A couple in our church recently got engaged. Knowing that my husband and I have experience doing pre-marital counseling with soon-to-be married couples, they approached us to ask if we would meet with them. Before we could even schedule a time, the bride-to-be spoke up: “I have a question. Why do we only do this…
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” -Matthew 7:3 As a counselor, I rarely give homework. It’s not that I am opposed to it; I used to hand it out as a middle school teacher. Once, though, I…
In debate class, I used to have the toughest time. I had no problem arguing a point. My problem was that, in most cases, I would be able to champion both sides of a topic and their accompanying supporting points. While my opponent would contend for the case against my position, my mind might secretly…
Let me put it plainly: You can’t have a marriage and an addiction. You cannot serve two masters. It takes devotion to marriage to make it work and the same is true for addictions. A few years ago a friend of my confided to me that he was struggling with pornography. He told me that…
Amy and Ben had been dating for a few months when what she termed the “incidents” began. They got into a heated argument, and he grabbed her arm so hard that it left a bruise. The verbal assaults he laid into her soul also left a mark. She was hurt, but he said sorry a…
