No matter how you personally feel about Halloween, this is the time in October when it's hard to make your Target run or grab your groceries without seeing gruesome masks, scary inflatables, or grotesque zombie costumes. Ugh. Enough with all the scary stuff. Don't we...
Heather Creekmore
Leah Wasn’t Beautiful: Lessons from Rachel and Leah
Have you ever typed something into Google that you hoped no one would ever see? I sure have. It feels safe to reveal our hearts in the questions we ask a search engine. You can't raise your hand in small group and ask something like this: "What if I desperately want...
The Day God Asked to Micromanage My Life
I skipped the final session and snuck away for a walk around the complex and some alone time. Though anxious thoughts riddled me for days before this retreat, it was almost time to go home and I hadn't yet experienced the solitude I craved. It's been a difficult ten...
Michael W. Smith Lied: When Friends AREN’T Friends Forever
And friends are friend forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them . . . The words of this iconic duet buzzed through the gym’s speakers during one of the most painful experiences of my adolescent life—my high school graduation. Of course it wasn’t Michael W. Smith’s...
Can Tiredness Affect Your Body Image? The Rest and Body Image Connection
Sputter. Sputter. Sputter. That's weird. My car's never made that sound before. I pressed the gas pedal a little harder, but it seemed to do nothing. The car bucked twice before sputtering to a stop. I pushed that pedal with all my might, one more time. Nothing. I was...
Body Image and Media: Is a Silent Killer Hiding at Your Salon
"I'll never get a pedicure again." That's what I exclaimed the first time I watched an evening news show's segment featuring women who had their feet amputated after a cuticle scrub with an unsterilized tool. Gross. But, in my twenty years or so of frequenting salons,...
Helping Your Daughter With Body Image Issues
At barely six-weeks-old, I was forced to engage in my daughter's body image battle. I visited the office of my periodontist in an effort to overhaul my terribly messed-up, post-pregnancy gums. With an hour round-trip to his office, my husband and I deemed it wise to...
Why Women With All Body Types Struggle With Body Image Issues
My middle son called out for me to come quickly. "Mom, the light's blinking in here." Dying light bulbs don't consitute an emergency in my mind, so a few minutes later I went to investigate the situation. There were no fixture issues of any kind. Instead what I found...
Should You Keep Trying to Be Your Ideal Self?
From the other room I hear my children open and close the fridge door and shuffle through cardboard boxes in the pantry. They're hungry. Again. (It's been like a whole half-hour since they ate.) As they grab for another granola bar, I put another check mark on my...
Do You Have to ‘Love’ Your Body? A Christian Perspective on Body Positivity
Stunned, I sat in front of my television. I could not believe what I just witnessed. The Today show featured a fashion consultant named Gok Wan who said he had discovered the answer for women with body image issues. Are you ready for this? He invites women to his...