Hey! Nice to meet you,

I'm MJ. The one behind the blog. I started this blog at the beginning of my own messy healing journey. And oh boy has it been messy. At the start God gave me a word to encourage me in the path of my healing: Shalom.

This word meant healing physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally.

Until I found Taylor Joy Murray's book Stop Saying I'm Fine, I felt alone in my hurt AND like I didn't have permission to share what I was going through. I needed permission to be messy in my Christianity. Permission to allow Christ into my anger, my pain, and my questions.

And truthfully, God has met me in the deep places of my heart and offered healing NOTHING else and NO ONE ELSE can.

I wrestled with God in my prayer journal. I wrote heart wrenching poems. I wrote about my breakthroughs and fresh revelations of who God was. That is what this blog consists of. I pulled my wrestling pretty fresh out of my journal and into this blog.

I did realize something important during my messy journey, is that people who have experienced trauma need people who know how to provide safe places for them to heal. I also realized that sometimes people who do not understand trauma can cause unintentional hurt. So, to help me create that safe place I have just received my TIC 101: Foundations and Applications of Trauma-informed Care certification from AACC and will continue to grow in awareness of how to handle trauma throughout this blogging journey.

Disclaimer right up front: I am not a licensed counselor (I love how effective counseling can be though and highly recommend it, Focus on the Family even has a list of counselors for you should you need it) so I will not put anything out assuming I know all the answers. In fact, disclaimer, I don't even know how much I don't know that I don't know!

In my blog I will be digging into scripture, books that are typically based in scripture, and I will reference them so that you can do your own messy research! Sometimes I might reference a resource that is not produced by a Christian that I found to still be helpful to trauma related topics and will reference them too.

Also, I will do my best to tenderly share my story without assuming every persons' journey will look the exact same as mine. But please know you are not alone.

Before you go, I like those biography-like-thingie that blogs do so you can get to know me a bit better!

Awkward/Awesome facts:

I burn food way too often.
I like potato chips with ketchup, mayo, and pickles as a snack.
I now read my Bible on two different apps (BLB + The Bible App) and in my physical Bible (She Reads Truth).
I tend to read three or more books at a time because I jump around before finishing them.
I use poetry as prayer in my prayer journal.

So. 'nough about me! Get to reading the blog already!

with joy,

*there are no affiliate links in this post, just recommendations