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How Can We Find Hope When Things Look Hopeless?
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? I happily see life through a hopeful lens. My glass is almost always half full, and I even tend to see the bright side in many undesirable situations. But facing the soon-to-be empty nest challenged my bright side philosophy and threatened to override its influence.
The empty nest represents one of many life transitions. You may be looking forward to the empty nest, or it might be so far removed from your life that you can’t imagine its impact. You may be facing a different life transition that is hard such as an unexpected health diagnosis, a surprise financial crisis, the loss of a dear friend, or an undesired divorce. These are all changes from one stage of life to another. One day we wake up to our normal life and then overnight the pages of life turn and with them comes a new chapter. In the new chapter, we find ourselves struggling to believe that our future will be as bright as our past.
How can we as Christians find hope when what we see in front of us looks hopeless?
Is Jesus Enough?
“I just wanted Jesus to be enough,” flashed in my mind with a faith-battering force as I sat frightened and alone in the Turkish psychiatric hospital. My life had imploded. I was the wife to an adoring husband, the mother of 4 beautiful children, and lived my days as a missionary in a predominantly Muslim country sharing hope in Christ. Childhood trauma, effortlessly concealed behind a well-manicured appearance, gnawed away at my mind going unnoticed by even those closest to me. Dangerous thoughts, strangely coexisting with Scripture, had taken up residence in my mind, secretly threatening my life by irrationally presenting death as the only option of escape.
From Brokenness to Depth By Jodi Rosser
Two of my favorite things were combined to make this magnificent masterpiece that hangs by my front door.
Beautifully broken glass pieced together like a mosaic on top of a gorgeous rod iron tree with deep roots.
This artwork mirrors my story.
Brokenness. I could relate to that. The shattered dreams and smashed hopes of my own life resembled those broken pieces.
How Can I Keep My New Year’s Resolutions?
Today is the middle of January, which means many New Year’s resolutions, words, and themes have been proclaimed. Several studies show that by the end of January, almost half of the goals that were determinedly declared on January 1st have been discarded just four short weeks later.
What were you hoping to change, improve, accomplish, or become in 2023? Are you still resolute or are you feeling the temptation to throw in the towel and maybe try again another time? Or have you already sadly accepted defeat?
Why Am I an Emotional Wreck?
Have you ever considered trusting God with your emotions even though your circumstances are unlikely to change?
I wish I could say that stuck in crippling emotion, I sit cross-legged, with my eyes closed and my palms up, trustingly laying my feelings at the feet of Jesus. Maybe I could even add some scented candles to the scene, creating a peaceful setting that I report smells like lavender. Unfortunately, that’s a work of fiction that exists only in my mind. Instead, my narrative is filled with turmoil, restlessness, and frustration. I become pre-occupied. My mind distractedly focuses on my problem, and my brow goes into a prolonged furrowed state. Lavender is nowhere to be found.
How Can I Find a Blessing in My Pain?
Are you going through something right now that feels hard and painful? Whether it’s a divorce, the rebellion of a child, an injustice that threatens your future, or a different stressful situation, life isn’t short of difficulties that disrupt our peace and threaten our contentment. On top of the ups and downs in each of our lives, society has dealt with a pandemic, supply shortages, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. It’s not surprising that many people say their mental health is challenged. Combining a personal hardship with our societal challenges is enough to steal our hope and rob us of any remaining optimism for the future. When our lives are interrupted by unpleasant circumstances, we just want it all to stop and life to return to “normal”. My normal was disrupted the other day
Can you let go of white-knuckled living?
I have a confession. I love everything about being a mom…except sitting in the passenger seat when our kids are learning how to drive.
They saw independence, freedom, and an exciting future. I saw the potential for an accident with possibly life-altering consequences. While our new drivers enthusiastically tackled busier roads and more complicated intersections, I hid my nerves to avoid undermining their confidence. Quite often, I found myself clenching my hands together so tightly that my knuckles turned white, and I had to take a deep breath because I realized that unconsciously, I was barely breathing.
Of course, I prayed for safety before these nerve-wracking road sessions, but we live in a fallen world and my petitions for protection sometimes felt more like frantic pleas. What if God allowed an accident despite my prayers?
Is God Trustworthy?
