Haven of Mercy

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month . With that in mind, we will be sharing resources and information about this topic for the rest of the week. We encourage you to share these resources and talk about these things with your teenagers (both male and female). First Recommended Resource: Darby Strickland, domestic abuse expert, Biblical counselor, and author of "Is It Abuse?" shares eight warning signs that a dating relationship might become abusive. The 8 warning signs are: intensity, jealousy, guilting, criticism, sabotaging, manipulating, isolating, and blame shifting. There is an intensity that is continually asking. "Will you be mine?" But is really saying, "You will become mine!" (Darby Strickland) Revive our Hearts - 8 Warning Signs Second Recommended Resource: For him: “He does not try to seduce his girlfriend by whispering in her ear that he loves her and then leading her into sexual sin. His love is holy and pure and desires to p...

How does the gospel inform our response to abuse? Rachael DenHollander, survivor of sexual abuse, author, advocate, and educator walks us through the answer to that question in this beautiful speech. Some of you may already be familiar with this particular speech, but it's worth listening to again, and definitely worth sharing with friends who are new to this topic. Here's one quote from this phenomenal speech: “The Christian faith teaches that not only does God love, but that God is just because he loves. He pours out wrath on evil because he cares. Christ took that punishment upon himself so that those who repent and believe can experience that forgiveness. Not because forgiveness means that what they did no longer matters. Not because saying those words erases what they did. But because someone else took that Justice in their place. Either way Justice is done. Either it falls on the abuser, or Lord willing, if he repents, it falls on the redeemer. But Justice is always don...