I grew up in a rural community and attended two small evangelical/verging on fundamental highly controlling churches. From birth, I was taught my brotherhood of churches was the only church preaching “truth.” I believed this wholeheartedly. In fact, when I was in elementary school, I actually put my best friend on the prayer list because she went to a Presbyterian Church with a female pastor, and I was worried she was going to Hell.

The scary part of this whole experience is this: No one batted an eyelash at my prayer request. The very adults teaching my Sunday School class encouraged this behavior. 

Throughout my adolescence and early twenties, I continued to be brainwashed with cherry-picked scripture and taught to argue against everyone who believed differently. It wasn’t until I went to Christian College and sat in a “Christian Beliefs” course that I realized my church was founded in the early 1900s. I remember questioning how anyone went to heaven before then. While no one said it, I think I subconsciously believed Peter’s church was the same as mine.

Through a series of unfortunate events, unbelievable tragedies, and a disastrous marriage, my world slowly unraveled, and with it, so did the theology I had been raised in. Over several years, I deconstructed everything I had been taught and then reconstructed a faith of my own with fresh eyes, an open mind, and an entirely new perspective.

As God kept prodding me to write, this passion for faith reconstruction and helping others through it kept growing and growing. Eventually, I knew I had to write the book I wished I had while I was on my journey. And, “Breathing Again” was born. Throughout the book, I write about my individual journey while offering applicable steps to help others navigate their own journeys and discover a shame-free faith where they can breathe again.