Category: encouragement
Posted on December 6, 2015
by MJ
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I came across this list a few days ago: 26 Ways to Take Your Life Back When You’re Broken. I haven’t considered myself to be broken in a long time, but I will admit that there have been aspects of my life that have… Continue Reading “The Happiness List”
Posted on June 17, 2015
by MJ
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My good friend, currently reading Brene Brown’s book I Thought It Was Just Me (but it wasn’t), insisted that I refer to her on my blog from here on out as A-Dizzle. Request granted. A-Dizzle never fails to send me outstanding quotes. This morning… Continue Reading “Maladaptive Perfectionism”
Category: abuse in families, anxiety disorders, encouragement, Healing, mental healthTags: adaptive perfectionism, Brene Brown, hypercritical environments, maladaptive perfectionism, perfectionism, self-loathing, the value of failure
Posted on March 22, 2015
by MJ
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I am trying to put meaning to my circumstances as they intensify, and they are intensifying. Every day is an adventure and not a good one. I don’t know what’s going to happen next with my husband, and each of my daughters has had… Continue Reading “Applying Meaning”
Category: abuse in families, encouragement, Moving Forward, relationships, therapy, Truth, Women's IssuesTags: applying meaning to suffering, differentiation, encouragement, preventing parental alienation, self-care, therapy, truth, women's identities
Posted on March 14, 2015
by MJ
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A good friend sent me a blog post by an evangelical pastor, John Bevere, a few days ago in order to get my opinion. What did I think about the content of his post: “Growing Through Unfair Treatment”? I vehemently disagree with him. In… Continue Reading “Fighting Unfair Treatment”
Category: advocacy, Christianity, encouragement, Evangelical church, God, JesusTags: empowerment, fighting oppression, Gnostic teaching in Christianity, John Bevere, kavanah, self-advocacy, teshuvah, true intimacy with God, victimization in God's name
Posted on March 10, 2015
by MJ
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Where does resiliency come from? I don’t know. I’ve read that it comes from a sense of being loved. Early in life, if a child senses that they are loved by at least one person, then they will have some kind of resiliency in… Continue Reading “Prayer and Resiliency”
Category: encouragement, Faith, God, Healing, Moving Forward, prayerTags: encouragement, God, personal God, prayer, Psalms, resiliency
Posted on January 11, 2015
by MJ
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What’s it like to read the same story over and over again and know the ending? Children seem to love this. My daughters each had a favorite story that they insisted I read them repeatedly. Each time I read it they were wide-eyed with… Continue Reading “Three Days”
Category: Christianity, encouragement, Faith, God, Healing, Jesus, Moving Forward, RedemptionTags: Christianity, Faith, feeling abandoned, God, grief, healing process, journeying with God, personal God, restoration
Posted on January 10, 2015
by MJ
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I have learned something about getting on with life. There’s no easy way to do it, and there’s no good time to do it. What’s more, there is absolutely no pain-free way to do it either. Hollywood has played a bigger role in our… Continue Reading “Magical Thinking”
Category: abuse in families, Christianity, encouragement, Faith, God, Healing, Moving Forward, relationshipsTags: "happy ever after" mentality, Christianity, encouragement, God, healing process, judgment in the church, magical thinking, personal responsiblity, religion, suffering
Posted on December 30, 2014
by MJ
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I have noticed that one of the ongoing battles in my life is learning to be assertive. I observe this in the lives of people who have left abusive family environments. There seems to be an extreme. Either people are highly reactionary claiming that they… Continue Reading “Reframing Assertiveness”
Posted on December 22, 2014
by MJ
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We are right in the middle of the holiday season. Hanukkah is here. Christmas Eve is the day after tomorrow. Kwanzaa begins on Friday. These are holidays that involve gathering with communities and families. Because of that, the holiday season can be a much… Continue Reading “The Three Kinds of Forgiveness”
Category: Christianity, encouragement, Faith, forgiveness, God, Healing, Judaism, relationshipsTags: Christianity, encouragement, forgiveness, God, healing process, Judaism, judgment in the church, reconciliation
Posted on December 5, 2014
by MJ
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I don’t know how many people are familiar with the idea of “generational sin”. There are many ministries in different streams of the Christian faith today that deal with myriad flavors of this idea. The foundation of this notion is that we are affected in… Continue Reading “Origin Stories”
Category: encouragement, Healing, Judaism, Moving Forward, RedemptionTags: a more powerful narrative, Conversos, Crypto-Jews, encouragement, Faith, healing, Jews of Iberian Peninsula, Judaism, narrative, origin stories, Sephardim, thriving
Out of the Mire 