• prayers
    Prayers

    What Your Prayers Say about You

    My prayers are probably like most people’s. They center around my family and my community. Many of my prayers are just listening prayers, spending time with the Holy Spirit in order to discern His will. So I was a little surprised when God told me that He wanted to revise some of the prayers on my list. I keep a list of requests on my phone. I like to be able to review them, and when one gets answered, it moves to my praise report list. But God had never told me to actually reword my prayer list before. I suppose I should preface this by admitting I am reading…

  • parental inversion
    Parental Inversion

    The Heartbreak of Parental Inversion: In Eight Pieces

    The first time I really became aware of how grievous parental inversion is, came in a meeting with a student, Susan, who had recently broken up with her boyfriend. They had been together for a number of years. As my student related their history, I noticed that she seemed to be relatively unemotional. I was surprised as he had left the relationship unexpectedly for another. When I asked her about her feelings, her response took me aback. “Oh, I haven’t had time to really feel anything. I have been comforting my mother over the breakup. She is so heartbroken, you would think it was hers,” she said. Susan went on…

  • step family
    Step Family

    Step Family Stumbling Blocks: What to Expect

    I get a lot of Brady Bunch jokes when I tell people that my husband and I have a ‘blended’ family of six kids. Four daughters of mine from my first marriage and a son and a daughter from my husband’s previous marriage meant that I had three kids in high school for six consecutive years. We married over thirteen years ago, bringing together our children with stars in our eyes and high hopes in our hearts. We wanted to rock step family life. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Was it easy? Absolutely not. But if I had been aware of a few salient facts, I think the process might…