abuse

  • language
    abuse,  abuser,  emotional health,  language

    Language: 5 Types of Abuse and How to End It

    At first, I was going to write about the various layers of healthy boundaries we have, beginning with our skin and ending with our renewed spirit. But I got stuck at language. Most of our boundaries are either created or destroyed by language. We forget that language is first and foremost a creator of reality. It is through language that we discover and articulate our identities. Language, too, is the creator and sustainer of relationships, creating bridges of understanding between people. Redemptively speaking, how we speak and the words we use, even the tones we employ while we communicate, are in their best sense, intended to create community. The end…

  • abuse,  abuser,  Featured,  Human Trafficking,  Mary Magdalen,  Rahab,  Sex trafficking,  Tamar

    Human Trafficking and the Bible

    I remember when Pretty Woman came out in the theaters.  Many loved the romance while others lamented the impossibility much less the improbability of a prostitute and a tycoon falling in love.  Reading reviews, it was my first exposure to the “hooker with a heart of gold” trope.  I remember Saturday Night Live spoofing it with their rendition of a respectable business man falling for a herpes laden, drugged out prostitute.  Some Christians, if I remember correctly, were infuriated by the movie. After all, it seemed to glorify human trafficking.  I was twenty two at the time and thought Richard Gere was cute and Julia Roberts was funny. Now twenty…

  • abuse,  codependency,  narcissist,  narcissistic abuse,  relationship

    Narcissistic Marriage: The Five Lies That Bind

    Staying in a narcissistic relationship takes a lot of commitment.  After all, the benefits of the relationship are fleeting at best, while the daily slog of being someone’s personal slave is exhausting.  I have opened up in this blog because I feel led by the Lord to tell my story as a way of owning it.  And one of the most difficult things about admitting to my past is that I am generally perceived as a competent, even gifted, woman.  People ask, without meaning to hurt me, “How did you get trapped in such a circumstance?” The truth is that narcissists often target intelligent, strong women.  Where’s the challenge, otherwise?…