Kate Motaung

We have all encountered stress that could potentially be the “straw that broke the camel's back.” Stress itself doesn’t have to be negative. Raising a family or beginning a new job can be positive, yet it can be stressful. Our stress response is the key to whether the stressor will make us feel ill or ignite us. Modern stress research confirms what the word of God told us long ago, a merry heart makes for good medicine, and anxiety

We all need a friend or two. Having great friends makes life richer and more interesting. Being social creatures, our affinity for relationships makes all the sense in the world. Having a good friend is something that you should hold on to because genuinely good friends are a precious and rare commodity, no matter what social media might try to tell us. While having great friends in your life blesses you, being a great friend for others blesses them.

Along with so many things affected by Covid-19, relationships have taken a substantial hit. Single people have struggled with an extreme amount of touch deprivation and even presence deprivation. Even those who aren’t single haven’t had the same amount of community available to them, and they are feeling lonelier than ever before. People are attending in-person church and other gatherings much less. Many students are doing online school, and workgroups are meeting over Zoom. Even counselors are seeing more

The television ads from the last half of the last century got it wrong – the idea was that our lives in the future (our present) would be far more leisurely. After all, with machines to help us wash our dishes, clean our clothes, and vacuum our floors, and with computers and other machines to take over menial tasks for us, surely, we’d have more time on our hands and find ourselves with loads of room for the joys

At some point in life, everyone will experience an underlying, lurking emotion called anxiety. Anxiety is defined as “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” As we go forth conquering tasks day in and day out, the management and micromanagement of life’s events can become drudgery or weight. In the flesh, this proves challenging and can create a storm within. Perhaps you are already experiencing this. Some people

Emotional abuse, also referred to as psychological abuse, is often hidden from the public eye. Since this type of abuse doesn’t show with outward bodily bruises, it is harder for people to recognize. Adults in emotionally abusive relationships often have difficulty identifying the abuse until it has escalated. Children who want to please their parents are at a higher risk since they are less likely to ask for help. Whether you are caring for a child you suspect may

Whether you can voice them or not you entered marriage with expectations. You had a picture in your mind of what your marriage would look like. It may have reflected your parent’s marriage, or the marriages of close friends, your own hopes and dreams, or even TV and movie depictions of marriage. At some point, however, your expectations for marriage didn’t match reality. There was a gap between what you expected and the reality of your daily experience. When

Many go through life exhausted, craving rest for their physical body while others are longing for rest for their inner life, their soul (their mind and emotions). Still others are searching for spiritual rest and redemption, spiritual rebirth, and transformation. Jesus has invited you into a personal relationship with Him. A life-saving friendship you enter weary and heavy-hearted where you find deep, lasting peace and rest. It sounds too good to be true. Author and pastor, Dane Ortlund, in

What traits did you look for in a spouse before you got married? Or what are you looking for now? Is honesty an important characteristic to you? If not, it should be since it is one of the most foundational aspects of healthy relationships. Why? Because anything built on a lie isn’t made to last since it doesn’t provide security and comfort. Imagine you bought a house that you were told was sound. Then over the first few years

Though Western society pays closer attention to mental health and emotional health as a whole, many people still struggle to know what to do with their uncomfortable emotions. Maybe their family of origin didn’t teach them how to do this or maybe emotions were ignored, over-spiritualized, or treated as neutral. A person may not feel safe to express their feelings because bad things happened when they expressed them in the past. A person may avoid even facing their difficult

It’s a scary thought. Suddenly finding yourself disoriented in your own neighborhood unable to remember how to get home. Staring helplessly at one of your grandchildren unable to recall the first name. Everyone has moments of forgetfulness, but when should we consider it worrisome? When should you check with your physician about possible early onset dementia symptoms? Is there a way to slow down the progressive condition? Defining Dementia Dementia isn’t a one-size-fits-all condition. Dementia can be the symptom

When we think of anger in the Bible our thoughts first turn to that amazing scene of Christ overturning the tables of the money lenders in the temple (John 2 13-17). It wasn’t just a case of using holy ground to conduct business, but Jesus considered it a desecration and a sin and was rightly and righteously angry. Does this conflict with our view of how God acts, as well as how we need to manage our anger? When