Welcome to The Grace Anchored Journey
Welcome to The Grace Anchored Journey
"But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." — Psalm 56:3 (NLT)
This space has been on my heart far longer than I’ve been willing to admit. After retiring my old blog, "Just Sayin'," I knew it was time to build something new—something raw, honest, and deeply anchored in grace. So here it is.
Grace Anchored Journey won’t be for everyone, and that’s okay. But I know the grace Jesus offers truly is for everyone. My hope is that you find comfort, encouragement, and truth here. If you’re in a valley, I want you to know you're not walking it alone.
🌿 My Mental Health Journey
The last year has tested me in ways I never expected. And that's saying something. God has already brought me through so much: childhood trauma, family dysfunction, abuse, a terrifying attempted abduction, teen pregnancy, divorce, job instability, homelessness, betrayal, deep grief, and the devastating loss of a child.
I’ve battled depression, postpartum mood disorders, and a bipolar diagnosis I didn’t want to accept. And yet, somehow, God kept pulling me through each storm. Every. Single. Time.
I finished college. I earned my HR degree. I even got certified and built a career I love. But emotional wounds don’t clock out just because your LinkedIn profile looks polished.
Work became a source of grief, too. I had helped create systems and processes that ultimately made a big part of my own role obsolete. It was great for the company, but left me feeling invisible, depleted, and lost. The depression that followed snuck up slowly—until I realized I was crying every day, isolating, and believing the lie that everyone hated me.
Eventually, I hit a wall. I no longer wanted to exist. That terrified me. I remembered the promise I made to myself years ago: I would never let myself go there again. But I was already there.
My husband took me to the hospital. I spent five incredibly hard days in inpatient care. No phone. No music. No outside world. And yet... the songs of hope were still in my head:
"Peace, be still..." — Hope Darst
"Speak Life..." — TobyMac
God's Word, hidden in my heart through worship, was louder than my despair.
🔦 When Faith Meets Therapy
After leaving the inpatient facility, I entered an intensive outpatient program (IOP). I had to learn how to make healthy choices again—even when I didn’t feel like it.
I wasn’t shy about my faith. Some in the room may have found it annoying. But I know I wouldn’t have made it through that season without Jesus.
One day, when I felt myself spiraling again, I heard it in a whisper:
"My help comes from the Lord..."
I couldn’t even place the Scripture reference in that moment. I just Googled what I remembered. It brought me to Psalm 121, and it changed everything:
"I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!"
—Psalm 121:1-2 (NLT)
Mountains may offer a place of rest or refuge, but they aren’t the source of protection. God is. Period.
Psychiatric support, therapy, and medication are all tools. But my healing was built on the foundation of God's Word.
"Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."
—Isaiah 41:10 (NLT)
"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything... Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand."
—Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
These verses didn’t make my pain vanish. Sometimes, clinging to them felt frustrating. But the Holy Spirit is so patient. He gently waits for us to stop micromanaging and start trusting.
Encouragement: Reach Out to the Hurting
If someone in your life is struggling, don’t underestimate what a simple check-in can mean. You don’t need the perfect words. You don’t need to fix their situation.
Just listen.
Pray with them.
Ask: "How can I love you well today?"
You might be the only glimpse of hope they see this week.
💖 Our Marriage: Redeemed by Grace
To outsiders, Jason and I might look like the perfect couple. But behind our smiles is a story of betrayal, immaturity, job loss, homelessness, and deep heartache.
When we came to Alabama, we were homeless with four kids between ages 2 and 10. We found a church, not a ministry obligation. A place where God reminded us that our only true hope was in Him.
We had no family here. No backup. Just us and Jesus. And that’s exactly what we needed.
Through God's Word, open communication, therapy, and a community of faith, we rebuilt our marriage. We found couples to admire—even when their healthy dynamics felt intimidating. But the Lord reminded us:
Healing doesn’t make our story less worthy. It makes it more beautiful.
Our broken places became stronger. Not because we patched things with the same old materials, but because we let God do something new.
"Kintsugi" is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. It doesn’t hide the cracks. It highlights them. The broken becomes the most beautiful part of the whole piece.
That’s what God did with our marriage. And He can do the same for yours.
✨ This Blog Is for You
Grace Anchored Journey is a place for:
the hurting
the healing
the hopeful
I don’t want you to wait for the "light at the end of the tunnel." I want you to know there's light with you in the tunnel. You can come out of the fire without even the scent of smoke.
If anything in this post resonated with you, stay a while. Subscribe. Reach out. Let me know how I can pray for you! And know this:
You are not alone.
With grace,
Alicia
