I never thought I would be a hider. Six months after I joined the corporate world in 2008, my supervisor conducted an anonymous 360 review of my performance. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but one of my colleagues reported that he found me “abrasive.” That one label discolored all the others for me. The colleague…
It’s dangerous when we marry Christian theology with cultural lies of toxic positivity, especially during something like the devastating coronavirus pandemic. As a practicing psychotherapist, I am aware of how brave it is for my clients to share their hurts with me when they have not been given a chance to release their sorrows to…
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isa. 46:4 NIV) I was fourteen the first time I dyed my hair. At that young age, I wasn’t…
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Cor. 12:9 NIV) I’ve struggled for a long time with perfectionism. I’ve tried to avoid failure…
I love when I’m asked how my husband Ben and I met because most people are a little surprised by our unconventional meeting at Starbucks one night in 2008. I made a last-minute decision to go out with friends for coffee (and avoid working on my graduate thesis), and he had an atypical evening off…
I am an eternal optimist. I can find the bright side in almost any situation. I’ve been known to say “If it doesn’t kill you, it makes a great story later.” As a writer and a speaker, I love turning difficult and emotional events into funny anecdotes. I essentially have a Ph.D. in minimizing the…