Me, need counseling? I don’t think so!

My Life

I never dreamed that I would ever have the need to go to professional counseling. I had great parents that loved God, loved family and were dedicated to serving God and the local church. I asked Jesus in my heart at age 7 and from that moment on I was God’s girl. I Never walked away from the things of God, never wanted to. I went to Bible College, graduated, then several years later Darin and I became best friends, fell in love and got married. People use to ask me when are you going to fall in love and get married? I would always say when I find someone I’m attracted to that loves God with all their heart. This was Darin, he was crazy for God and good looking too! We loved talking about the things of God together and he was so encouraging in my ‘spiritual gifts’. I will never forget when we were dating he told me, “some guys aren’t like this but if you don’t do everything God puts in your heart to do I will be so disappointed.” How could a girl like me not fall in love with someone that genuinely felt that way. I had always thought I would marry someone who I would cheer on for God. Instead, God sent me someone who wanted to cheer me on and wanted to pursue God with all his heart too! He was God’s gift to me. He was behind me from the get go. There is a big age difference between us and I used to tell him that when I was 8 God looked over the whole earth and there was no one good enough for me so he had to create him! We were friends for many years before we ever started dating so we thought there would be “no surprises” when we got married. We loved God, right?

Darin’s Life

Darin on the other hand did not grow up in a Christian home. He was dramatically saved at age 18. He did not grow up thinking ‘my life is close to perfect‘ therefore I will have perfect results. This is why when he went to Alaska after being married only a year and a half he sought out counseling. Going to counseling wasn’t a big deal to him. I on the other hand was embarrassed by it. I remember one of my clients called me one time while I was on the road. I thought it was a close friend calling and I answered the phone and said quickly I’m on my way to a counseling appointment. She was confused and I was embarrassed. I am happy to say I’ve gotten over that crazy mind set.

When I began going to counseling I thought I was going to get Darin help. What I did not know is I needed it too. I had things in my life that I needed true freedom from! I am so grateful Darin wasn’t willing to settle for just ‘surviving’ in this thing we call life. God put in him a desire to ‘live’ not just ‘survive’ and because of that very strong desire, and an unwillingness and inability to ‘fake it’ we both ended up finding freedom and are still finding freedom today.

Reminds me of the verse: Psalms 119:144

Your statutes are forever right; give me understanding that I may live.

This is what counseling did for us. It gave both Darin and I understanding so that we could live.