For as long as I can remember, my life was marked by an off-and-on battle with fear and anxiety. Many of these worries centered around not measuring up – either to God or to other people. And these worries led to intense thoughts of shame and condemnation. Throughout this whole journey, I had grown up in the Church. I called myself a Christ follower. I could recite to you verses like Ephesians 2:8-9: “for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the Continue Reading
Top 10 Marks of Enablers
ARE YOU AN ENABLER? First of all, let me just say this: we've probably all enabled someone at some point in our lives. If you care about others, if you like to help out when you see a need, if you tend to be "nice,"-- basically, if you are human--then it's likely you have “enabled” one or more people in your lifetime (in big or small ways). We all have our biases, especially when it comes to relationships and personal responsibility. And we will all get things wrong from time to time when Continue Reading
A Shattered Marriage
Personal + Story Before we came to Hope for Life, our marriage, along with our personal and spiritual lives, was set on auto-pilot. We were just going through the motions of attending church, going to work, and living as though everything was fine. Our lives revolved around work and hanging out with friends. We spent hardly any time together, and almost always needed some sort of buffer between the two of us to mask what was really going in our hearts, and to draw the attention away from the Continue Reading
Panic Attacks
One of the more painful and scary things to experience in life is a panic attack. Yet, as much as they’re dreaded, the answer as to why panic attacks happen often remains elusive for many sufferers. However, when we stop to think biblically, there are many things that come to light. Following is a brief description of the most common causes for panic attacks, as well as some biblical solutions. Common Causes PERFECTIONISM - Being a perfectionist or a “performance-based” person (e.g., Continue Reading