About Lily and Sparrow
Lily and Sparrow started as a faint idea of the future. In 2010, when wellness started it’s debut as a buzz word, Jessie had a seed of an idea. After living in Sri Lanka for some time, she saw systemic issues in children’s homes, where services felt temporary, and support felt limited. Back in the United States, a focus on physical/mental health had distinct lines drawn between them. Even today, with a growing awareness of mental health, we separate the mind/body from spirit. As a follower of Jesus, Jessie wanted to create a space to care for the sheep; heart, mind, body, and soul. The hope and vision is to create holistic renewal that doesn’t create temporary change, but long-term sustainable and intrinsic change.
Years ago, while sitting in a closing session (as a client) with a therapist, Jessie listened as he read the words of Matthew 5. Matthew 5 became a meditation of the soul, and so set the foundation for Lily and Sparrow.
About Jessie Shorts, LMFT
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Jessie is a follower of Jesus, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#132620) in California. She’s a connoisseur of play, and thinks coffee tastes like dirt, so prefers to drink tea. She moved to the beautiful, Central Coast after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies with an emphasis in Psychology, and a minor in Bible, from Biola University. She started her journey working overseas in Sri Lanka, and at an internship in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in in women’s shelters. She then received a Masters of Science in Counseling Psychology from Cal Baptist University. Since 2014, she’s been in the human services field, working as an in home behavioral health specialist, case manager, social worker, and therapist, serving youth from hard places, the homeless population, and families in crisis.
With the support of knowledgeable and caring mentors, Jessie has found wisdom and encouragement in the guidance of those around her, equipping her to have the therapeutic tools to offer to all of her clients.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
