This posts takes a look back at my favorite posts from this year. These are the posts, that as I reviewed through my archives, I remembered most clearly. It may be the memory that inspired the post or the conversations that ensued afterwards, but either way these are the ones that stood out to me.

  1. Emotions and Forgiveness: Instructions for a Confusing Intersection – So what does forgiveness mean you are committing to do with your hurt, fears, other emotions, and imagination?
  2. What You Don’t Need to Forgive: When Grace Takes Other Forms – Not everything that bothers or annoys us needs to be forgiven. Forgiveness is only for moral offenses. When we try to use forgiveness as the method to resolve relational irritants that are not moral in nature bad things happen.
  3. Initiating and Declining Sex in Marriage Need Not be Awkward or Upsetting – For many married couples initiating sex can be an awkward moment that leads to conflict or hurt feelings. They’re not sure what to say, or they fear being rejected.
  4. 6 Steps to Wise Decision Making About Psychotropic Medications – Let’s begin this discussion by placing the question in the correct category – whether an individual chooses to use psychotropic medication in their struggle with mental illness is a wisdom decision, not a moral decision.
  5. #ManTrip5: A Lone Star Father-Son Adventure – One of the things I have found most satisfying as a parent is setting aside time each year for a memorable trip with my two sons.
  6. How to Find Joy “In” Suffering – When Scripture indicates that Christians should be able to rejoice in their suffering (Rom. 5:3-5) because of the hope we have in the gospel, it can be difficult to accept.
  7. 7 Marks of Enduring Accountability Relationships – Accountability is not just for life-dominating struggles. It is part of God’s definition of “healthy.”
  8. Counseling Triage: Where to Begin with Complex Struggles – In life and counseling, finding the starting point can be difficult.
  9. Three Meanings of “This Is Too Hard” – If you have walked with many people through circumstances that are challenging, you’ve doubtless heard them say, “This is too hard.” Chances are that phrase has struck you differently as you’ve heard different individuals speak it.
  10. 9 Questions to Help You Steward All of Your Life for God’s Glory – Life is not primarily about what we avoid, but what we pursue.
  11. What Changes for a Church when Counseling Becomes Formal? – What does it mean for a church to have a “counseling ministry”? It is one thing to say “we all do counseling every day when we hear each other’s struggles and seek to offer comfort or guidance from the Bible” and another thing to say “our church has a counseling ministry and we would be happy to help you schedule an appointment with a member of our counseling team.”
  12. When Is Depression-Anxiety Sinful? – How do we know if our depression-anxiety is wrong: an evidence of a lack of faith or the result of valuing-trusting something more than God?