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PRACTICAL TIPS & INSIGHTS FOR YOUR

RELATIONSHIPS

Lavern's SOUL Talk on investing in healthy relationships

9/12/2023

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Encompass Executive Director Lavern Nissley shared this 23-minute SOUL Talk presentation on "The Good: Investing in Healthy Families and Relationships" at The Nehemiah Foundation's annual Case for Community Summit September 8, 2023.

​You may want to download a number of items he refers to in the presentation:

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What is the connection between faith and family?

9/5/2023

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The September theme for our social media and blog posts is devotion/faith. As always, there will be relationship health connections in terms of insights, tips, and tools.

By Lavern Nissley
Executive Director of Encompass

Would you agree that family is the primary means of transmitting faith to the next generation? It certainly seems clear from a familiar scripture in the Jewish Torah known as the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
 
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

So how is that done in our setting, some 3,500 years later? Is anyone actually writing stuff on doorframes and wearing headbands with faith messages?

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lessons from an earlier generation

6/21/2023

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Ronda is the little girl sitting on her Daddy's lap. 
By: Ronda Nissley
​Encompass Co-Director


A year ago, I
gifted my 92-year-old father a Storyworth subscription for Father’s Day. Each week, he was given a question to which he could respond or simply write his own story. Although we’re still working on completing and editing the stories into their final format, I’m sharing one that has given me a renewed appreciation of the huge responsibility he carried providing for a family of nine children.
 

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5 Values my dad taught me

6/7/2023

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Lavern with his Dad, David Nissley, June 21, 2020
Our posts during June will feature the themes of Fathers, Father's Day, Leaders/Leadership.

By Lavern Nissley
Encompass Executive Director

My Dad would have turned 90 tomorrow, June 8. Although much of my experience of him as a father included spillovers from his own unhealed and unresolved childhood (anger, anxiety, agitation), I still miss him and acknowledge positive takeaways from his life.

He passed November 12, 2021 and is buried in Arcola, Illinois at the Sunnyside Mennonite Church cemetery. Mom was buried in the same plot earlier this year after her death March 6. Some of the content you'll see in this post is drawn from A Tribute to Our Dad that Ken, Karen, and I shared at his funeral.

But his legacy and impact are anything but buried. In some quirky and interesting ways they live on both in and through me.

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​How to Be a Good In-Law When Your Child Has a Family of Their Own

8/24/2021

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By Encompass Outreach Group
When you get married, you get your first experience of having in-laws with your partner’s parents. This can often be a time filled with frustration and complications. However, once you have children and they grow up, get married, and have families of their own, you suddenly become the mother-in-law or father-in-law that you once had to deal with. Here’s how to be a good in-law when your child has a family of their own:

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​How the Role of a Father Impacts Our Relationships

6/16/2021

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By Encompass Outreach Group
While we’ve written about the impact a mother has on our relationships, fathers also influence who we become and, therefore, how we behave in relationships. What kind of father you have, the specific type of relationship you share, and how involved he was in raising you all play a role in the relationships you seek out as an adult.

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How the Role of a Mother Impacts Our Relationships

6/10/2021

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By Encompass Outreach Group
​Mothers play a significant role in our lives in many different ways, from giving us life, to caring for and protecting us, to teaching us about the world. As babies, the bond with our mothers is the first and deepest bond of our lives. How our mothers raised us is tied in directly to our formation, our self-awareness, and how we view the world. Another way the role of our mother impacts our lives is through our romantic relationships. Here’s how:

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the 7 Stages of Marriage

4/12/2021

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By Jenny Hamilton
Long lasting marriages are inspiring! You may have heard of the recent death of Britain’s 99 year-old Prince Philip, husband to Queen Elizabeth II for 73 years.  Can you imagine all the complex issues and situations that have to be dealt with in the life of a royal, and all the possible effects it could have on a marriage? It must have been quite a feat for Philip and Elizabeth to maintain a healthy marriage through all those years in the public eye. Luckily for most of us our lives are much simpler. 

But royal marriage or not, it seems that most marriages progress through common stages. Being aware of these stages can give comfort that you’re not alone in your marital struggles, prepare you for the changes and challenges ahead, and give confidence that though there are difficulties, your marriage can ultimately end with the same golden completion as Philip and Elizabeth’s.  So, if you’re just starting out in your marriage or 10-20 years in, here’s a quick rundown of …the 7 Stages of Marriage.

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Good, good father

10/8/2019

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By Lavern Nissley

Dave King, a friend and colleague from 30 years ago in Cincinnati, died at age 55 last week. The text notification from another friend hit me hard. "No, no, no!" I had just been thinking of calling him and getting together. But he had collapsed while working out and couldn't be revived.

Several of us who worked together with Dave in the 1980's at New Beginnings Fellowship, a small suburban church in Finneytown/Cincinnati, attended his funeral Saturday. What a surreal experience to see such a close friend laying in a casket! But there was unexpected inspiration in this funeral from Dave's two children, Matthew and Erin.

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What's with the blue pinwheels?

4/9/2019

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By Lavern Nissley

Have you ever seen the TV commercials with pets that are skinny, shaking and looking forsaken? My heart always goes out to these neglected creatures with the wish that such lack of care and concern could be totally eradicated.

The blue pinwheels you are seeing all over the nation this week are a reminder to pay attention to incidents of abuse. But not of pets. Of children.

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    Lavern & Ronda Nissley are co-directors of Encompass. Married since 1978, both enjoy coffee, riding their tandem bicycle and working together to build strong relationships.

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Funding is provided by Clark County Job and Family Services, The Turner Foundation, Springfield Foundation, Buckeye Health, private donations and fees.
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Encompass Connection Center services are provided to all eligible persons on a non-discriminatory basis. Encompass Connection Center complies with all applicable laws and regulations concerning discrimination does not discriminate on the basis of the potential participant's race, gender, gender orientation, age, disability or religion.

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  • Home
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    • Free Relationship Assessments
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