since i'm new to this pretty stinking cool blog "raw & real", i think it's only fair to give readers a glimpse of who they're hearing from. my name is kristina but kris is easier and is often what i'm called, or what i introduce myself as. benny and i met in college and became close friends quickly; we could both feel that our relationship would one day take the next step in coupledom, but we didn't rush anything. a couple of years later we were married and in 6 months found out that our family was already growing! our 3 collaborations are incredible teachers & blessings. we believe that we are the their first bible, their first interactions with God. and so we are shaping their idea of God's love for them everyday. we don't take that lightly, & it breaks our hearts when others do. but this is a great big world and we aren't foolish enough to think that life is easy peasy for everyone at all times. our life's mission is to be there for the people who have been beaten down and taken advantage of; we have been the prodigal son/daughter and now we rejoice in the chance to relate to and minister to and disciple the people of samaria.
about a year and half ago, benny and i were studying samaria and samaritans...both with our friends and by ourselves. we began to see ourselves as members of samaria who 'gotten out' & God began to work on our hearts...taking us back through painful memories and things we hadn't dealt with during our times in samaria. over the past 15 months or so we have grown so much & healed more! we stood in our past muck long enough to know that Jesus is the only way out (which is wisdom from a friend). here's the part where i say that i myself have been in and out of Samaria my whole life...robbed by the world, of things that were rightly mine. i've been to the bottom. i've come to the end of myself and given it all over to God. i've nailed hundreds of hurts, habits, and hang ups (ask me about Celebrate Recovery) to the cross, and there are days when i have to force myself to nail them down again and again and again. sometime in the next 5-7 years i plan to return to school & pursuit a life in Biblical Counseling. God has given me a heart for girls and women, where there once was the heart of a girl with brothers, roughly 30 male first cousins, & countless uncles. in samaria, i wouldn't give women a sincere chance before writing them off as friends. God redeems my wrong thinking about female relationships all the time, and i now have several "favorite women" in my life.
about a year and half ago, benny and i were studying samaria and samaritans...both with our friends and by ourselves. we began to see ourselves as members of samaria who 'gotten out' & God began to work on our hearts...taking us back through painful memories and things we hadn't dealt with during our times in samaria. over the past 15 months or so we have grown so much & healed more! we stood in our past muck long enough to know that Jesus is the only way out (which is wisdom from a friend). here's the part where i say that i myself have been in and out of Samaria my whole life...robbed by the world, of things that were rightly mine. i've been to the bottom. i've come to the end of myself and given it all over to God. i've nailed hundreds of hurts, habits, and hang ups (ask me about Celebrate Recovery) to the cross, and there are days when i have to force myself to nail them down again and again and again. sometime in the next 5-7 years i plan to return to school & pursuit a life in Biblical Counseling. God has given me a heart for girls and women, where there once was the heart of a girl with brothers, roughly 30 male first cousins, & countless uncles. in samaria, i wouldn't give women a sincere chance before writing them off as friends. God redeems my wrong thinking about female relationships all the time, and i now have several "favorite women" in my life.
i may from time to time mention or write about mental illness, and the marriage of science and faith. as ben said in his informal introduction, these are things (along with my religious beliefs) that i am not willing to argue. i am, and have always been, a "like me or don't" christian. i'm not going to ignore what i know to be truth in order to make someone else feel more comfortable. God is not nearly as concerned with my comfort and He is my character, and that's more or less the way i rolll.
i'm a writer by trade, a reader by choice; i am not afraid of therapy; i work out things in my life by writing about them but won't ever compromise anyone else's privacy for a blog entry--i keep things broad & on a big spectrum; i love and critique nearly all forms of rock; i am 100% a midwestern girl; i am in dbt & cr; i collect books and smiles; i will be correcting your grammar in my head. just kidding. maybe.
kris
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