I’ve been struggling a lot lately in this season of life. And I found myself laying in bed last night, scrolling with my phone in front of my face- searching the internet for answers that I’m not going to find on the internet. The thing is, is often, I know the answers to the questions…
Category: Personal Posts
Radical Love.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever stop talking about Jesus and what His love did for my life. I remember the girl I was walking through the doors of my first Celebrate Recovery meeting, and I will never forget how I felt that evening My overwhelming fear of failing. The hopelessness and feelings of being…
Learning from the Psalmist
I just started a Bible study that I am pretty excited about. I am only on day number three, but I am already so ready to share what I have learned with you. The study I am doing is only going to focus in on fifteen particular Psalms, (known…
Practicing Forgiveness & Having a Clear Conscience
I haven’t written here in two months. I took a break from the shining light of my laptop and did what a friend suggested. I rested. In the weeks since, I have done a lot of recreational reading that I have enjoyed catching up on, and have enjoyed solely focusing no my three kids who…
From Blog to Book!
YOU GUYS! Last night we created my final book cover and today, I ordered my proof! I am IN DENIAL. (Which isn’t a completely foreign place to me, LOL)! I just wanted to share my excitement with you guys. This has been an incredible, stressful, exciting process. If you knew how many times I second-guessed myself, or…
I Will Continue to Share My Truth
If your family of origin is as completely screwed up as mine is, then you will be able to relate to this post. Rarely do I write when I am emotional or feeling as anxious as I am right now, so this could be interesting. Do you know why I write so often about breaking cycles…
Update from Brittany
(That photo isn’t mine. I didn’t create it. I don’t own it. Credit to anon.) Hello! Where have I been? How have I been? How have YOU been? I have been slacking big time here, I know. It has been so hectic and life things are making me tired. Our house is on the market…
PSA.
*It is progressive, it has gotten worse and you are utilizing it more and more as time goes by. *It seems to be gaining strength and power over time. *Maybe it began as an emotional or psychological (or egotistical) crutch. *It may have been passed down previous generations and now it’s yours. *Unless there is…
JFT Encouragement
I am in recovery from the after effects of childhood trauma. My experiences changed who I might have been and how I operated, navigated, and interacted through my life. For years I grieved for that little girl who had opportunities ripped out from underneath her. Anger and sadness consumed me, and I secretly yearned to…
I Want To Be Supportive Of Others, Without Getting Distracted
I won’t force you to listen to my personal top 50 song list of 2016, the things that I am most grateful for, or my complete goal list for 2017. I just want to share one of my personal goals that I am carrying over into 2017. It is to stop allowing the comparison game to…
Surrounded By Truth
In group settings (group meetings, Bible studies, etc.) I am usually pretty quiet. I observe, listen, and take it all in and am usually pretty reluctant to speak for one reason or thousands of introvertish anxiety ridden reasons another. But when something new clicks my child-like excitement won’t allow me to sit still. If it…
Taught to Love?
I know now that some of the experiences that I encountered during my younger years were definitely purposeful and thought out, but I wasn’t aware of any of it. All of it had an impact on how I view prejudice and labeling and still affects how I see other human beings. When I stayed with my…
Where Are We
Our right to bear arms has become more important than baring one another’s burdens. Picking people apart has trumped picking people up. Our desire to be right has overridden the importance of doing the right thing. Our opinions being heard is drowning out the voice of the minorities cries. Our insistence on speaking to hear…
Hate.
We talk about everything around here and I mean everything. I take having an open discussion policy pretty seriously in our home and for us, it just works. My boys know that if they have questions, they can ask them without feeling threatened or nervous. It is so important to me for them to truly…
The One With Glitter is Perfect.
Maybe I am just the only adult around who doesn’t actually like seeing their first name enough to see it plastered anywhere besides, well…. repeatedly scribbled in my Lisa Frank notebooks or maybe my journal with the cute little pad-lock and mini-key. I am in the minority because I am interested in buying products geared…
Church on Sundays.
