recovery Archives

I Want to Make Amends

We do something we regret and want to make amends for, but what about the heart. Come as a servant but don’t become a slave. I was working in a garden the other day when I accidentally knocked over a small pot plant. It toppled over and fell onto a […]

Relationships Spiritual Formation

When You’re Feeling Abandoned

A feeling of being abandoned can be like a cold chill across the soul. But God is always at work, so we need to remind ourselves of this truth. I was recently at the help desk in a large store returning some items, and I noticed a small boy in […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health Relationships

Who are the Five people you spend the most time with?

Who are the Five people you spend the most time with? They will be the ones who have the most influence over you. Her response to a betrayal of friendship has probably helped thousands of others to get a better group of friends. The other day I was listening to […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Willpower is never enough

We want to change, but willpower alone is never enough. It runs out. We need to have a stronger power – a heart power that strengthens our thinking. I was going to change. I was determined. No more of those old habits and going down those old stupid ways. Now […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Practices

Your Rehearsal can Change your Mind

Our self-talk can keep us depressed and anxious, but we can learn new thinking tracks. Your rehearsal can change your mind. I always marvel at how the experts seem to effortlessly do something that I would difficult. My earliest experience of this was watching shearers shear our sheep on the […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Thanksgiving Requires Taking Notice. A Bible Story

We often miss the obvious, but when we stop and take notice of the changes, we have but one response – thanksgiving. I noticed something about them. They had changed, and it was for good. Something deep had happened in them. Instead of being so caught up in the emotional […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation

To Reap in Joy you Need to Sow in Tears. Psalm 126

The only way there is through. To reap a joy, we sow a tear, but it’s work, hard work, so we don’t travel alone. We journey with safe others. I knew there had to be an ocean of loss behind the lifestyle mask they were wearing. For all the stories […]

Mental Illnesses Spiritual Formation

Yes. A Christian can have a Mental Illness

Having a Mental Illness can mean you feel very alone, but does being a Christian mean that you’re somehow on the outside? I wouldn’t have noticed it at the time, but a few years ago, I began to look at the shaping influences that happened in my early life, particularly […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation

God is Going against the Grain and it’s Terribly Good

There is a grain or a pattern to our thinking that needs to change, but we are stuck, so God gently comes against the grain and changes it from the inside out. It goes against the grain of self-protection to let someone in, especially when we have been hurt. But […]

Getting Well Staying Well Relationships

I Will Not Submit But Maybe I’ll Taste

No one likes to submit. It feels foreign and dangerous, but we long for intimacy (in-to-me-see), so we taste and see if the other is good and safe. There was movement and rhythm as the couple glided across the dance floor. He gently led, she moved in response. She would […]