Alma de Color

  Healing the past generation: Cultivating a vibrant next Many of us can identify with the horrid drop in the pit of one’s stomach known as disillusionment. I sit at my work desk, contemplating how to adequately pen this review. I am an intelligent, independent, professional woman who, by all rights, had an amazing childhood. I followed the “good girl formula” of Purity Culture. I never dated as a teen, I was commonly labeled a “Goody Two-Shoes”, and saved my first kiss for 45 minutes before I married…the first time. I justified everything that should have been a red flag warning me to run far and fast in the opposite direction. However, I justified everything because I had ingested all the teachings, and I believed that because I followed all the “rules”, my marriage would be something out of a romance novel (a good, Christian one, of course!) The day after my wedding, I heard my then-husband lie on the phone about having married me and where we were. The bottom of my stom...

(Image credit to Kristel Koukoua using Canva.com Magic Design AI Image Generator, 2024)          I first encountered mention of Internal Family Systems (IFS) in the book The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk.  However, as the case study included in that chapter had a split personality disorder, I thought that it only applied to people with such issues, so I mostly skipped over it.  Then, when I started seeing a licensed therapist to help me navigate healing and processing trauma and triggers beyond what I was able to address on my own through research and self-study, he introduced me again to IFS and it has opened up an entire world of extra exploration for me: IFS is my new existential rabbit hole!         I have come to the realization that God made all His creation good to begin with.  Indeed, it was very good.  Satan cannot create, as he was not created with imago dei as humans were.  The...

The book of Philemon is a letter from Paul and Timothy to a house church in Colossae (modern southwest Turkey). Paul addresses the letter to three influential believers who had some leading role in the church: Philemon, the wealthy homeowner, Apphia, believed by some to be his wife while other scholars/historians believe she was more likely to be a deacon like Phoebe (Mowczko, 2016) , and Archippus was a minister of some sort within the body of believers there. Colossae was a city known for its syncretism (HarperChristian Resources, 2022), which is the blending of incompatible religious beliefs or worldviews. Verse 6 of Philemon states that Paul and Timothy are eager for the believers in that church to have “fellowship that would lead to quote faith [becoming] effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in [them] for Christ's sake” (NASB, 1995). This letter to Philemon has some background history. Onesimus had stolen from his master Philemon and then had run awa...

 I remember your timid smile That day in the sun on the lawn Your thin-wire glasses framing Darting eyes with a slight edge Of panic at your new surroundings. We talked a little, and you  Generously helped me balance My plate and that of my boys as  We sat in the grass, and you Wistfully spoke of your family. Every time you got new streaks in your hair, You'd proudly show me and tell me a hairdresser tale. We discovered you flew to Butte desperate for and terrified of A new start.  You sat next to Brice, so you had Another brother by the time you arrived. We were so excited when you found Jesus, We were so proud of you for graduation, We were so happy when you stayed, We were so sad when you left, We rejoiced at your first, miraculous home. Today was any other day, my friend, And then we learned poison stole you away. RIP with Jesus  Michael Simmons