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At the Foot of the Strong Tower; a Revelation of Light
My youngest calls me by my first name. Many mothers would find this disrespectful, but it is needs must with us. You see, I don’t always answer to Mom. I’m a writer, and so I spend a lot of my time in the whirl of ideas in my head. For some reason, the word, Mom, doesn’t always pierce my consciousness. But float out the name, Alice, and my attention is yours. I have been a parent of six for thirty years, so I have no excuse or reason why this would be so. Fortunately God is not as scatterbrained as I am, and He has names for us to call…
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In Defense of the Gift of Emotion
*I am reposting this blog about emotion because of a contemptuous response I recently received on Twitter. They castigated me for my post about feelings and positive thinking, informing me that being a Christian is about having faith, not feelings. I chose not to respond to them, but my heart often breaks for Christians who feel they must cut off their emotional lives. No wonder our art is not longer the driving force in the world, as it used to be. Emotions certainly must be filtered and examined. But in the end, while love is a decision, it is also a feeling. I wouldn’t marry a man who did not…
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The Spiritual Abuser: The Five Lies They Tell
At thirteen years old, in eighth grade, I became the victim of a spiritual abuser. I just didn’t realize it for years. I attended confirmation classes in my church and sang in the choir, rang bells in the handbell choir, and participated in the youth group. Ardent for the Lord, I led my youth group in a twenty-four-hour prayer vigil. But I was also vulnerable and awkward. Too tall too fast and prone to saying the wrong thing, I carried a full contingent of insecurities. So when my mother’s prayer partner and friend, (I will call her Gladys) cornered me one day after I had babysat her children for an…
Healing Through Art & Words
