebrates Christmas every year. When…
A Christmas Prayer for your Marriage
Choosing a gift for your spouse at Christmas may seem difficult, especially when the world – and your life –…
Five Key Elements in the Process of Becoming Sexually Whole
Many of the people I talk with wish God would just “zap” them from their current state of misery and…
Three Characteristics of Toxic Religion
Do you ever get a queasy feeling when thinking about your church or ministry experiences? OK, you’re “supposed” to connect…
4 Reasons Everyone Should Have Close Friends, Married or Single
Every human being is made by God with the need, desire, and capacity for intimacy. And that need is real…
When God Feels Distant: Nurturing Faith in the Absence of Answers
This world is messy and often confusing. How do you handle things when life is difficult? Sometimes you’re not seeing…
Does Sexual Sin Make You Disqualified? What’s Next?
The thief is always out to “steal, kill, and destroy,” (John 10:10), and sin is destructive. But sexual sin seems…
5 Wrong Assumptions About the Body, God, and Sexuality
Our assumptions color everything that comes after that. If your starting point is wrong, you’re going to be frustrated or…
Throwing Down the Idols of Marriage, Singleness, or Parenthood
Relationships are usually complicated. And the church has usually idolized one particular relationship status to the detriment of another. It’s…
Tearing Down Inner Walls so you can Experience Intimacy
The idea of intimacy sounds nice, even important. But most people don’t think of it as absolutely necessary for life.…
Why It’s Not Really a Sex Problem
Behaviors matter. Behaviors have consequences. And sexual behaviors especially have consequences. But for those who are struggling here, putting your…
Being the Family of God Whether or Not You Have Earthly Family
Family. Love it, hate it. Want it, can’t stand it. Family is messy because family is made up of, well,…
What to Do When God’s “Truth” and Your Experience Collide
You “know” what’s right. Or you’re pretty sure you do. Then why does it feel so – wrong? Your head,…
5 Ways to Pray When You Keep Messing Up
You mess up. You ask God for forgiveness. Thankfully you’re forgiven! Then you mess up again, and the cycle continues.…
Beyond Bad Behavior: Get From Sobriety to Recovery to Redemption
Every addiction is a whole-person “disease.” The “thing” might be alcohol, pornography, sex, gambling, video games, or a multitude of…
When You’re Not Sure You Want to be (Sexually) Whole
Jesus asked a question we may sometimes think strange. He asked the man who had been lame for 38 years,…
Three Things to Do With Your Messy Sexual Story
Every single day, no exceptions, I hear from people struggling. Men and women, married and unmarried, young and old, from…
What Were You Even Created For?
If you woke up this morning feeling that everything in your world is better-than-good and you’re fully satisfied, this article…
Looking at Your Story Around Sex and Intimacy with Honesty and Compassion
Whenever I begin a relationship with a new coaching client I ask, “How did we get here? What’s your story?”…
When Nothing You’re Doing Makes You Satisfied
I would add something to one of the lists in Proverbs: “Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”:…
What You Can and Can’t Expect Church to Do for You
Church was Jesus’ idea. I pray your experience of church has been, is now, and will continue to be wonderful.…
