Beware of the strong woman! By: White Dove Warning: Trigger alert. Please don't read if you are sensitive to images of family violence. "I'm ashamed of you! Why can't you have more grace?" said my pastor, after telling him I was divorcing my husband. We were just shy of our 20-year anniversary and the LAST […]
{ 15 comments }
.jpg)
Soaking in Nature's Healing Power By: Susan Deborah Schiller aka Tender Lily When you've lived in the war zone of domestic and spiritual violence… a place where sharp, cutting words have torn and shredded your spirit like shrapnel. When explosive actions, like grenades, have ripped your gut in half, choking off your air supply, you […]
{ 15 comments }
Flesh-eating Christians and the Pearl of Great Price By: Susan Deborah Schiller From the series, "Love from Papa" where I try to listen to God's heartbeat while asking Him the tough questions on my heart. God, why don't you stop this wicked person? Why do you see him torturing me day after day, and do […]
{ 12 comments }
"Rise Up A Warrior" by Graham Cooke Your life will never be the same following sociopathic abuse, so why not make it your very best life ever? Graham Cooke is a mentor who has helped me the most, in the past 15 years. I've never met him in person, but I've read and listened to […]
{ 18 comments }
Shining Light into the Murky Depths of Marital Abuse By: Kimberly Dimick Women are often sent demeaning messages from well-meaning but misinformed Christians that minimize and marginalize what they suffer in surviving an abusive marriage. Later, in post-divorce recovery, especially when the perpetrator's behavior is on-going via co-parenting, they continue to be sent messages that invalidate their pain. We […]
{ 2 comments }
Fully Alive, Fully Human, Fully Me By: Susan Deborah Schiller Can we pick and choose which parts of the life of Christ we want to manifest in our lives? Can we choose the miracles, walk on water, still storms, and heal people without the betrayal, abandonment, and rejection? In short, can we eliminate the stress […]
{ 15 comments }
When Staying in a Marriage Means Blocking God's Way By: Kimberly Dimick Editor's note: This letter was originally written to a woman who had stayed decades too long in an abusive marriage. Her husband is divorcing her, but in reality, he divorced her many years ago when he broke covenant through continuous cycles of abuse. […]
{ 2 comments }
Does A Sociopath Have A Heart By: Susan Deborah Schiller From the series, "Understanding Sociopaths & Abuse Tactics" A reader asked me, "does a sociopath have a heart"? In other words, is there ANY HOPE at all that they might change and become "real". I do know of extremely abusive people, even criminals, who have completely […]
{ 54 comments }
The King's Bride By: Susan Deborah Schiller Many women, much like holocaust survivors, ask me the same question, after having lost everything to their absuer: What is ahead of us as we are so close to retirement? We are widows, having lost both husbands and church. We fell through the cracks of institutional Christianity. We are […]
{ 16 comments }
How Does God View Women? By: Susan Deborah Schiller I graduated from a Christian college in Springfield, Missouri – a Bible Belt town and home to several Christian schools. In those days you could tell which students attended which college by their hairstyles and wardrobe. In comparison to our Baptist brothers and sisters, we Evangelicals […]
{ 4 comments }
I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills By: Susan Deborah Schiller I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.…Psalm 121:1 I believe I am God's beloved child, and that He's been close by my side every day […]
{ 12 comments }
Plunging into the Heart of the Plague By: Susan Deborah Schiller Today I finish driving about 2000 miles across country, from my childhood home town to my present home town. It's nice to visit the 1st World but 3rd World living is where I really love to be. There's a plague all around me, but the people […]
{ 7 comments }
Homosexuals, Marriage, and the Kingdom By: Susan Deborah Schiller Rainbows are appearing all over social media. There seems to a wide gap between traditional Christianity and inclusive believers, and I hope this little dream parable may help to bridge the gap. It's how I reconciled embracing homosexuals into my culture. For me, it was like stepping […]
{ 5 comments }
Family is the backbone of society. By: Susan Deborah Schiller I have a dream of building a community, offline and online, where every member is loved to life through the sharing of our stories. Storytelling, in an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance, heals our bodies, minds, and souls. I envision within the whole, many smaller circles […]
{ 3 comments }
I Call Upon the Lion of Judah By: Susan Schiller "You will meet evil face-to-face and you will not like it. You will be betrayed and abandoned by the people you love, even those you thought were your best friends. Most of all it will be lonely, very lonely. Do you still want to follow […]
{ 5 comments }
Dressing the Invisible Wounds By: Susan Deborah Schiller June is National PTSD Awareness Month! Everything changed when I met an ordinary farmer from Oregon. It was at one of those advanced trainings that I found someone who knew someone. He was an ordinary farmer in Oregon. He understood sociopathic abuse very well and he began to […]
{ 9 comments }
Beware of the Marriage Trap By: Deborah White Dove Modern wedding vows may be a sign of marriage dysfunction. Marriage vows can be a license to steal, kill, and destroy a woman's soul, along with the children. Marriage vows are not biblical, but making a marriage covenant is. At the heart of love is a covenant […]
{ 10 comments }
Surrendering to Rest By: Susan Deborah Schiller This week's prompt is "If you surrendered to ___ what would happen? Dwell in the possibilities. Allow yourself to dream." I am replacing the blank with the word "rest". What word would you use? I like to take a mental vacation, if only for a few minutes. In my imagination I'm […]
{ 1 comment }
Beside Quiet Waters By: Susan Deborah Schiller He leads me beside quiet waters; he restores my soul. (Psalm 23) And because there really are female sociopaths in the world today, I must pause to ponder how God designed human life and put us in families. Why are there different genders and what are the roles? Is […]
{ 11 comments }
If you're the victim of a religious sociopath, I want to assure you that it's not because you're an ordinary victim of domestic violence. Don't let anyone tell you that it's because of your low self-esteem or whatever… it's definitely not that! By: Susan Deborah Schiller In a dream, I learned what caused me to attract […]
{ 13 comments }