I watched the movie 42 last week, and I cried several times. God used the movie to speak to me profoundly, and in some ways I’m not even sure I can put words to paper about the change in me. You see, God has shown me something way down deep. I ache and writhe when [...]

I get a lot of emails asking perplexing, painful, amazing questions. Today I’m going to attempt to answer (if there is such a thing as a “correct” answer) a question I’ve wrestled with for years. See if you relate to Amy’s dilemma. Hi Mary, Thank you for your blog. I am new reader but have [...]

When you’re wrong, apologize. When I’ve lived my life that way, I’ve experienced the deepest, sweetest freedom. (Click to tweet this.) When I’ve stiff-necked my resolve and dug in my heels, not wanting to bend the knee or will, I didn’t like the girl staring back at me in the morning mirror. Last week, I [...]

  I have the privilege and permission to share this very difficult and amazing email with you from Candace. And here she is, the beauty behind the beautiful words.     Before you read this, Candace wanted me to remind you that this is all about God and what He has done. He gets all [...]

Scout had difficult memories of her growing up years. Her sister and brother puppies made fun of her because of her gimp leg, the way her front left foot turned in. Because of it, she was always the last to get food, the last to go outside for a frisky romp in the back yard, [...]

The idea for this came a few days ago. To read that letter I wrote on this post out loud to the boys (men, now) who sexually abused me, so you could see I’m okay. That I’m not defined by that past act, but am healed today, and am continuing to walk that path of [...]

Image source We spent two and a half years in Southern France while our kids were in elementary school and junior high. Our little town, Le Rouret is not on this map but it’s a little bit SE of Gourdon. I haven’t really shown you what it was like there, so I thought a few [...]

It started as a compilation of all my posts on healing from the past. It became a free book for my newsletter subscribers. Then it morphed into a real, live physical book. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. It’s 95 pages of snippets of wisdom, hard won, stolen from the pages of my life. [...]

It’s been forty-one years since those bully boys stole my body, mind, and bits and pieces of my shattered soul. They posed as interested neighbors, ready to help my ancient babysitter. They’d take me off her hands, lessen her load. Which is strange if you knew me back then. I wasn’t a handful. I’d already [...]

I grew up in a world where I didn’t feel safe. Sexual abuse at age five, three divorces, the death of my father, drug abuse permeating my childhood neighborhood—many of these traumas I kept quiet. For years. I lived under that unwritten, unspoken mandate that to tell was to betray. It wasn’t until I met [...]