Kate Motaung

The holiday season often brings warmth, community, and celebration, but it can also create more financial pressure. Between gift-giving, travel, food costs, and social expectations, money can quickly become a source of stress instead of joy. Holiday spending can be tied to deeper emotional patterns, family expectations, and even a desire to prove worth or create the “perfect” Christmas. Let’s face it, most people struggle with finances at some point in their lives. If you are dealing with financial problems,

Being agreeable sounds like a good thing, right? In fact, as a child, you were probably told to “just get along” with your siblings or to “just go with the flow” during family vacation. Being agreeable can be a good thing and often appears to be humility and love, but for people pleasers, the motive isn’t love at all; it’s fear. People pleasers don’t want to upset anyone, so they say “yes” to everything. They go along with the

One day, my then-thirteen-year-old daughter and I were playing around. She did something, and I jokingly said, “Shame on you!!” But something in my spirit quickened, and I said, “No! No shame on you! No shame in any of us once we have accepted Christ! Our shame is under the blood!” Many people, even many Christians, deal with guilt and shame. What’s the difference between guilt and shame? I like the way Sheila Walsh explains it in her book

People struggle with the concept of forgiveness. The human question, “Why should I even bother to forgive?” is prevalent in our society, and it’s a difficult one. When Jesus told his disciples to forgive 70x7 times, he was commanding them to go against their instinct to hold a grudge. It’s easier to stay angry than it is to forgive, but it’s not better for us. What happens when we forgive? When we forgive, we let go of the resentment

Many people think Christians never get angry, or if they become angry, they shouldn’t stay angry. Anger is a strong response to something displeasing. Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), meaning there will be struggles during our life’s path. God also says that vengeance belongs to Him (Romans 12:19). God takes on the actionable part of anger because He knows the spiritual, emotional, and physical costs

The idea of eternal youth is a wildly popular narrative in fictional stories and legends. The legend of the Fountain of Youth, for example, was famously sought out by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. He risked his life looking for a magical spring whose waters could restore youth and vitality to all who would drink it. In Tuck Everlasting, the fountain of youth is such a coveted secret that it creates all types of chaos. Why are

How would you respond if a friend were to ask you, “How are your relationships going these days?”? Your relationships may be going amazingly well, meeting your needs and expectations, while also providing you with opportunities to serve others effectively. Healthy and fulfilling relationships such as these are enriching, and they can contribute to an overall sense of well-being. On the other hand, you might be feeling stuck, struggling to make sense of the state of your relationships, or the

The health of your relationships plays a large role in your well-being. We are relational and social beings, created to love God and others. We are most human when we are in nurturing relationships with others who help bring out our God-given potential, and when we do the same for them. Healthy relationships give us accountability, stability, and support during troubled times, as well as an environment to flourish in. If relationships are that influential, it makes sense that when

Whether you are starting a new relationship with someone who was betrayed by their previous partner, or whether you are trying to rebuild a relationship after infidelity, there are certain things every betrayed person needs to heal. Recovering from infidelity is a long and complicated process where some days your partner will feel better, and other days they won’t be able to see a way past their pain. All in all, it can take between three and five years for

My counseling journey began by working with teenagers, a population that often finds itself at the intersection of rapid growth, identity formation, and complex challenges. Supporting teens required me to cultivate patience, flexibility, and the ability to hold space for strong emotions while also encouraging hope and resilience. Although at times it stretched me outside of my comfort zone, these early experiences shaped my foundation as a counselor and deepened my understanding of the importance of empathy, clear boundaries,

Highly sensitive children are those whose nervous systems process stimuli more deeply and intensely than the norm, making them supersensitive to their surroundings and easily overwhelmed by the sensations they experience. In her book, The Highly Sensitive Child, psychologist Elaine Aron depicts highly sensitive children as perceiving more, pondering more, and feeling more in every situation that they quickly reach their limits and the sensory overload becomes more than they can handle. Common Characteristics of Highly Sensitive Children Their

Stress is a factor of life that we experience for different reasons, at various stages of life, to differing degrees, but always with negative long-term results. Stress is the state of our body on high alert, caused by a release of hormones in the nervous system, readying us with a fight, flight, or freeze response. The purpose of stress is to prepare us to survive a life-threatening situation, and this stress response could save our lives. But living in an