Emotional Purity and Courtship: A Few Years Later

“The me of today doesn’t believe I need to use God to justify my choices.”

The Courtship Commandments: By Rachel

“Thy heart hath only so much love to give. Squander it not.”

I Was Not Supposed to Happen

“Homeschooling parents today have two choices: ignore the now thousands of warning voices of experience, or carefully listen, reconsider and change direction.”

How the Teachings of Emotional Purity and Courtship Damage Healthy Relationships

“I’ve lately started facing the ways in which the teachings of ’emotional purity’, (a la Josh Harris, the Ludys, and others) have damaged the part of my brain that makes healthy relationships function.”

Ninja Training: Chloe Anderson’s Story

“I would never give back that experience. The glue that held it all together and kept my parents from being dysfunctional task masters, or chronic busy bodies with a messiah complex was that they loved us kids and wanted the world for us. And they sought every day to live out a faith that convicted them to serve, love and empower. That is perhaps the greatest example that they left me. “

Relationships, A Series: Part Eleven — Conclusion, Don’t Brush Off the Next Generation

“I have a unique perspective. I just went through the child’s side of a relationship, I have been on the other side of parenting. And I expect to be taken seriously because I know that my perspective is not any less important than the parents. Frankly, I think getting a child’s perspective and not just the parents is important in getting the full picture.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Ten — I Am A Phoenix

“I say ‘bring it on!’ to anything that’s coming in our future. If we were able to get through what we did, then there is no reason why we won’t make it through anything else that might be coming. Going through those three years of trial after trial only taught me more about being resilient. The past four and a half years have proved to me that I can make it. The past six months have taught me that I am strong.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Nine — We Made It

“We made it to the end. We were getting married. Despite the people who didn’t believe us, despite the heartache, the tears, the hurt, we had made it. Three words that are such a relief to write: We made it. “

Relationships, A Series: Part Eight — The Means To An End

“All the way up to our wedding, my dad still would not acknowledge that we were engaged. The days after that fatal Saturday were quite fraught with chaotic pressure from pastors, parents, and even some friends to break off our engagement. But somehow, we made it, and continued to say that we wouldn’t break off the engagement because that was something that was strictly between us.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Seven — The Five-Year Relationship Plan

“I want to explain a little bit about why this is so difficult for me to write, but also why I need to write our story. From that first devastating break in Phil’s and my friendship, I began losing a lot of friends, I faced opposition at home and from other parents, people I barely knew, and those who I thought were friends…I was being accused of lust, idolatry, bitterness by my parents, I was called rebellious, disobedient, dishonoring of my parents by others around me.”