Category: Personal Development

Personal Development, theology of suffering, Theology of waiting, Uncategorized

Metaphors and Meanings: How the Words We Speak Shape our Lives

Yvette

A wonderful book written in the 1990s called Metaphors We Live By speaks about how so much of how we understand the world is conveyed through the metaphors (or expressions) that we use to describe our lives. One common metaphor is talking about love as war, for example 'Love is a battlefield' or 'All's fair in love and war'. But further to just being descriptors of people or circumstances these very metaphors actually have the power to shape our lives, for better or for worse. What metaphors are you using today and how do they match up with the metaphors we find in the Bible?

Personal Development, theology of work, Work

Work and the Single Life

Yvette

Have you ever struggled with making sense of work and the single life? Are you putting your career on hold while you wait for Mr. Right or are you wholeheartedly pursuing your calling? This month's post looks at work and the single life.

Family, Personal Development, Theology of Singleness

Navigating Family Relationships as a Single Person

Yvette

Last year I spent nearly 30 vacation days in my home country and at the end of the year I felt more tired and discouraged about family after than I did at the beginning. So I asked the Lord to help me think about how is the family portrayed in the Bible and what can I learn from this about my own family and my expectations of them. I also asked Him how can I stay in relationship with difficult family members but not continually get hurt? And finally, what does it mean to part of the family of God and how can this help me in making sense of my biological family?

Personal Development, Theology of waiting

Embracing the New and Letting Go of the Old: Starting Fresh in 2019

Yvette

As I prayed and sought the Lord regarding His plans for me this year and what it was that He would have me write down as my prayers for the year ahead I felt him say the word release. Release what has gone before, release old hurts, release pain, release people from unrealistic expectations, release family members from past and even present wrongs. Release yourself from past sin, mistakes, failures and let go of what lies behind you.

Christmas, Personal Development

Finding Joy this Christmas

Yvette

Christmas, as the song puts it, is supposed to be the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ but for many people, myself included, it can be actually one of the loneliest, depressing and most angst-ridden time of the year. The growing gap between our reality and our expectations for Christmas is fueled by saccharine sweet Hallmark cards, endless happy family holiday movies and highly curated social media feeds of family bliss in the festive season. It all just looks so wonderful, so perfect but so far from the reality that we are experiencing.

Personal Development

Five Ideas for Thriving, not Merely Surviving, this Christmas

Yvette

We singles have a wonderful opportunity to bring Christ back to the forefront of Christmas, to share more of Him with everyone we can around us and to be actively engaged in hosting as well as attending celebrations with friends and family. I thought we shouldn’t be thinking only about surviving Christmas, we should be thinking about thriving at Christmas. More importantly we should be thinking about how we can use the season to share the reason. So with that in mind here are my five ideas for thriving this Christmas.

Personal Development

Five (Biblical) Reasons Why You Should Love Yourself

Yvette

This is post is really a continuation of my earlier post Who Do You Say You Are? While that post talked about knowing the love of God so that we can love ourselves this post talks more about why Christians should love themselves. I am writing this as one of the most important things the… Continue reading Five (Biblical) Reasons Why You Should Love Yourself

Friendships, Personal Development

The (often undervalued) Gift of Friendship

Yvette

Two weeks ago I had to say goodbye to a dear friend and colleague who, due to family circumstances had to relocate back to her home country. I felt so sad seeing her leave and I have missed her presence so much since then. As I thought about our friendship, in her absence, it caused me to reflect on why I hadn’t appreciated our friendship more fully while she was around.

Personal Development

Pursuing Your Calling Is More Important Than Anything Else, Even Getting Married

Yvette

The funny thing about having a dream or an unfulfilled longing is that we can become so fixed on obtaining this that we can lose sight of almost everything else. It may be a longing for a spouse, for a child, to own our own home, for our children to be successful, to finally find a meaningful job or perhaps to be financially independent. Whatever it is though when it is something outside of ourselves, something that is not in our control, there is the danger that it becomes an end in itself rather than just one part of our story.