All Christians

We are friends with Hope Made Strong who have been coming out with regular content on their YouTube channel. (You should go subscribe, for sure. We are.) Last month, she shared the 7 keys to building resilience. For those who need it, she defines resilience:

Resilience is the ability to bounce back or withstand adversity.  It isn’t the absence of struggle or pain.  It is the ability to come out of a time of suffering, quicker easier and perhaps with growth.

Anxious: Choosing Faith in a World of Worry by Amy Simpson is a book on the mental health topic it’s titled after. It explores as Christians how we are to respond to situation and personal stories of anxiety, noting that the easy “Christian quips” of “just pray more” are not helpful and then gives Scripture and practical advice on how to proceed. The personal nature of this book makes it feel authentic, giving insight into big concerns like her experience of coming toe to toe with a bear in Alaska, but also trying to control how her day or week may go in a stressful week.

Amongst the many difficult parts of 2020 that the world went through, the United States had an ongoing concern of racism that started with sparks of African Americans and the police. It led to protests and national discussion on racism in the 21st century. With all of the discord and conversations, Barna Group made their 2019 Where Do We Go From Here? eBook free for a period of time.

A year ago, I put together a list of goals that I would have loved to see for myself. But who could have predicted all the events that happened this year and put a wreck to anybody and everybody’s plans for the future. Some of it I accomplished, others I had to pivot because of the circumstances and set aside what I had hoped for.

This year has been a struggle for sure. Pandemic, racial tensions, uncontrolled fires in Australia, and an election in the United States that has caused deep divides. In the midst of this, many people are struggling with motivation.

One way we previously recommended dealing with this frustration was to reframe 2020 and not resent it. But what if you just do not have the motivation?

This year we have talked to churches, Christian counselors, and individuals with mental illness or other disorders on how they can find wholeness and restoration through faith and mental health. But there is one category of people we do not want to overlook who are a huge part of the lives of those with mental illness: the caregiver. We put all of our focus on those with mental illness but need to be supporting and caring for the caregiver too. So this article is for you.

Mental health is making a turn towards people actually seeking help and wholeness which started first by building awareness. But to maintain this progress of people restoring their health, awareness needs to keep building. One way to do so is with national international awareness events that dedicate days, weeks, or a month to building awareness. Below is a list of all the types of awareness being promoted.

If you are wanting more resources to not only build awareness to topics of mental health, but incorporate prayer, Scripture, and involvement in Church, check out our mental health awareness cards.

We know that the holidays for mental health can be a very tough time, even more so with COVID in the holidays. So my church has decided that this year we are going to talk about it for the holidays with a series titled Christmas Feels. This is not the first time my church has used the pulpit to address faith and mental health, last year dedicating a whole month during May with mental health awareness month.

Brett Ullman is a person with lived experience with mental illness and being a Christian, talking about what this looks like for his own spiritual and emotional walk. Honestly, the video below doesn’t say anything new with what we already talk about on here, but it’s powerful because it’s from his own lived experience and so I urge you to take the 8 minutes to watch how your church can become a safe place for those with mental illness. If you want to see more about what he has to say about mental health, check out his website here.

We are in the final month of the year that was like any other year in our lifetime. Phrases like “the new normal” have defined many people’s experience, others regularly are posting satire like “I want a refund on 2020.” But I’m going to do a technique counselors use in a session when someone is suffering called reframing and incorporate some of God’s Word into it.