One of the most common mistakes that comes along with conflict is attacking the person when you should be attacking the problem. How many times have you done it? You start off disagreeing with your boyfriend, girlfriend, family member, or friend, and before you know it you stop talking about the problem and start denigrating the person. For example, let’s say Eric and I start off by disagreeing about what we should do on a Saturday night. Maybe I want to go out to a restaurant with Eric and then come home and watch a movie. Eric wants to have friends over to play games and eat dessert. If … [Read more...]

Have you ever gone to great lengths to avoid going on a date with someone? When my maternal grandmother was in high school, a young man asked her for a date repeatedly. After turning him down multiple times, she finally relented and accepted his invitation. As the day of the date drew closer, she started dreading it. Have you ever experienced that sick feeling in your gut when you're dreading something? When he showed up for their date, my great grandmother (her mother) sat with him in the living room and made small talk. Apparently the stress of going on a date with him proved to be too … [Read more...]

As a child, I remember my mom telling me repeatedly that a soft answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1). I didn’t always want to hear it, but she was certainly correct (as was King Solomon)! There is something so powerful in how we speak to one another. The same statement can be taken with ease or with anger depending on how we say it. If you get married and get in the habit of being snippy with your spouse, you can expect your spouse to eventually get tired of it and retaliate in anger. If you are in the habit of being snippy, you might not even realize when you’re doing it! In addition to … [Read more...]

So far, I am in a terrible mood today. I think I made my big mistake when I created a "to do" list that is far longer than I can reasonably complete in a few hours time. The bad mood started when I was almost to Wal-Mart and the groomer for Ramsey, our golden retriever, called and said she was ready for pick up. She's never ready for pickup before 1pm. Didn't she know I had a plan... a wonderful plan... and she was messing with my plan?! I was going to get groceries, put them away, and then pick her up. Instead, I had to turn around, back track, and waste 20-30 minutes of my packed day picking … [Read more...]

For the past couple of weeks, I have been sick with a super annoying cold. Though it hasn't knocked me completely off my feet, it has worn me out significantly. I get up late, eat, and after I eat, I'm too tired to do anything but go back to sleep. Somewhere around 5pm I have a three hour window to get something done before I'm exhausted again. Several times I've thought “I just want to feel good again!”  Lying in bed today, staring at the window (closed with the shade down), I wondered when I would once again feel normal. When you're going through a rough patch it's easy to forget that the … [Read more...]