The Particulars:
I am a professional Christian counselor, speaker, and free-lance writer living and working in the heart of the Midwest. (We average 175 days of sun per year here, so if you detect a hint of melancholy from time to time, just chalk it up to a perpetual case of Seasonal Affective Disorder, perhaps best known as “Midwestern Malaise.”)
My heart’s desire is to empower and equip women to experience the life-changing love of God. I write about it here, and about the impact such an experience has on, well, just about every aspect of our lives.
What you’ll find within is a combination of personal reflections from daily life and straight up biblical teaching that resonates truth without beating you over the head. (Unless, of course, you are prone to take any sort of truth as a head-beating.) We will consider together the many things that can distance us from God and keep us from experiencing his love as REAL, and take an in-depth look at how we can experience this love, personally, in ways that radically transform our lives.
My goal is to create meaningful and relevant content that provides women with the insight and inspiration necessary to pursue a deeper relationship with God free of fear and doubt and shame. If you long “to know that you know that you KNOW” God loves you, then this blog is for you.
I try my best to post four to five times a week. A typical posting schedule is here. Because I’m sure you won’t want to miss a word, you can subscribe via RSS or email, the links for which are found on the right sidebar. Finally, if you just can’t get enough, I publish a bi-weekly inspirational newsletter with updates on this ministry, and you can subscribe to it here.
If you’re new here, you might want to start with my most popular posts, so as to know what you’re getting yourself into. You can link to them here. Don’t say you weren’t warned…
The Professional Bio:
Lorie Kaufman Rees is a professional Christian counselor, speaker, and free-lance writer who helps ordinary women experience the extraordinary love of God. Delivered with a blend of personal reflection, biblical truth, and divine insight, Lorie’s message empowers women to:
- Interact with The God of the Universe on a life-changing, personal level.
- Confront the twisted and deceptive thoughts and beliefs that bind them.
- Break free from destructive, life-long patterns of living and relating.
- Experience God’s love, grace, goodness, and power as REAL in their lives.
- Respond with abandon as Jesus invites them to live ABUNDANTLY in Him.
Lorie’s compassionate and candid manner openly engages the hearts of women, inviting them to grasp “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Hundreds of women have accepted this invitation, joining her on a life-giving quest to “be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:16-19)
With dual master’s degrees in Marriage and Family Therapy and Clinical Counseling and over two decades of experience, Lorie is a gifted and knowledgeable communicator with the practical, personal, and professional experience necessary to speak into the lives of women. She writes and speaks regularly at her church of 9,000 on a wide range of spiritual and personal issues relevant to women, couples, and families today.
The Personal Scoop:
I characterize myself as an ordinary woman with an irresistible urge to live an extraordinary life in Christ. My husband (of almost twenty years) and I live in the heart of the Midwest with our two creative, high-energy, high-volume children (ages 8 and 12), where we seek to live fully, love well, and laugh heartily. When I have time, I enjoy going to the bathroom alone, hiking in the mountains, singing in a choir, making jewelry, scrapbooking, and reading a book in peace. I’ve done each once in the last thirteen years.
I attended my first writer’s conference in second grade, and I’ve been dabbling with this writing thing ever since. I picked it back up when I lost my voice ten years ago, and two years ago began in earnest to approach it as more than merely a hobby. God has been pretty clear about the direction ever since, so I’m trying to buckle up and enjoy the ride. For one who doesn’t like rides, this is, suffice it to say, quite a challenge. Lots of apprehension (and a fair amount of motion-sickness) has ensued.
The counseling thing has been pretty innate, as well, given that I’ve mothered every child, animal, and person that has crossed my path for as long as I can remember. (I try very hard now to constrain myself only to the people who require mothering—say, my children or my two kitties. Though all four seem to desire less and less, these days.)
I remember being asked, at age 15, what I could see myself doing when I got older. “Working at a church, praying for people and talking about their problems,” was my reply. So, I majored in music my first year of college and promptly set off on a fifteen year tangent that eventually, finally, wound me back around, at age 30, to that exact spot.
I love the work I do, and the people I do it with. It is an immense privilege to enter into people’s most vulnerable and sacred stories with the hope of editing the narrative in such a way that brings about healing and freedom. I can’t say it enough. I. Love. My. Job.
The Pertinent Details:
Additional Projects:
In addition to writing for her church and community, Lorie will additionally begin blogging soon at www.jointhejoyproject.com, a “One Thousand Gifts meets The Happiness Project” experiment with abandoning the American pursuit of “happiness” and pursuing instead the biblical notion of JOY. (You can join the experiment simply by subscribing to the blog and get in on the discussion!) The discussion begins December 2011, and the project begins January, 2012!
About the blog:
Loriekaufmanrees.com uses WordPress 3.2.1 (self-hosted at BlueHost) with a personally customized variation on the Chameleon theme from Elegant Themes. All the graphics I designed personally, based off images purchased from iStockPhoto. The majority of the photos on the site are either mine or my husband’s unless otherwise noted.
All text within the graphics use the Reprise Title and Liorah fonts. All header text is Droid Serif. All body text is Droid Sans.
How to contact me:
Email:lorie@loriekaufmanrees.com
Facebook: Lorie Kaufman Rees
Twitter: @lolkaufmanrees
Disclaimer:
While I’ve been both writing and counseling for quite some time now, I am not, alas, perfect. (Despite my best, yet desperately fallen, efforts.) I won’t always get things exactly right, though I will always strive for accuracy, and therefore am not liable for content that occasionally misses the mark ever so slightly. My promise to you is to be gracious and honest, and I hope you will do the same.
Bless you!
