I love the first two chapters of Genesis. Who doesn't like new things, fresh starts, or new beginnings? In these two chapters God creates everything and sets it all on its course the way it should be. The way it was created to be. The way it was intended to be. That includes men and women. There is something so intimate about the creation of Eve. She is flesh of Adam's flesh and the two are...

A long time ago my husband received this 'dogs playing poker' tie as a Christmas gift from his father. He loves it. Me? Well, I tolerate it. While this started as a gag gift from his father, my husband has adopted it as his Christmas tie. Despite my heavy sighs he proudly wears it around his neck every year (even to church services!). And every year we have a debate about whether or not this...

Early in my husband's recovery process he and I fell into a common trap of self-reliance. He felt a lot of shame in his acting out behaviors and I carried that shame with him. In our self-reliant, will powered attempts to get well we often found ourselves isolated from others. In our shame we hid what was really going on and made attempts to find recovery on our own. That plan never...

Oh, the "M" word... we meet again. 

Masturbation is a topic that tends to show up on this blog, and similar blogs that address sexual issues, from the aspect of compulsivity and unhealthy or addictive sexual behavior that adults engage in. In a previous job I worked as a counselor at an assessment center for child victims of sexual abuse. Every week I would get calls from parents who were...

Directing our children is a huge responsibility that I have been thinking about a lot this week. I think that there is a good example for us in Genesis 18:19:

For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him. 

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Calvin Klein’s latest provocative advertisement has generated a decent amount of discussion on blogs and in the media outlets. Their new billboard looms over New York’s upscale Soho neighborhood and depicts four half dressed teens (one girl and three young men) in what is obviously the beginning of a sexual encounter. My initial thought about this ad campaign is that I’m not surprised. After...