{"id":1,"date":"2025-05-25T10:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T10:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2025-09-15T19:32:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:32:30","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/?p=1","title":{"rendered":"Welcome: An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Reading time: 3 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sun-rises-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sun-rises-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sun-rises-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sun-rises-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sun-rises.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome! I am so glad you\u2019re here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About six months ago I went through an exercise of assessing where I was in my faith journey. I had already been processing my LDS faith tradition for a few years, and I wanted to check in with myself and see what was working, and what wasn\u2019t. (Yes, I am that kind of a person\u2014check lists, reviews, and lots of writing and such).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By some standards, I\u2019d been on a short journey through faith deconstruction, examination, and reconstruction. But it has been profound. It\u2019s also often been painful to examine truth claims, explore contraries, and manage the emotions that come with change and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I examined what I\u2019ve been through and what I had learned during this yes, difficult, but also wonderfully soul-expanding journey of faith exploration, I recognized that it would help me sort out my feelings if I started writing down much of what I had learned and what others had told me as sort of the advice I wish I had had along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In doing so, I began to recognize how lucky I had been to find and receive encouragement on my journey of discovery as well as what I practically learned for myself. As I realized that, what I wrote became more what I wish I had been able to tell myself along the way in the form of encouragement and hope. The result was these letters, intended to be helpful to those who are going through their own faith journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among Jesus\u2019 admonitions was a call to seek out and care for those on the margins. Perhaps there is no one feeling more marginalized than those who, viewing their world with new eyes, sit at the edge, wondering how and where they still belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you call your experience a faith crisis, faith expansion, a journey, or a loss, nothing can make going through that process easier. It\u2019s a very real experience and a path that you have to walk for yourself. That is where the growth is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, I hope that along the way you encounter those who are willing to walk some of the path with you. That is what I hope these letters, in some small way, serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also find a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lettersforthejourney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Letters-for-the-Journey_Aug_2025.pdf\">pdf version of the letters<\/a>\u00a0on this site for download so you can read it on another device or share it with other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019ve been down this road and want to write something encouraging or enlightening, you can email me as well. I will publish those letters on this site and won\u2019t use your name. Just, \u201cyour friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Either way, you can reach me at <a href=\"mailto:letters4thejourney@gmail.com\">letters4thejourney@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading time: 3 minutes Welcome! I am so glad you\u2019re here. About six months ago I went through an exercise of assessing where I was in my faith journey. I had already been processing my LDS faith tradition for a few years, and I wanted to check in with myself and see what was working, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[16,18,15,17],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-your-friend","tag-faith-crisis","tag-faith-expansion","tag-faith-journey","tag-introduction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Welcome: An Introduction - Letters for the Journey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Help and encouragement for those going through a faith journey or faith crisis. 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