The thorns get our attention because we feel their pain. Loneliness, isolation, stress, anxiety, and desperately desired but unanswered prayers poke us every minute of every day, reminding us there must be something better than this!
We must surrender our own way to fix things and remind ourselves that God’s will is better than what we think is the best way.
Eating Comfort Food at Wine o'Clock after Retail Therapy
No wonder we’re quick to rosé all day, and shop ‘till we drop from a food coma. A glass of wine to take the edge off. A pint of ice cream to comfort a broken heart. A click on “submit purchase” to suppress the envy. We’ve all done it. It’s a natural human reaction to want to comfort uncomfortable feelings. Doing something to distract us from our problems, to numb negative feelings, is almost instinctual. Drinking, eating junk or going on a shopping spree feels good when we’re feeling bad ... in the moment. But responding to life's stressors with cabernet, candy, and click-throughs is not a wise long-term plan. Drowning our sorrows in frosty mugs or waffle cones is not self-care. Coronas, cupcakes, and Coach bags don’t help us cope! They only help us conceal. Self-care that promotes concealing over coping is self-medicating. And self-medicating is the first step down a slippery slope towards self-destruction.
Does God Know What He’s Doing?
Have you ever experienced a moment that turned your life upside down and left you feeling disoriented and distraught? Maybe that describes your current reality and you’re wondering if the future will ever feel promising again. Whether we try harder or deny its existence or numb it or push through it, emotional pain isn’t healthy to ignore. It must be addressed, or it will start to control our actions.
From Fear to Faith
I’m Alyssa and I’m an alcoholic. On July 16, 2015, I took my last drink. I didn’t know if it would be my last drink. I’d tried to have a last drink many times before, only days later to chase it with another first drink. But, I WANTED it to be…
What if I’m Not Enough?
“No one would like the real you,” whispered Insecurity in my head. You don’t fit in. You’re socially awkward. You aren’t as pretty, or as smart, or as sophisticated as them. Does that thought ever run through your head too? I was in eighth grade the day that insecurity slipped into my life and started to follow me around like an unwanted friend.
Have you Ever Hit Rock Bottom?
Can I Love Like Jesus?
Today it seems we live in a world that is convinced we must take drastic measures about our views and beliefs. We are pressured into thinking that agreeing with one political party, means hating the other. We're told that we must view things in black or white. We're either left or we're right. If we're not a feminist, we must be a sexist. If we're not vaccinated, we’re murderers. The list goes on and on. One thing I think we can all agree on is that our world is completely divided and becoming more filled with hate by the moment. In the midst, I'm trying desperately to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. I wonder what he thinks as he looks down on all of us modern-day extremists who seem to believe we have all the answers, especially since he is the only one who knows if we have been consulting him for these answers that we claim to have.
Can I Find Purpose Through My Pain?
From the time I was a young girl, I was a hopeless romantic. I could spin it to you by saying I was just plain boy-crazy, or by telling you that I possibly watched one too many Disney fairy tales along the way - but the truth of the matter is that I desperately wanted to be loved. As human beings, but women especially, we are designed to want to give and receive unconditional love. We want to be known intimately by someone who will cherish and value us for our wonderful qualities, and someone who will continue loving us right through our bad ones. As I got older, this aching desire I had to feel loved ended up making of fool of me more times than I care to recall. I made some incredibly unfortunate decisions that I'm not proud of today in an attempt to feel love. After a while, I found those attempts at "love" to be incredibly fleeting and in the long-run I was left feeling quite the opposite of what I had hoped for.
Then I had kids . . .
Why Can't I Get it Under Control?
You’re not alone
I see you. I feel you. I understand. It wasn’t that long ago that I woke up on a Sunday morning, a holiday or even a weekday, feeling like a failure. Mornings were the most painful. Sure, my head hurt with hangover, but my self-confidence was shattered by shame. Once again, I felt defeated. Despite my best efforts to control, my promises to play it safe, my determination to only drink a couple, I’d failed again. No one knew the level of loneliness I was living, the solitary confinement I had self-imposed. I was convinced no one would understand. I didn’t look or act like an alcoholic. Everyone in my social circle drank too. How could I ever ask for help? How could I ever consider living life without drinking?!