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Domestic Violence and Marriage
By Sandra Ostapowich “Everyone around me thinks my husband is a really good guy. He’s active in church and everyone likes him. I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them that he isn’t charming and nice at home, and that when he’s really angry at me he hits me. How can I honor my marriage and my husband when it’s so far from the picture painted in church? Where can I go for help when it seems like everyone would be on his side?” I believe you. And I understand the seemingly impossible position you’re in. There isn’t much information to go by in this brief note,…
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My Old Friend, Anxiety
By Heidi Goehmann I have had a long history with anxiety. So much so that I tell people it’s like a backpack. I take it on and off, but it’s always at least sitting in the corner of the room, staring me down. I have tried for years to shake off the weight. Years ago a friend told me that “Do not be afraid…” is the most often given command in the Bible. So, I took it to heart and when anxiety would well up, I’d push it down, way down, telling myself over and over, “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.” Sometimes I’d even take on a…
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Fear Not the Foe
By Holly Scheer 0 little flock, fear not the Foe Who madly seeks your overthrow; Dread not his rage and power. What though your courage sometimes faints, His seeming triumph o’er God’s saints Lasts but a little hour. Death is coming for us all. Unless the Second Coming arrives before the end of our days– we will all die. That little baby sleeping sweetly in your arms, your grandparent, your spouse, you, me– all of us. Death is coming closer daily. But Death is not the end, sister. Death is an end, but it is the end of our suffering and separation from God. Death has been overcome by Jesus–…
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The Images in My Mind
By Anonymous (Editor’s note– because of the incredibly personal and sensitive nature of this post, I’m going to be watching comments closely. Please be loving with our sister.) Pornography harms women. It devalues them and transforms them into tools for man’s desire and lust. It strips women of their dignity and teaches men to manipulate, control, and then throw away, rather than love, protect, and care for them. This is all true, but this only scratches the surface of the harm pornography inflicts upon women. We seem to be blind to those women who bear the pain and scars — not from being offended by the material or from enduring…
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Pity, Pittance, and Pie
By Debra-Lynn Swearingen She died as she had lived. Alone. She had been long forgotten by her church and went largely unnoticed by her neighbors. Her illness had rendered her a social misfit. She didn’t communicate well and when she did speak, everyone could tell she was afflicted. Her medication had made her tongue thick, her hands shake, and her body rock back-and-forth. As involuntary as all of it was, one couldn’t help but wish she would stop. At one point, it was it was thought she would benefit from training in simple life functions; making purchases, counting money, and remembering walking paths through town. But her grasp of all that…
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The Loneliness As We Sit Together
By Vanessa Rasanen Last week I wrote about hope. This week so much of that hope is gone. Even when I’m able to spend 5, 10, 30 minutes focused on a project or helping one of my children get dressed or giving them a bath or rocking them to sleep, it doesn’t take long for this painful reality to come and smack me in the face again. Our baby’s dead. Not even alive long enough for his or her heart to start beating. Dead. Gone. And as if that knowledge wasn’t difficult enough as it is… there is the physical reminder, the discomfort, the pain, and the visible evidence of…
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Loss, Grief, and Miscarriage
–This post was submitted anonymously. I had a miscarriage, and it’s a secret. My child, which was being knit together by God in a secret place died, and became a secret also. He was alive inside me long enough for me to begin dreaming about what his life would be like, but not long enough to seem real now as I look back to this shadowy time in my life. This child, who in my imagination was my son, was a gift given to me years after I had given up the possibility of carrying a child. My pregnancy test turned positive only hours before I heard my pastor preach…
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For Good Friday
By Sandra Ostapowich “I couldn’t believe how gory it was.” That’s what my boss told me after going to see The Passion of the Christ when it first came out in the theater. “I knew the story of Jesus and what was going to happen, but I had never imagined it could be that violent.” And this from a snarky atheist. I used to be able to watch violent movies, shoot-em-ups and creepy murder mysteries without batting an eye. I’d go through Holy Week and piously imagine the betrayal, trumped-up charges, beatings, flogging, public humiliation and crucifixion and how horrible it must’ve been. But, in my mind, it was sanitized.…
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Amnesty
By Sandra Ostapowich For all your sins, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you were ashamed of the body the Lord gave you, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you compared your size to another woman, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you worried that you had completely messed up your life, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you dressed to tempt men, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you took pride in your modest attire, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you wished you could take back your hurtful words, you are…
