Blog | Lindsey Staton Life Coaching

Post-Divorce Brain Damage

April 17, 2015 By Lindsey Staton

This is a public service announcement.

At some point in your life, you will either get divorced or be close to someone who does. Whether it’s wanted or not, mutual or not, expected or not, deserved or not, it’s excruciating. The two that became one are ripped apart and are left as two bleeding halves. It’s trauma, it’s death, and it changes you.

I was the one who filed for divorce, so it could be argued that it’s my fault. But there are always two legitimate sides to every story and I would venture to say that NO broken marriage is black and white. They’re all varying shades of gray. [Read more…]

Holding on

April 10, 2015 By Lindsey Staton

Stepparenting is a losing game.

If it’s ever a competition, you, by default, will lose. You will lose to your spouse. You will lose to the other biological parent. You will lose to your stepkids. You will lose to your OWN kids. You’ll just lose. One strategy I’ve discovered is to NOT put yourself in a position to lose, at least not at the beginning. If the opportunity arises to enter into a competition with anyone, choose love. Don’t fight, don’t defend yourself, just love and let it pass. It almost always does. (DISCLAIMER: That strategy doesn’t always work. Actually no strategy ALWAYS works. Just making this up as I go along, people.)

Brad and I had been married for just under six months, and we worked hard for every moment. There were moments of soul-scraping difficulty. There were moments of startling peace. There’s nothing easy about the circumstances of life throwing together two busted families and telling them to be a new family. We have five sets of issues, life experiences, perspectives, broken hearts all to be tripped over in this wild adventure of trying to live as a family. Not for the faint of heart. And not for the God-less heart.

It’s been a wild season of growth since day one. Growth spurts with growing pains that have turned up the heat on the fire of sanctification, revealing who we really are and making us deal with it, in all of its glory and grossness. [Read more…]

Anniversary

April 2, 2015 By Lindsey Staton

You’ve blessed my life in just ridiculous ways. My health, my husband, my child, my family, my job. I could go on and on about the absolute bliss that I experience every day of my life. I know it all comes from You … Lord, my life is so perfect. If nothing ever changed, I’d really be fine. Happy, even. Except for one thing. I really want to want You again … Thank you for the ridiculous favor You’ve poured out on my life. Teach me to give You the praise and glory for it, instead of just expecting and accepting it. I love You, Jesus. And I want to love You so much more.

For a moment, Jesus felt His mighty heart would explode with joy. She loves my gifts. She loves Me. She wants to love Me more. He basked in her worship and gratefulness. He knew He must soak up every moment of her praise. The clock was ticking. In a matter of days, the way her innocent heart saw Him would never be the same.

* * * * *

It was Maundy Thursday of 2007. The devil licked his lips anxiously as he stood at the King’s side. Their eyes were locked on his next target. Satan could barely contain his glee. The Father stood with his arms crossed, unmoving and grim. [Read more…]

Still His

March 27, 2015 By Lindsey Staton

It had been a difficult day.

I like peace. No, that’s an understatement. I NEED peace. I’m a peace addict. I’m not as addicted as I used to be. I used to immediately panic when my peace was disturbed and frantically do whatever it took to try to get it back as soon as possible. I’ve learned to sit with struggle a little longer now, try to let God do what He wants with it. But if it goes on longer than I think it should, I still get twitchy and anxious.

There was no peace to be had that day. Two different issues had arisen from two different areas of my life. (On the same day, no less. Unacceptable.) Both are sort of ongoing situations that will most likely never go away, which can be very demoralizing if I let myself think about it. Most days, I DON’T let myself think about it, for that very reason. But that day, I did. Plus I had been working unusually long hours and my kids had been gone for an unusually long stretch and I missed them. Yep, the day was going south. And I was going to let it. [Read more…]

Was blind but now I see

March 20, 2015 By Lindsey Staton

In sixth grade, my eyes started going bad. I couldn’t read the overhead projector screen at school (kids, Google it if you don’t know what that is) so my mom took me to the eye doctor and I got glasses. And all the clichés are true. I could see every individual leaf on the trees. My sight slipped so gradually, I didn’t even realize I wasn’t seeing clearly, until I could.

I started wearing contacts. My eyesight continued to deteriorate at a fairly rapid pace up to my late twenties when I got LASIK. Suddenly, I could wake up in the morning and as soon as my eyes opened, I could see. No more fumbling for glasses. No more inserting contacts. I could just…see. It was nothing short of miraculous. [Read more…]

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