Garner Counseling Service

10/14/2026

10/13/2026

It’s often said that parenting is a practice of modeling the behavior we want to see in our children, but that extends far beyond how we interact directly with them. They're also constantly gathering data from how we interact with the rest of the world.

They notice how we treat others in the moment, and they listen carefully to how we speak about people once they're out of earshot. Every conversation is a blueprint for how they will learn to navigate relationships, conflict, and community.

We won't always get it right, but when we intentionally choose truth, kindness, and dignity, we show our children, no matter their age, what it looks like to respect the humanity in everyone.

How do you find yourself practicing mindful communication in front of your children? 👇💛

10/13/2026

❤️May your day be as beautiful, bright and special as you are ❤️

10/13/2026

"You are not your age,
Nor the size of clothes you wear, You are not a weight, Or the colour of your hair.
You are not your name, Or the dimples in your cheeks, You are all the books you read, And all the words you speak, You are your croaky morning voice, And the smiles you try to hide, You're the sweetness in your laughter, And every tear you've cried,
You're the songs you sing so loudly, When you know you're all alone,
You're the places that you've been to, And the one that you call home, You're the things that you believe in, And the people that you love, You're the photos in your bedroom, And the future you dream of, You're made of so much beauty,
But it seems that you forgot, When you decided that you were defined,
By all the things you're not... "
Erin Hanson - Not.

Vojtěch Preissig - Young Woman Dreaming/ Meditation, 1873-1944.

10/13/2026

"Loving Instead Of Judging"

10/13/2026

I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of my life thinking healing meant I’d eventually look untouched by everything I’d been through.

Like one day I’d trust without hesitation, forgive without remembering, stop asking so many questions and finally become this shiny, well-adjusted Christian woman who had clearly dealt with all her stuff.

Yeah… she never showed up.

Instead, I’ve got dents. Questions. Boundaries I didn’t used to have. Stories I wouldn’t have chosen. There are things I’ve healed from and things that still sting when something brushes against them.

And lately, I’ve realised something. I don’t actually want to polish all of that away anymore.

I wrote about my rusty halo today, where the rust came from, why I’m finally learning to embrace it, and the Jesus I found standing right there in the weather with me.

Maybe yours is a little rusty too.

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair.” -2 Corinthians 4:8

Come read This Rusted Halo. I have a feeling a few of us are wearing one. xx

https://littlesparrowloved.substack.com/p/this-rusted-halo

10/13/2026

Never underestimate the people who make life feel a little lighter just by being in it. ❤️

10/13/2026

I was labeled nonverbal until I was eight years old; and this is something I wish everyone knew when I was growing up.

Because I couldn’t speak, people often made assumptions about me. Some assumed I couldn’t hear. Others assumed that because I couldn’t communicate with spoken words, I couldn’t think, understand, learn, or have something meaningful to say….

But I could.

I was there.

I was listening. I was thinking. I was learning. I was observing. I had opinions, feelings, ideas, and an entire world happening inside of me.

However, my diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech made it extremely difficult for me to turn the words I had in my head into spoken words. My inability to speak was not an inability to think.

…and when people failed to understand that distinction, I felt even more trapped inside of my own body.

Imagine knowing what you want to say but not being able to make your mouth say it.

Imagine watching people talk around you while wondering if they even realize you understand everything they’re saying.

Imagine being treated as though you aren’t capable of learning simply because you communicate differently.

That was my reality.

There were times when I would be at extended family members’ houses during the holidays and feel like I wasn’t really being included. There were times when I sat by myself at lunch.

I don’t share those memories for sympathy. I don’t want your sympathy. I don’t share them because I want anyone to feel sorry for me. I share them because this was my real life & these experiences had consequences.

When a child repeatedly experiences people assuming they cannot understand, cannot learn, or cannot participate, those assumptions can become another barrier on top of the disability they already have.

The most important thing someone could have given me wasn’t pity.

It was patience.

Taking the time to communicate with me.

Giving me opportunities to demonstrate what I knew.

Allowing me to participate instead of deciding for me that I couldn’t.

It was presuming competence.

The reason I talk about my childhood today is because there are children experiencing this right now.

Children sitting at lunch alone.

Children being excluded from conversations.

Children being underestimated in classrooms.

Children being spoken about instead of spoken to.

Children being treated as though their inability to speak means they don’t have anything to say.

We have to do better.

Give children time.

Give them access to communication.

Give them opportunities to learn.

Give them opportunities to prove what they know.

Because the child who can’t speak may have an entire world inside of them that you haven’t taken the time to discover yet.

I know.

I was that child.

- Jordan Christian LeVan