Welcome to Respectfully Curious. My name is Joy Lanier, and I hope you are excited to go on this respectfully curious journey with me.

My life began as the fourth of six kids in a humble preacher’s family. I grew up in a Fundamentalist Christian home, and I raised my kids (alongside my husband) in an Evangelical Christian home.

We were managing just fine, a “poster family” for the Evangelical movement, until our oldest child “came out” as gay.

Being respectfully curious was something I had already been working toward, but now we have been educated by experience in a way that makes respectful curiosity more valuable to us than ever.

What does it mean to be respectfully curious? Well, while considering what I would want to write about, I was certain I did not want to add another opinion to the “arena”. Alternatively, seeing the possibility of being a peacemaker was inspiring to me.

“Respectfully curious” is a phrase that I hope communicates the incredible value of ALL humans, while learning to be comfortable with questions. Curiosity is being open to discovering things that we did not know; being open to seeing aspects we had not seen; and being open to the possibility of not ever knowing “ALL the things.”

I have had many questions along this journey, and I thought others may wonder about the same things. So, I will be weaving questions and my experience throughout this blog. I will not promise clarity but perhaps an opportunity to relate.

So, if you want to come along and be respectfully curious with me, I will be so grateful! If not, no worries! My kids will have a “piece of me” forever in cyberspace. Thank you for reading.

Joy