Inside Bell's Brain

I’ve lived pretty openly about my struggles with self-esteem. Perhaps too openly, but that’s not the point of this particular post.  A history of verbal abuse, rejection, insecurity and throw in some re-traumatization for good measure... that all makes for a perfectly *normal* traumatized young woman. (And I can’t emphasize the normal part enough. The more I’ve researched what happens to the brain and body through one’s healing journey, the more I’m convinced that I’m not defined by these feelings, but rather that these are things that happened to me that I’m working through. And my range of reactions is also perfectly normal based on what experts can tell us about the brain and body’s response to those traumas.)  That said, poor self image is exhausting and debilitating. It can be all-consuming, and it has the power to ignite an obsessive beast within.  With the help of my husband, I am still trying to reassemble all those broken pieces to figure out who this current version of Erika

This year, I’ve been participating in a scripture writing study with ladies from congregations all around.  It was created/designed by sister Carla Moore.  ( Check out her post and the download here!   You can see some of my pictures below, but keep scrolling to read more...) This week's reading had us focusing on the Day of Pentecost, the day of the birth of the church in Acts 2. One sister (Sheri Harris) posted something in our shared Facebook group about the clarity of "tongues" being "languages" after reflecting so closely on this passage. It doesn't mean an unintelligent collection of sounds and syllables, a mouthful of unrecognizable words. It means real languages that real humans used for real communication . While this is knowledge that many of us may have grown up knowing, Sheri is right.  This passage demonstrates the true definition of this word and reveals the misunderstanding of so many who -- ignorantly or intentionally -- pervert its mea