Kate Motaung, Author at Frisco Christian Counseling

About Kate Motaung

Kate Motaung is the Senior Writer, Editor, and Content Manager for a multi-state company. She is the author of several books including Letters to Grief, 101 Prayers for Comfort in Difficult Times, and A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging. Kate is also the host of Five Minute Friday, an online writing community that equips and encourages Christian writers, and the owner of Refine Services, a company that offers editing services. She and her South African husband have three young adult children and currently live in West Michigan. Find Kate’s books at katemotaung.com/books.

Are You Ready for Marriage? Tips for Discernment

Are You Ready for Marriage? Tips for Discernment

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T08:10:59+00:00December 8th, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Premarital Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Deciding if you are ready for marriage requires some thought and assessment. To be able to provide an answer, you must first have a solid understanding of who you are. Frisco Christian Counseling can help you explore your emotions, beliefs, and readiness for such a significant commitment, offering guidance along the way. As you think about this, here are some things to consider Ready for Marriage? Aspects to Consider Relationships Think about the relationships you have currently. These do not need to be romantic relationships. How do you behave toward your mother, father, and siblings? Do you frequently find yourself losing your cool with them, perhaps resorting to using rude or sarcastic language to get your point across? In light of that, what kind of remarks would they make about you? How you interact with members of your family is predictive of how you will behave toward a potential mate. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. – Ephesians 4:31, NIV Attitude and behavior Your attitude and the way you behave can be indicators of your readiness. Are you positive or pessimistic? Do you ever consider other people’s perspectives, or do you always insist on doing things in a particular way – your way? Are you able to maintain your composure in difficult situations? Are you patient? You can better prepare yourself to be a husband or wife in the future by cultivating the fruit of God’s spirit in your life. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23, NIV Money and finances Considering how you approach money and finances in your life is important. Surveys report that almost half [...]

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How to Stop Stress Eating

How to Stop Stress Eating

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T08:07:29+00:00November 24th, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development, Weight Loss, Women’s Issues|

You had a stressful day at work. Nothing went the way it was supposed to. You’re finally home when you see an email. You ignore it only to be met with another problem at home. You feel the tension rising and you instinctively reach for that bag of chips in the cabinet. Crunching away, you finally start to feel better after stress-eating to your way to the bottom of the bag. Maybe you respond differently. You spent the day at the hospital with a loved one only to come home exhausted and frustrated from the day. You know you should eat something, but you just can’t muster it, so you skip dinner completely. What is happening? How are both of these scenarios linked? It could be stress eating. There is no shortage of stress, especially in recent years. People are finding all sorts of ways to cope. According to the American Psychological Association, twenty-seven percent of adults say they eat to manage stress while thirty percent of adults report skipping a meal due to stress. With so many people struggling with their eating habits when they feel stressed, we must understand what it is and what we can do about it. Frisco Christian Counseling can provide support for those looking to address stress-related eating habits and find healthier coping mechanisms. What is stress eating? Upon first look, it may not make sense to pair skipping meals with overeating. But the two are connected more than you think. Stress eating, also referred to as emotional eating, is a pattern of eating as a coping mechanism to make you feel better, often in stressful situations. When people use food to suppress negative emotions such as sadness, loneliness, stress, or fatigue, it can be considered stress-eating. How does skipping meals fit in? [...]

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How to Control Your Anger (and Why It Matters)

How to Control Your Anger (and Why It Matters)

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T07:52:08+00:00August 8th, 2022|Anger Issues, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Have people asked you to control your anger? Does it feel like anger is controlling you? You can learn how to control your anger with God’s help and the assistance of a Christian counselor. The Deep Roots of Anger Many of us never learned how to control our anger in healthy ways. You may have grown up in a home where people exploded with anger. Perhaps your parents handled anger by sweeping it under the rug and never discussing it. Maybe your family let anger leak out slowly through passive aggression. None of these methods of anger management are healthy, but they are all too common. To get control over your anger, it’s important to deal with its deep roots. You have learned how to handle it through decades of conditioning in ways you may not even realize. But by learning to recognize the roots of your anger, you can dig them up and let them no longer influence your thoughts and actions. A qualified Christian counselor at Frisco Christian Counseling can help you learn new methods of thinking and behaving when you feel angry. Your counselor will offer a neutral, objective perspective to help you discover the roots of your anger and change your reactions. Why Controlling Your Anger Matters It’s likely you already know the price your anger exacts on your relationships. Whether you explode, seethe, or sulk when angry, you have probably noticed distance in your relationships when you act that way. You may be seeking help because your anger has caused strain or severe damage to relationships. However, when you learn to control your anger, you have hope for repairing your damaged relationships. Anger doesn’t only cost other people something. It costs you a bundle too. Anger exacts a toll on your emotional, mental, physical, [...]

