self-injury – She is Beloved

Bullying: It Never Stops

I’ll never forget his response. It’s one I’ve heard used by educators, parents, and adults everywhere when they talk about bullying. Dismissively, he said, “If you ignore them, they’ll stop.”

If you ignore them, they won’t stop.

John Lennon once famously asked his listeners to “imagine there’s no heaven.” The song, “Imagine” has been played millions of times and sung at every “peace” rally since its inception. Imagine there’s no heaven. For years, I sang along blissfully unaware of the lyrics, or I would just skip over the “religion” part. After all,Continue reading “Imagine there’s no heaven.”

Slammed by the YA Book: My Journey into Self-Injury

Growing up half a block from the local library is every kid’s dream come true. Well, if that kid was an avid reader like me. A few times a week—almost every day in the summer—I went to the library and paged through books by Aliki, Eric Carle, Beatrix Potter, and the rest of the authorsContinue reading “Slammed by the YA Book: My Journey into Self-Injury”

Cutting//Emo//Hope//God

This is actually a post I’m pulling over from my now defunct personal blog. It’s a couple of years old, but the message is still as true as the day I wrote it. I was perusing the Internet to see what hip new resources are out there for “kids” who cut. There were a lotContinue reading “Cutting//Emo//Hope//God”

One Thing I Can’t Say in Church

What is one thing you feel you can’t say in church? When I first considered this questions posed by Anne Jackson (read BSW’s interview with Jackson) in her book, Permission to Speak Freely (read review), a dozen answers popped into my mind. As I paged through the book, I encountered brilliant confessions—ones I wished IContinue reading “One Thing I Can’t Say in Church”

Take 5 with Lanae’ Hale

If Dolores from the Cranberries and Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer ever merged into one person, that person would be Lanae’ Hale. Born into a musical family, Lanae’ originally pursued a career in nursing before following God’s call to Nashville to share her love of God through music. Not only did Lanae’ meetContinue reading “Take 5 with Lanae’ Hale”

Post on Cutting :: Secret Under the Sleeve

I haven’t written about one of the topics close to my heart in a while–cutting and self-injury. Truth be told, it’s not a particularly easy topic for me to cover. There’s always that lion of temptation that haunts me even now, so I do have to be careful how much time I devote to writingContinue reading “Post on Cutting :: Secret Under the Sleeve”

Cutting//Emo//Hope//God

I was perusing the Internet to see what hip new resources are out there for “kids” who cut. There were a lot of superficial one-pagers on health sites offering “advice” for questions that kids who cut ask like, how do I stop cutting? Why do I cut? Where do I get help? and so on.Continue reading “Cutting//Emo//Hope//God”

When Cutting Comes to Church

By Amy Sondova, M.A. When Cutting Comes to Church: A Guide for Youth Workers is a manual for youth workers who are working with students who self injure. Because cutting still remains largely a female problem, this manual addresses it as such. To get receive a PDF copy of this manual, When Cutting Comes Home:Continue reading “When Cutting Comes to Church”

A Thread of Reality or a Thin Veil of Madness?

I don’t know if you’ve ever found yourself in the place where you have a choice to hold onto a thread of reality or go stark, raving mad. Suddenly, the thin veil between the two is torn, and you have a choice. You can feel yourself slowly slipping away, and you know if you don’tContinue reading “A Thread of Reality or a Thin Veil of Madness?”