I'm Rachel.
I’m so glad you’re here.
All tagged faith biblical counseling
God placed Sean in my life at a time when I was suicidal and looking for any way to have to stop covering up my heartache with jokes and a goofy personality. I was so ashamed by the sexual abuse. I was ashamed of my family and home. I didn’t want people to know how broken I was in fear of the lies that I’d been told, “No one would ever love me.”
This threw a wrench in my writing as I planned to be getting published right now, not to expound and revamp. But my plans do not often work out perfectly.
Rest didn’t look like a good night’s sleep or a weekend getaway to restore my faculties and gusto. I felt pushed to pull away from ministries I spent years of my life serving. I felt inclined to turn away from the stress and anxiety of social media. I even reexamined the structure of my homeschool.
For EIGHT years my uncle abused me in literally every way a person can be abused. And EIGHT years ago, He was sentenced to ten years in prison with another five added the following year.
Easter is my favorite holiday, but this year it’ll look different for everyone. If you don’t get to celebrate with your family or friends this year, it won’t take away from what Christ did for you on the Cross. The egg hunts and gatherings won’t look the same but that doesn’t mean those things cannot occur at all. An egg hunt or big family brunch is not exclusive to Easter. Celebrate that regardless of your job status, health status, or shelter-in-place status that Jesus chose YOU to die for.
So, here’s what I try to do when I am feeling overwhelmingly anxious. (I say try, because I’m human and fail at about every single thing I do.) In times when the weather dampens my mood, politics feels like a loss, or the world seems to be falling apart altogether, I take the Lord’s advice and I become still. Here’s what that looks like:
While at an appointment for his brother, James read “appendix” on the chart of the digestive system and proceeded to ask what the organ did. I did not have an answer and was a little busy trying to wrangle a new toddler and undress his big brother to research an answer.
This did not stop him from asking the doctor when she arrived in the room. Her response was “We don’t really know what the appendix is for.” James’ little shocked face was amusing.
Have you ever had one of those days where you're approached by a good friend while yelling at your husband in the parking lot of church? NO? Well, I must be alone in this because that totally happened to me.
I numbed my hurts and stuffed anger with music like "In the End" by Linkin Park and many others including songs from Simple Plan, Greenday, Sum 41, Blink-182, Good Charlotte, and Papa Roach just to name a few. I was that angsty teen that thought; "I've tried so hard, but in the end it doesn't even matter." I actually wrote that on the walls of my closet.