I’m old enough to remember when the coronavirus started. 

COVID-19 really is stretching on, isn’t it? When it first began I felt the same anxiety many others were feeling, but the shelter-in-place didn’t seem difficult to me. I’m very much an introvert. I am a professional counselor and I love meeting with people,

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One thing I often say to marriage clients in their first session is that it can help us in our relationships if we are willing to be surprised by what we see in ourselves, what we learn about ourselves during or outside of a session. I sometimes use the example of myself during a couple of encounters with Susanne years ago.

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Recently, my family and I went to a showing of a documentary called Screenagers at a local church. It was a good documentary that followed a couple who was trying to decide whether or not to get a smartphone for their 12 year-old daughter. It featured interviews with scientists and psychologists and facts from studies to demonstrate the bad effects our phones are having on our brains,

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Last week I had a session with my counselor (yes, counselors sometimes go to counseling) and then I headed toward home. I had a little time before I needed to pick my daughter up from school (an early release day) and I needed to get gas in the van and a prescription from CVS.

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I was thinking recently about how it is only an understanding of God’s immense love for us that will keep us from the idols and addictions that trouble us. Think about it on a human level. The threat of getting caught may keep someone from cheating on their wife yet others know they might get caught.

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Review-Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle; Michael John Cusick

I wrote this review nearly seven years ago. I like this book every bit as much as I did then. If you’re struggling with sex addiction it’s a great place to start in order to find healing.

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Reposting something I wrote over 6 years ago . . .

        I never really thought I’d get to be a father.

        I wanted desperately to be a father, but after 17 years of marriage it just didn’t seem like it was going to happen.

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It is an often painful fact that our lives seldom go the way we planned. How many of us have the life we pictured at age 20? A well-known quote attributed to Woody Allen says, “if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Most of us aren’t quite that cynical yet it is true that things often don’t turn out the way we’d planned.

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