Tim Chan's Blog, page 13

Hot Off the Press: Our Books Are In Print!

Guess what arrived in the mail today?

Olive and I are very excited to announce the arrival of hard copies of our books,Fight With MeandThen Came The Baby! There’s just something very different about holding the actual print copy of a book (compared to reading the ebook version on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone). Even more exciting is that these hard copies are now available for you, our readers!

Want to get your own hard copy of our books? You have three options. I’ll list them out first and e...

My Mother’s Day Highlight: Allie’s Baby Dedication

Yesterday was a particularly meaningful Mother’s Day for me because we held a baby dedication for our daughter Alena. We wanted to share with you our thoughts and reasons for doing this. While there is no scriptural mandate for dedicating a child to God, we see examples of people bringing their babies to Jesus to be blessed (Matt 19:13, Mark 10:13, Luke 18:15a) and Jesus himself was brought to the temple as a young child as part of a Jewish custom (Luke 2:22-24).

Our church community praying f...

What It’s Like to Live with a Depressed Husband

[May 6-12, 2013 isMental Health Weekin Canada. At least1 in 3 Canadiansexperience challenges with their mental health each year. To grow empathy for people struggling with mental health and depression (and their families), Tim shared his experience with depression on Monday, and I am sharing my experience as a wife of someone with depression today.]

The first time Tim allowed me to see his depression, I was shocked. We had gotten married in the midst of my own recovery from burnout so I had co...

Befriending My Depression

[May 6-12, 2013 is Mental Health Week in Canada. At least 1 in 3 Canadians experience challenges with their mental health each year. To grow empathy for people struggling with mental health and depression (and their families), I am sharing my experience with depression today, and Olive will be sharing her experience as a wife of someone with depression on Thursday.]

When I first met Depression, I hated it right away.

I hated how it took away my hope.

I hated how it made me want to hide from the...

How Having a Baby Grew Our Marriage

A recent NBCnews headline advised, “Secret to marital bliss? Don’t have kids.”While it’s true that the marriage relationship does undergo significant strain in the transition of having a baby, becoming parents can also be an opportunity for growth in a marriage. That’s what happened for us.

Here are 5 ways having a baby strengthened our marriage:

1. Forced us to grow up

Caring for an infant required us to address our selfishness and immaturity. When it was just my husband and me, I could ignore...

A Half-Truth: God Will Give You What You Ask For When You’re Ready

When I was single, people often tried to encourage me by saying, “Just keep waiting on God, He will bring about the right person when you’re ready.” It never really brought me comfort like the other party intended. I recently realized why. It’s only half-true.

Personal readiness isone of the factors in God’s timing, but it’s not the only factor. There certainly are times when we have some growing up to do before what we hope for will actually be good for us. For example, I prayed for a boyfrie...

Marriage is Messy [An Interview with Jake and Melissa]

[This is an interview I did with Jake and Melissa Kircher, authors of 99 Thoughts on Marriage and Ministry and bloggers at The Holymess of Marriage. They're also regular contributors at Relevant Magazine.]

1) Why do you describe marriage as a mess?

Because when you get married you have to change. Period. Regardless of race, religion, age, economic status, or anything else. You’re living intimately with another person. Your quirks will annoy them. Your habits will be different than their habits....

Courage Is: Daring To Be Different

["Courage Is" is a guest post series of readers sharing their personal stories of courage and what it means to live courageously. This Sarah Richardson's story.]

If you’ve talked to me for more than 10 minutes you’re probably inclined to think I’m fearless.I’m not, but somehow I still give that impression.

I have not always been this way.As a child I was afraid of so many things, strange things, adult things. I grew up in a home built on fear, but I didn’t worry about monsters under the bed or...

Is Your Marriage a Rental or a Purchase?

As I browse the magazines in the checkout line at the grocery I notice that the majority of cover stories are either about celebrities getting married or breaking up. It makes me wonder what the difference is between a marriage that lasts a lifetime, and a marriage that ends because of sickness, poverty, unfaithfulness, falling out of love, or other changes in life. I believe a major contributing factor to a marriage lasting or not is the mentality of the couple going into marriage.

Some coupl...

What I Learned: Have You Celebrated Your UNbirthday?

“What I Learned”is a guest post series oflessons learned in relationships that matter the most (you cansend us your storytoo). This guest post is by our friend Hannah Wong Greiner.

[Before you go any further, kindly click on this YouTube Link and let it play as you scroll down to read this post.]Many of you will be familiar with the story Alice in Wonderland, especially the animated Disney version released in 1951. The most memorable song for me is the “Unbirthday Song.” In that scene, Alice i...