We are in unprecedented times. We’re all, parents and kids alike, facing new challenges. I’ve been struggling in many areas over the past few months. I’ve failed at times. Some days are better than others. And I’ve been praying for you all, especially those of you with little […]
How’s life at your house? Everyone getting along royally? Or are emotions flying? I can only imagine how difficult quarantining would have been with our family years ago. While I’m sure you’re finding moments to cherish and reasons to be thankful, I’m also sure there are times when […]
Most kids today understand the digital world much better than their parents because they’ve grown up surrounded by it. They’re “digital natives.” My young granddaughter rarely gets to hold an iPhone, but when she does, one of two things happens. She either presses the home button (which prompts […]
In a broken world, it’s inevitable that tender hearts will be wounded. Wounding can come through insensitive or sinful actions of others, as a result of our own choices, or through disappointment or suffering that are common in a fallen world. God allows wounding for reasons we may […]
She was a little timid about meeting with me. She said her story would be hard to hear, and she gave me the option of declining. I did not know what her story would include, but I sensed there was still a lot of shame in her heart […]
Words can be powerful for both good and evil whether we are 9 or 99.
When I was about 12 years old, I was walking home from the pool with a friend who was acting like anything but a friend. She began teasing me about my body, and even […]
Our times shape us. Sometimes the stories of others who’ve endured hard times shape us too.
During the Holocaust, Corrie ten Boom and her family courageously hid Jews in their home and eventually became prisoners of war, several of them dying in concentration camps. Corrie survived and went on […]
We live in interesting times. While #MeToo has united women across the world under the banner of sexual abuse or inappropriate sexual encounters, many female entertainers still believe it’s empowering to sexualize themselves. The halftime show for Super Bowl LIV was far from empowering to women and sent […]
Remember middle school and the frequent shrieks of delight or laughter emanating from classmates? We all know how excited middle schoolers can get! Imagine my shock when a youth pastor recently told me that some of the noises coming from middle schoolers today sound more like the sound […]
A highlight of 2019 for me came in the form of a letter. A young woman wrote to share how grateful she was for the work of TrueNorth and how it had impacted her life, her marriage, and her family. Her husband was struggling with porn use and […]
One of my favorite things to do is to share life-changing truths about sexuality with parents. I do this through a live presentation (Allies: Parents & Kids Navigating a Sexualized Culture) and through my blog. Some of my friends don’t really understand why […]
When I first saw porn at a sleepover around age 11, I didn’t even consider talking with my parents about it – I hid. I was so ashamed. I probably feared I’d get in trouble. I was thinking as most children would who’ve never talked about sexual topics […]
I’m on a journey with God along a road that is not well traveled. While I’ve found other organizations with a mission similar to TrueNorth’s, I often feel like a pioneer plotting a path for current and future generations of Christians. I pray that through our work you’ll […]
When I was a young girl, the sexual revolution in America was in full swing. Playboy magazine was launched in the early 1950s, and within a couple of decades, it ushered Americans (and in many ways the world) into new and skewed ways of thinking about sexuality that continue […]
Children come into the world as sexual beings, but they have no concept of what it means to be a sexual being. Obviously a toddler or a child isn’t physically or emotionally mature enough for sex, but kids are born with sexual body parts and can experience sexual […]
A few years ago, God led me to step away from anti-trafficking work and focus on issues related to sexuality and the Christian Church. At the time, porn use was the main culprit I saw, and I was well aware of how destructive it could be for men, […]
It’s spring in Atlanta, and God’s handiwork is amazing to behold. I decided to adorn our back deck with some loveliness and enlisted the help of someone at a local nursery to put together a couple of potted arrangements. Our challenge was to find plants that could thrive […]
I can still see those big brown eyes. “Anna”* called me a few years ago on New Year’s Eve as I was about to leave Out of Darkness (a rescue organization for women in prostitution) to start TrueNorth. I was surprised to see her name on my phone because she’d […]
Seeing porn or experiencing something of a sexual nature during childhood is a given for all of us, and your children aren’t exempt. Because we are sexual beings, seeing a sexual image or experiencing something sexual is significant in a child’s life and the brain stores memory of it.
I can […]
After one of my Allies talks, a man shared with me that he grew up with porn sitting out in his home. It had been a struggle for a long season. Now he’s a dad walking free from the bondage to porn, but not from the bondage of shame.
Shame is a […]
Of the many things I experienced during my fifth-grade year, one event stands out. I was at a sleepover with girls from the neighborhood. It was late and the house was quiet as my friend stealthily led us into her kitchen. Our minds raced with curiosity as she retrieved a […]
This weekend Atlanta will host one of the world’s largest sporting events, the Super Bowl. Anti-trafficking groups are already on the ground identifying victims of sex trafficking and leading them to the freedom and resources they desperately need. Law enforcement personnel are working hard also.
Rescues will be made. Arrests will […]
New Year’s resolutions. Do you love them? Hate them? Wish you could be better at keeping them? For me, simply resolving to do or not do certain things doesn’t typically work. Even setting goals (including SMART ones) can only go so far in taking me to the next level. But […]
Five years ago I said goodbye to my anti-trafficking coworkers who’d become family to me. God knit our hearts together over rescues, hotline calls, and trainings filled with worship and tears. Now I run a nonprofit dedicated to sharing the good news of our sexuality and helping parents pass that […]
This past year I’ve given our Allies talk to about 1,000 parents in the Atlanta area. Their questions are very telling of the times in which we live. Here are a few of them:
There was a palpable sense of a holy ground moment in the room. Through tears my friend brought his story of sexual sin before some close brothers in Christ. Except for the moment he’d confessed to his wife, it was probably the most vulnerable he’d ever been. Though the group […]
As an adult looking back on the images, experiences, and encounters that shaped your sexuality, does it seem like something was missing? As you became more aware of your sexuality, were you left to figure it out on your own? Did the lack of God-honoring information and the abundance of […]
Today’s teens live in a hyper-sexualized world that most parents can’t fully comprehend. Even for teens who don’t watch porn or aren’t having sex, the air around them is super-charged with sexual imagery, drama, and messaging that falls far outside of God-honoring sexuality. Many teens today are internalizing a destructive, […]