Something that is hard for me to do is to acknowledge when a seemingly little thing upsets me more than I think it should! I’ve been learning, however, that these little things usually carry a big chunk of emotions behind them that I have to work through. If I continue to ignore these heart emotions, I end up avoiding my feelings and trying to cover them over with obsessive thinking. I believe this was the major contributor to my struggling with an eating disorder in my teen years. For me now, this covering over means ruminating thoughts which anxiously call to me repeatedly in my mind. It’s like having ants in my thinking, they run around all over and drive me crazy. It’s a mental diversion that carries a load of anxiety with it (tight feeling in my gut). But they don’t deal with the pain or grief or anger or whatever is going on in my heart.

I grew up in the same house where my parents still live. The house is a ranch style with an addition. Mom and Dad still live there.

Our gar...

Have you ever been in a season of life where your prayers turn into pleas?

In my own life, I’m in that place right now.

I fall asleep every night, reminding God that it’s completely in the realm of possibility for me to wake up tomorrow and for this entire situation to be behind me. Whether it is a prolonged illness, a painful situation, or a bumpy road to recovery, life can be hard.

Many times, in my recovery, I have prayed, “Lord, where are you? You could so quickly fix everything! What is the point of prolonging this?”

The challenge in our hearts then becomes real. We know that God cares deeply about our pain. We know that He is fully capable of changing things in an instant. And yet, He’s not doing that.

How do we process this?

We process it with HIM.

Friends, our Father is not afraid of the hard questions. He wants them. He longs for them, because only when you are real to Him can He be real to you. And there is nothing He wants more than to hold you close and walk with ...