By CHANEL BINGHAM / Guest Columnist

Advice columns have been around forever. In fact, they can be dated back to as early as 1691 when The Athenian Mercury ran an advice column titled: “The Athenian Gazette: Or Casuistical Mercury, Resolving all the most Nice and Curious Questions proposed by the Ingenious of Either Sex.”

Our great ancestors would ask enlightening questions such as: “Dancing, is it lawful?” or “In what space of time do you think the whole mass of blood circulates through the human body?”

Thankfully, since then, column titles have become much shorter (Dear Abby, Ask Amy and My Answer, etc.), and readers’ questions have evolved to encompass a deeper desire for insight into matters of the heart.

Advice columns remain popular today, because although we are much more enlightened than our ancestors due to science and technology, we still long to know that we are not alone in this world. We desire confirmation that we are all connected by our humanity and an understanding that we all face similar struggles in this life.

Following in the steps of the advice column trailblazers who have gone before me, I am beginning a new series that will serve as a faith-based advice column. I will field questions from readers who are looking for a Christian perspective on topics such as marriage, parenting, religion and much more.

I am not a therapist, counselor or even a pastor; however, I have learned through all the ups and downs of life that faith is our anchor and Jesus is the answer. My battle scars, as shared on my blog thepolishedcanvas.com, provide me with an authentic voice to offer a Christian view for the struggles and questions we all face.

Of course, beyond the successes and failures that unite us, many people also have questions about their faith. Maybe you wonder if angels are real or if there is only one way to Heaven. Perhaps you want to better understand a particular passage in the Bible. I want to hear from you!

Although I don’t have all the answers, I know a God who does! In letting down our walls and becoming transparent with one another, we will find that we each have a voice and can truly make a difference in the lives of one other and our community as a whole.

If you would like to submit a question to the advice column, please email me at chanelbingham@yahoo.com. Questions can be signed or submitted anonymously.

I look forward to our conversations with one another!

“Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .” C.S. Lewis