As 2025 draws to a close, I have much to be grateful for. This has been a year of growth and perseverance, a time of change and acceptance, but mostly a year of healing. There have been many moments where I have reminded myself that I am doing the best that I can and that I am still in the healing process. Giving myself grace and compassion has never come easily for me. I've spent most of my life believing that my needs and wants didn't matter because addressing those needs and wants was...

Many years ago, I was seeking direction for my life when I suddenly remembered a scripture from the book of Jerimiah: "If you return to me, then I will restore you; and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will be my spokesman." There has been a lot of 'worthless' in my life. Working through trauma is tribulation, separating the wheat from the chaff. It is a refiner's fire, separating the gold from the dross. Every moment of this life is a chance to extract the precious from...