My personal recovery has many components, and my relationship with God is a big one. I have only considered myself “spiritual”, and connected with God on some level for around 8 years now. Somewhere along my journey I decided that going to church each week is what was best for me as an individual and…
My Personal Decision to Shed the “Addict” Label
Often, addiction as a disease, is compared to diabetes. People will say that people with diabetes aren’t being stigmatized for their condition. And you’re right. I agree with that. People develop it. Sometimes it’s random, other times it is a lifestyle combined with genetics. What would happen if you met a person, let’s call her…
From Broken to Awesome.
http://www.worshipsong.com/songs/songdetails/at-the-cross1 I am one of those people. I hear a song, and it takes me somewhere. That link will take you to an old song, from 1996. When I listen to this song, it takes me back to a meeting that I was sitting in. This particular worship song played at the beginning of our…
Merry Christmas from Discovering Beautiful!
Discovering Beautiful isn’t about outer beauty. It is a bunch of writing shared from my heart to yours. My blog emphasizes the beauty that is nonexistent & unnoticed when living an empty life addicted and hopeless. Sobriety and Recovery both allow us to embrace life. Because of God’s Grace, we are alive, and are given a second…
My (Slow) Fitness Journey:
I have never really worried or cared if I was ‘fit’ or not. Until now. As a child growing up I was usually one of the shortest people around, and I was skinny, and thankfully, healthy. As a teen, my addiction to drugs kept me skinny skinny, not ‘fit’, and very weak & malnourished. I also had…
Music.
***Love everything about this song*** I truly think these lyrics are amazing. @2:40- (!!) “Touch The Sky” What fortune lies beyond the stars Those dazzling heights too vast to climb I got so high to fall so far But I found heaven as love swept lowMy heart beating, my soul breathing I found my life…
Just Hoping To Help Another Person.
The husband blog series. I am truly blown away by the amount of positive feedback I have received from this these posts. Originally the idea came when after seeing so many couples struggling and hearing about spouses at their wit’s end who were completely ready to give up on their loved one. I am not…
Closet Bloggers: 3 Reasons to Click ‘Publish’
In 2011, I began by blogging for therapy. Over time, after I did some growing and healing, I thought that it might be cool if God could use me in any way possible to help just ONE person. Just ONE I told myself. Then.. I would feel like I had done some good. Somehow, sharing…
Thanks, Al-Anon.
You hold onto hope, because that is what you do when you love someone. Instead of screaming- “that’s where people like that should be” … we are imagining all of the places that they have the potential and talent to be one day. We don’t see the awkward, tired, malnourished human who has made countless…
Stigma Is A Verb.
Merriam Webster would have you believe that stigma is a noun. Yes, it’s a thing… but it has to be practiced in order to be a thing… Stereotypes are over-generalizations that lump major groups of people together in one mis-conceptualized melting pot of untruth. They produce stigmas that are unrealistic. Stigma does a lot of…
Beauty from Ashes.
I feel an unquenchable urge to tell others about what God can do in the life and heart of any person, regardless of anything that they may consider ‘too shameful’ or ‘not good enough’… He can take ashes and make them beautiful. He can take what you thought was permanent damage, and turn it…
Careful Thirsting Friends, Careful Thirsting.
Recently, I read a post on Facebook that linked an article called ‘Lies Christian Women Will Believe to Justify Watching Fifty Shades of Grey.’ (Here is the link to that article, if you are interested: http://www.carmendmiller.com/2015/01/lies-christian-women-will-believe-to.html ) I commented on that Facebook post: “I have not read any of these books, I have still not…
Being strong and courageous.
Being a strong person can mean a lot of different things to different people- but it doesn’t always have to mean holding it all together despite what may be going on around us or what we might be going through. I think many of us condition ourselves to hide or shy away from letting the…
This new life is more than I imagined….
For me, part of my healing along the way has come from being transparent and honest about my ‘story’. Finally allowing myself to take an honest look at my childhood, to feel that pain instead of being ‘strong’ or sweeping it somewhere deep inside of my psyche really helped me to have the freedom to…
Healthy & Happy.
18 weeks today! We’re almost halfway there. I just have to say that I am so grateful for this journey!!! God is so so good people.