Blog | Sugar Land, TX | Barnhill & Associates Counseling Center

Disillusionment is thecChild of Illusion

Years ago I was reading a book about grief and helping others through the difficulties of grief when I read this sentence: “Disillusionment is the child of illusion”. The author and even the title of the book has long escaped me but I never forgot that line from the text. Disillusionment is the child of illusion. His point was in reference to the idea that when we grieve, we often feel much disillusionment in light of our loss however insignificant it might be or how profo

Who is on your Hate Bus?

Last Sunday morning somewhere in deep east Texas a momma came into her son's room and said, "Sonny, it’s time to get up. Time to go to church." He rolled over in bed and said, "I ain't going. I don't want to go to church." She said, "Sonny, we go through this every Sunday. Get up! It's time to go to church." He said, “Maw, I ain't going - you can't make me! Tell me two good reasons why I should go to that church. I’ll tell you what, those people at that church hate me and

Lessons from the Mountain

From a very young age I loved the Rocky Mountains. Although, I grew up in north central Texas, our family regularly vacationed in Colorado during the summer. As I got older we began to snow ski. By the time I was a senior in high school I was determined to go to college in Colorado and to learn a trade that would allow me to live there the rest of my adult life. Everything was going as planned after high school graduation. I went off to college to Ft. Lewis College in Dura

A Birthday Party for Agnes

What's the one thing that followers of Christ have to offer that people in our world cannot get anywhere else? Peter Drucker, a business consultant and author, had become a Christian and was asked why a person like him would become a Christian. He said, "Well, I studied all the religions of the world, and when I studied Christianity it had this thing called grace." He said, "Being a business person, recognizing a good deal when I came across it, this was just the best deal to

Lessons from a U-Haul

Some days in our lives stand out more than others. For obvious reasons, some days are unforgettable, even if we could forget them, we cannot. Tragedies and celebrations seem to be the type of events that are unforgettable. I remember one particular day pretty well and it wasn’t a tragedy or a celebration. This was the day that my oldest daughter had returned from her honeymoon. She and her husband (of one week) were all loaded up and driving away to their new home and lif

Words for the Weary

Years ago our family was water skiing on Lake Graham. I was driving the boat pulling the kids on an inner tube back and forth across the lake. While we were having great fun I began to hear a buzzer sound coming from the engine area. It wasn’t deafening loud, by any means, only irritating. So I ignored it. It went away but came back later. I went back to the engine to see if I could find out what the buzzer was about but I learned nothing. Just like when I raise the ho

Writing Our Own Memorial Services

Memorial Day was established in 1868 as a day to honor fallen soldiers of the just concluded Civil War. Now it has become a solemn recognition of our entire nation’s deceased soldiers and the high price of our freedoms. Remembering is both helpful and sometimes painful. Memorials are designed to help us remember, because we are prone to forget. One of the most destructive sins described in the Old Testament was the sin of “forgetting”. It seems God’s people tend to remember

Running from God

One of my favorite authors and pastors is John Ortberg. John is a pastor in the San Francisco Bay Area at a Presbyterian Church. I love reading his stuff. He, like me, has a background in psychology and theology so everything he says I wish I had thought to say. I met him once after a talk he gave and I told him he would never get to speak at my church because I have already used most of his material. Preachers have a saying that goes, “When _________ writes a better boo

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