Jordan Stones Blog

Carole Smith was an instrumental contributor to my identity, my path, and work as a therapist.  She was my supervisor during the early years of training to secure my license as a therapist.  Her skills, talent, humor, intuition, and expertise in trauma healing were just a few of aspects that enriched me as a practitioner.  She was an example of how to thrive through pain and live a full life no matter unmoved mountains remain in our story.  She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was around 13.  She was confined to a wheel chair for the whole time that I had the blessing of knowing her.    Her personality was infectious:  wit and humor found in the hardest of places, her “I get it” sense of being present with struggling souls, her warrior like approach to using just the right intervention to unwrap the stuck places. She passed away this last December.  I found out only recently.  I comfort in the image of her carefree sp...

We have patterns.  Patterns we would like to hide, unacknowledged, cover up, mask.  Patterns in relationships, patterns in our emotions, patterns in our self-governing, in our thoughts. In my own life I am beginning to see them as the sin that they are.    They are the things that make me snap when I am busy. The things that make me judge, blame in my closest relationships.  They are the words I don’t say that conceal resentment and invite it to nest in my heart.  They are the anxiousness that floods right under the paper-thin surface of my outside presentation, that push me to distract and power-through unattended. “Every broken place that has not been healed and transformed in God’s presence is a hard edge of our personality that slices and dices other people when they bump up against it” (Barton, 2010) This revealing of patterns, the calling out of that which is just so “not working” in our lives, is in good timing.  We are on the thres...

New Year, New You – Your Portion This Year is Already Secure Been there, done that, huh?  Me too.   The good news is, you were made the “New You” the moment you became His.  It is finished.  Let’s consider how that effects intentions you lay out for yourself this month. His Love is so deep, so wide, so satisfying…we can know Him so well and just scratch a fraction of the surface of His infinite provision and eternal pleasures that His hand is open and extending to us: Psalm 16 Lord , you alone are my portion   and my cup;      you make my lot   secure. 6  The boundary lines   have fallen for me in pleasant places;      surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7  I will praise the   Lord , who counsels me;      even at night   my heart instructs me. 8  I keep my eyes always on the   Lord .      With him at my right hand, ...

Sweet Friends, this is the invitation : the same one for me and for you: “The herald of the King calls to you in this moment to come away from the crush and the crowds, to come away to a space of stillness to be ready for the coming of the Lord” (A. Voskamp, The Greatest Gift p. 210) It doesn’t happen automatically. Doesn’t happen without intention.  As epic as it is, you’ll miss it if you don’t lean in.  I’ll  miss it if I don’t lean in.  The “eucatastrophe” is coming… the apex of we have been waiting for.  The moment when hurt and distraction and longing and disappointment and death are obliterated and the Lover makes his entrance…spectacular rescue, the battle for intimacy fought for and won, the only satisfying experience there is …that of Presence…rushes in like a broken damn.  And all this in the tiny package of a baby. “ And even now, with tiny features and dewy hair, He is great.” Isaiah 9:6 (the Voice) The shift from Struggl...

Tips from our trusted Page Love, MS, RD, CSSD, LD -  Holiday parties and social gatherings can bring challenges to your normal nutritional routine.  Here is a handy list of tips to help you navigate holiday eating. 1.        Eat a snack before social eating situations such as an apple or baby carrots and string cheese.  This will settle your hunger so you will not overindulge in party food 2.        Both offer to bring a healthy appetizer as well as try to find out about the menu ahead of time so that you can pre-plan your meal.  Healthy appetizer options include a fruit salad or a veggie tray with a healthy yogurt dip 3.        Once you arrive, first choose a hydrating beverage to help with hydration and help decrease overall alcohol intake.  Choose beverages like club soda, diet sprite, Fresca, or decaffeinated diet sodas. 4.     ...

I think November may well give me whip lash this year.  In the midst of the holidays coming toward us like a train, there is something that I know:  it’s not too early to prepare.  In order to prepare to NOT do the holidays in fast forward  autopilot, I believe we need to start making intentions and now in early November.  At least internally (trust me, I am not saying we need to have our Christmas lists ready to roll!), we need to be ready for December before it is December if we are going to live the holidays in special and meaningful way.    Which brings us to Advent. Advent is full of meaning, sentiment and deep joy for me. The definition of Advent is: the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event . It begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving and consists of 4 Sundays and weeks of content and attention preparing for the arrival of the Greatest Gift, and incorporating it into your holiday season.  I have found it to be game-changing if ...

I have often mentioned the old metaphor taught to me long ago.  I have called it to many of you  “feelings are road signs”.  As we drive our cars from here to there, there are signs everywhere…”this way to Greenville”, “men at work ahead”, “merge”, “Starbucks (stop here!)”… and on and on.  Someone once said that our feelings play the exact function of road signs in our inner worlds.  They contain code, information, vital material for our next-best-thing-to-do toward well being and goodness and thriving our lives.  All things I am passionate about leading others (and myself) to follow.  If we pay attention, there is wisdom in our deep places (AKA the knit-in Holy Spirit-laced authentic self) that has exactly what we need to arrive there. “At the heart of the discernment process is the ability to pay attention to…the inner dynamics that give us clues to whether the step we are considering will nurture life in us: the life of Christ lived ...