• Disenfranchised Grief: What it Is and How to Cope

    Have you ever felt as though your grief was dismissed or minimized, or had people question the importance of your loss? If so, you may have experienced disenfranchised grief, a term coined by bereavement expert Kenneth Doka in 1989, to describe a loss that does not align with society’s norms and that is therefore not recognized as legitimate. Disenfranchised grief can make you feel as though you are not entitled to your grief and that no one understands. It [...]

  • Relationship Advice for Men: Practical Tips to Implement

    We can all use extra help from time to time in our relationships. Here are a few pieces of relationship advice for men. If you need more help, don’t hesitate to speak with a Christian counselor about your unique relationship challenges. Relationship Advice for Men Communication is key. The first bit of relationship advice for men revolves around communication. Effective communication is an important aspect of any relationship. Here are a few tips for improving communication as a man. [...]

  • Establishing Healthy Boundaries in Friendships

    The people you call friends are those you’ve built rapport with; you get each other, and you’ve gone through enough things together to build trust. Implied in all this is that a solid friendship takes time to build, and it’s not always a smooth road getting there. Friends, like other people, have fights, and hopefully, they resolve those conflicts well. One positive outcome of well-resolved conflict is that you know one another as well as how to love each [...]

  • The Inside Job: Healing Trauma and Family Relationships

    Scripture’s earliest images reveal the spectrum of challenges that all of humanity encounters. In family relationships, God set the blueprint at creation in a perfect environment. God created a world for His people to live in harmonious fellowship with Him and one another free from trauma. Despite this, a real enemy threatened what God had envisioned. He sought to destroy the Father’s Image by persuading Adam and Eve to not only doubt God, but themselves, and one another. Although [...]

  • Pause, Pray, Plan: Mapping Strategies to Manage Stress

    Stress has often been labeled as a silent killer. Its effects don’t only undermine physical health, but also impact our emotional and mental wellness. When we place too much expectation or activity on ourselves, the results of an overload will show. Instead of savoring the gifts that life has to offer, we find ourselves in survival mode, trying to subsist on the fumes of leftover energy from one day to the next. We may not realize it, but the [...]

  • What to Do When You Feel Depressed

    Everybody has bad days where they are worn out, agitated, and depressed. Although it’s common to experience grief in response to unpleasant life events, loss, or changes, these feelings can occasionally persist for a while if unresolved and make it challenging for you to get through each day. You can’t just will yourself to “snap out of it” when you’re depressed. What distinguishes sadness from being depressed? Many stressful and traumatic occurrences might bring you down, whether you’ve lost [...]

  • How to Find Hope and Develop a Lifestyle of Gratitude in Uncertain Times

    Are you struggling to know how to find hope in a difficult situation? Consider these scenarios: Nancy is a twenty-something who grew up in a home where her parents always struggled. Their power and gas were cut off frequently, sometimes dinners consisted of stale bread and a dollop of off-brand peanut butter, and she was often made fun of for her raggedy clothes and stained shoes. Tom is a career firefighter who commits his life and safety to the [...]

  • Created, Chosen, and Called: Self Esteem and Your Path to Purpose

    Ecclesiastes informs us that God has set eternity in the heart of humanity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). For all of our quests for understanding, significance, and self-esteem beyond the routines of daily life, we will never unravel it apart from the Everlasting Father. Yet, God reserves some eternal mysteries for Himself such that what we seek can only be found in our Creator. There is a certain fulfillment that He reveals as we delve deeper into the unique purpose He’s assigned [...]

  • Maintaining Commitment in Your Marriage

    Do you believe that as time has gone on, your commitment to your partner has grown weaker? Do you want to change that trend? If so, it is helpful to consider the following questions: What does it entail to be faithful to your spouse? What obstacles could jeopardize this dedication? What can you do to make your commitment to your partner stronger? First, let’s look at some basics. What is commitment? What do you think commitment means in a [...]

  • 5 Signs of Early Onset Dementia

    Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, can show up earlier in life – in a person’s forties or fifties. Here are the five signs of early onset dementia so that you can recognize them in your life or in the lives of those you love. What is Dementia? Dementia is a general term used to describe struggles with memory, language, and problem-solving that are severe enough to interfere with everyday life. While many people associate dementia with [...]

  • Be Victorious and Embrace Self-Growth

    Have you ever been presented with an opportunity that sounded amazing, but you turned it down because you did not feel equipped to carry it out properly? How did that make you feel? Did saying no to the opportunity lower your self-esteem and confidence and hurt your self-growth? Now consider this: what if you spent time working on yourself, your mind, your emotional resiliency, and your marketable skills? How far could this self-growth and personal development take you? When [...]

  • Divorce In The Bible: What Does It Say?

    Many people see divorce as a positive solution to a troubled marriage, but the Bible is clear that God designed marriage to be a lifelong covenant relationship between a man and a woman. It was meant to be a sacred bond based on love, commitment, and mutuality that reflected God’s love for His people, and Christ’s relationship to His church. The Apostle Paul describes this spiritual union that takes place in marriage as a “profound mystery” (Ephesians 5:31-32). Divorce [...]