Tag Archives: honesty

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Can I Recover From Trauma? With Mary DeMuth [Episode 399]

Recover From Trauma Mary DeMuth

What do you do when your story feels too broken to redeem?

That’s exactly where Mary DeMuth found herself—carrying the deep pain of childhood trauma, abuse, and brokenness. It’s a story she never would have chosen. But today, she celebrates how God rewrites, redeems, and restores not just her story, but all of ours.

Today on the 4:13, Mary will help you discover how Jesus meets you in your past, transforms your present, and sets a new course for your future—because no part of your story is beyond His redemption.

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Can I Make Peace With the Past and Make Sense of the Present? With Bonnie Gray [Episode 200]

Make Peace Past Make Sense Present Bonnie Gray

Episode 200 [Part 1]

Episode 200 [Part 2 – After Hours]

Growing up as a Chinese American daughter of a mail-order bride and a busboy in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Bonnie Gray never felt like she belonged. She spent her childhood hiding “Chinese Bonnie” who lived in a dysfunctional home in poverty in order to be accepted as cheerful “American Bonnie” who lived a life that looked like everybody else’s.

She tried to throw away pieces of her past—the ones she thought no one wanted—but in the process, she discovered God was tenderly gathering all the broken fragments to build a new story of faith and joy. She learned that it’s only when we learn to embrace the truth of our past that we can finally make sense of our present and celebrate what truly matters.

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God Hears Your Unspoken Broken

Your unspoken broken.

We all have it. It’s that thing in us that we don’t talk about because we don’t know how to put words to it. It’s that feeling that rises in us and makes our throats tighten and our voices tremble.

It’s the disquiet in our soul, the ache we always feel but never get used to; the silent companion who takes up too much room in our hearts. It’s our unspoken broken.

The mom who tries to manage her mentally ill adult son — she feels the sting, the ache. When you see her on Sunday and she smiles and hugs you and asks how your week went, can you hear what is not said? Can you hear her unspoken broken? It is there, screaming to be heard and held and helped.

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It’s Time to Drop the Pose of Perfection

My girlfriends Joan and Paula came over last week to work out with me, wanting to try out a new walking exercise routine. I greeted them at the door with my knees wrapped in Ace Bandages, Advil bottle in hand — and this was before the workout even started. I also sprayed water on myself to make it look like it made me sweat just thinking about a work out.
Jen work out 2
You know what I was? A poser.