WGA blog
Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go…
The first time I realized I was way behind schedule in my parenting, Debbie was five and starting Kindergarten in a few days. I had taken a week’s vacation to help her learn the route to her school, how to work with the crossing guard as she crossed sixth avenue in...
Pathways to Healing from Abuse: Reclaiming Body & Sexuality (Part 4)
Taking Back Lost Ground I recently met with a WGA group member for coffee. Over our time together he began to recount a long and painful history of sexual abuse. This is always a hard and heartbreaking part of the WGA ministry. One of the tough consequences of these...
Think About Such Things
Editor's Note: Dr. Johnson wrote this article for her blog in March 2020. It seems just as applicable in 2021. I find myself thinking about something these days. I’ll let you guess what it is. I talk about it, I read emails about it, I make decisions based on it, I...
Making Changes That Matter and Last
It is fairly simple to make some changes in our lives. We do it every day. We change jobs or get a new car or move to a new home. Maybe we enter a new relationship. These can be significant changes that may or may not be easy, but we make them anyway. Then there are...
Hope for Parents When Hope Seems Lost
Last week, during WGA’s first ever webinar, I related a part of my own process in leading up to writing about our topic, “My 4 Year-old Is Touching Himself Down There: What do I do?” Written several years ago, this particular blog has been the most read page on the...
Pathways to Healing from Abuse: Developing a Support System (Part 3)
Who’s on Your Wall? My friend Donnie has been helping with decorating my new condo. He actually does this for a living, so he’s used to showing up at people’s homes with an array of possible items. One idea he had for my bedroom wall was taken from a fun picture in...
When Your What If Becomes Reality
Are you there? Are your kids there? Has the, “What if…” become real? Has fear morphed into reality? How do we access that rainbow of hope in the midst of hard? What if I get cancer? What if I get Covid? What if I don’t make the team? What if I lose my job? What if my...
Coping with My Coping Mechanisms (Part 2)
In my last article, I opened up the topic of Coping Mechanisms and talked about some of the ways we cope with stress and just life in general in negative ways. I posed a number of questions to help you to analyze the behaviors that you are coping with and cast a...
Trusting God in the Hard Times
Trusting God in the easy times isn’t really trusting. When life is easy, trusting God is like watching your favorite TV show. You set aside the time, pay attention and keep all distractions at bay because it suits you. It interests you. Every episode serves up the...
Pathways to Healing from Abuse: The Balancing Act of Recovery—Processing the Trauma (Part 2)
A Healing Revelation “Scott, you better sit down—you’ve been waiting a lifetime to hear this exact heartfelt sentiment.” The urgent thought suddenly began ringing through my mind. It was a typical Sunday afternoon back then. I was catching up on the phone with my...