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What We Can Learn About Forgiveness in the Bible

What We Can Learn About Forgiveness in the Bible

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T07:47:17+00:00July 25th, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues, Spiritual Development|

Forgiveness is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. It makes a way for us to live as one with God, it provides a way for person-to-person relationships to be restored, and it develops spiritual maturity as we learn to live from a position of forgiveness. As we explore forgiveness in the Bible, we discover God’s forgiveness, Jesus’ ministry of forgiveness, and the practical application of forgiveness. Frisco Christian Counseling can help you explore and apply these biblical principles of forgiveness in your own life. Forgiveness releases a person from guilt and its consequences. It is an act of compassion to restore broken relationships. Forgiveness can involve both the remission of punishment and the cancellation of debts. To forgive is to refuse to blame and take an account of offenses. To be forgiven is to be exempt from personal consequences for an offense. When we experience forgiveness, our mistakes are no longer considered or held against us. God’s Forgiveness in the Bible But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. – Nehemiah 9:16-17, ESV The Israelites had a reputation for a back-and-forth relationship with God. They had numerous experiences of rescue and refusal. They refused to follow God, which led them to sin and captivity. Then God would hear their cry and rescue them because of his kind nature. He was ready to forgive because that is His nature. We can rely [...]

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The Best Bible Verses About Marriage

The Best Bible Verses About Marriage

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T07:41:42+00:00July 13th, 2022|Couples Counseling, Featured, Marriage Counseling, Premarital Counseling, Relationship Issues, Spiritual Development|

When you need encouragement in your marriage, these are the best Bible verses about marriage for you to consider. You can study them and meditate on them for guidance and practical help. Meditate on these Bible verses about marriage when you are seeking God’s will about your marriage. Frisco Christian Counseling can also provide support as you reflect on these scriptures and work through any challenges you may face in your relationship. Bible Verses About Marriage Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” – Genesis 2:18 God instituted marriage before sin entered the world. It is his beautiful plan to have husbands and wives relieve loneliness for each other and be helpers for one another. This is still his plan for your marriage as well. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:23-24 When you are married, God considers you to be of one flesh. Everything that affects the husband affects the wife, and vice versa. To keep the unity of one flesh, you cannot allow other things to take priority, including your original families. If in-laws are creating problems in your marriage, you can find help from these Bible verses about marriage or even a Christian counselor. And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like [...]

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How to Work on a Strained Relationship

How to Work on a Strained Relationship

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T07:29:07+00:00June 27th, 2022|Couples Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling, Marriage Counseling, Relationship Issues|

If you have a strained relationship, your heart aches all the time. It's challenging to have a relationship with someone who doesn't reciprocate with you or possibly makes life more difficult for you. The good news is that a caring counselor at Frisco Christian Counseling can help you navigate a strained relationship in your life. Why Do We Have a Strained Relationship? Strained relationships can come from different sources. Perhaps you had a relationship that was close at one point and misunderstandings put a strain on the relationship. On the other hand, you may have a relationship that never got off on the right foot and is now in a worse place than when you started. Relationships can also become strained if they carry a heavy load of criticism and defensiveness over time, or if the relationships are not maintained well by growth and support. These strained relationships can exist at home, in an extended family, at work, in friendships, and even in community groups or churches. They cause a lot of discomfort, usually for both people involved in the relationship, and even for people surrounding that relationship. Strained relationships sometimes happen because the other person is almost entirely at fault. Sometimes they occur because we have blind spots, and we don't recognize our contributions to the problems. However, even if the reason for the strain is only one percent your fault, you can start working on that part with the help of a trained counselor. Even though you may not be able to completely change the strain in the relationship, you can start building up your strength to handle it. Examples You may see a mirror of the strain in your relationship in one or more of these scenarios. Due to constant conflict, a dad is at odds [...]

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Bible Verses for Building Self-Esteem

Bible Verses for Building Self-Esteem

Kate Motaung2025-05-17T07:22:04+00:00June 17th, 2022|Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

Do you need help building self-esteem? These Bible verses are ideal for helping you choose a positive outlook even when you aren’t sure about the esteem you have for yourself. You can meditate on them to gain the peace and confidence you are seeking. Any time you need help building self-esteem, you can turn to these verses. Write them out and post them where you can see them often. Then turn them into prayers that will encourage your faith. Frisco Christian Counseling can provide additional support and guidance in strengthening your self-esteem through faith-based principles. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20, ESV This is great news! As a believer, you no longer live by your own power. Jesus lives in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. He guides you and empowers you to live a life of abundant joy because he loves you so much. When you focus on God’s love for you, it can change everything regarding how you feel about yourself. Meditate on all parts of this verse, thinking about the ways it can lift you up when you feel down. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. – Psalm 139:14, ESV This entire psalm is one of the best places to turn in the Bible when you need to build your self-esteem. It teaches you that God masterfully created you before you were ever born and loves every single detail about the way that he made you You are a unique and beautiful creation handcrafted [...]

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