Anne Marie Norling

I grew up in a small town in Oregon, attended college at Oregon State University, and graduated with two degrees — one in Political Science and one in Japanese. After college, I entered the Navy and worked as a linguist. While in the Navy, I met my wonderful husband, who was also a linguist. We have three boys whom I homeschooled — three scholar-athletes, and two of them are in the Army. (One is a commissioned officer, another is a cadet who will commission, and one is at home, studying Classical Conversations.) We live on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest.

Most of what I know about people I learned in two places: the Navy, and through interactions with lots of different people, both here and overseas. The first taught me what it costs to be far from home and under orders. The second taught me that a person is formed slowly, in ten thousand unremarkable conversations, by someone who does not leave. A person, whether living in this country or another, is created by God, and His imprint is on each of them, whether they grow up in Alabama or Asia. They all bring culture, beliefs, and personality to a conversation. I love meeting people and learning about their unique upbringings.

Why counseling

I am working through a master’s in biblical counseling, on my way to licensure and to practice. The draw is not theory. It is that so many people are carrying something heavy and have nobody sitting with them while they carry it — and that Scripture speaks to that condition with far more precision than it usually gets credit for. Scripture speaks to the heart. There are layers in each person, and oftentimes, medicine doesn’t help uncover these layers to get to the origin of their pain. God’s Word says, “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.” Proverbs 20:5. My intention and hope are to draw out this deeply held pain. True healing comes from God’s Word and His plan for each person’s life.

Counseling, done well, is not advice-giving. It is the patient work of helping someone see clearly: what is actually true, what they are actually afraid of, and what God has said. It takes a person willing to repent, stay in the room, memorize Scripture, and commit to a transformation of the heart.

Why writing

I write because the thing I want to say to one person in an office is usually needed by a hundred people I will never meet. The devotional studies come out of specific seasons — the first was written at two in the morning, praying for a son who had deployed, and it is addressed to the parents who are awake at the same hour. It’s often during these long laments of the night or even pontificating in the day that I hear God’s gentle voice leading me to write. Once I start, it’s like the springs from the deep leap onto the page, and my heart engages words with paper.

The essays are the wider room: what I am reading, what I am working out, what the coursework has forced me to reconsider. The academic papers are the underpinning. I have posted them because I would rather show my work than ask anyone to take it on trust.

What I am working toward

A counseling practice. I would very much like to either offer and oversee a counseling ministry within our church or have a Biblical counseling office, because one doesn’t exist where we live. I am also working on writing more devotionals in the hopes of having them published, especially military mom ones, so that even one person may be touched and encouraged, and be relatable encouragement for a weary mom’s soul. And, writing books that send people back to the Word with steadier hands than they came with. God’s Word is ultimate truth. It’s to Him and His Word that I wish to point people, always. To never stop saying, “Put God first each day in everything, and then everything — of what He has planned for you — will fall into place.”