As a child, my journal entries were filled with unending outcries to God for comfort, companionship and direction. I had no idea how to live, and Christianity, the way it was expressed and taught didn’t seem to hold real answers. I knew God was there but felt like there was a veil separating me from Him. I pled endlessly for His intervention and sometimes felt like I was “granted” relief, but mostly experienced anxiety, depression and despair. I felt that if I had been more “courageous,” I would have ended my life, but I took the least dramatic path and just whined in my journal every day.

I married at 24 ½ in an attempt to find happiness, towing a whole host of emotional baggage. This attempt............