It's hard for us not to receive our identity from what happened to us. Maybe there is abuse in our past. Or someone lied about us. Or perhaps instead of throwing rocks at us, and beating us with sticks, someone struck us down with words and battered up places in us that can't be seen. Whatever it was, we went through trauma and now our brain has trouble processing life in healthful ways. But, we are not what happened to us. This is not to lessen what did happen. That part is very important and we must do something with it. But, that thing does not name us. The thing about Jesus, is that He comes along, takes us by the hand and says, "Come on. I see that you are stuck here in this place but I came to pull you out of that dark hole of lies and bring you out into the ligh[...]

Here lately, God's been giving me winding roads. Gravelly ones to walk on and as I walk I think about how He made me to be a shepherd girl. "Shepherd Healer." That's my name in His Kingdom. That's what my Father calls me so that I can know who I am and what is mine to do.Have you ever asked God what He calls you? He calls us by our true names. "...The sheep hear his voice and pay attention to it. And knowing that they listen, he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out to pasture." (from John 10:3) God isn't the only one who calls us a name. We call ourselves names. The world calls us names. And the enemy of our souls, constantly calls us the most condemning things. What are the names that you most often call yourself? Are those names helpful for your growth? For you[...]

I have this prayer I pray about 12 to 20 times a day. It's not like an intentional purposeful prayer. It just spews right out of my mouth every time I get this certain feeling in my chest, so in that way it's an incredibly honest prayer, though I wouldn't call it a very spiritual one. You wanna know what my most prayed prayer is? It's this, "God. Please help me stop being an idiot." Are you laughing yet? Because when I pray it, I'm not at all laughing. I'm dead serious. It's a very telling prayer. It's revealing of the way I think about myself most often or the fears I have of what others are probably thinking about me. It usually comes with a memory of something I've done or said and before I know it, I'm begging God again, "Um. God? Please. Please make me be not an idiot." [...]