I’m not sure how to start this off. It can be a touchy topic.
Recently I’ve been a little “not myself,” and in talking about it with my small group, one of them said to me, “It’s really okay not to be okay. You know that, right?”
I know that friends have said that to me numerous times since my daughter went to heaven in 2018, but I think that’s the first time I HEARD it. I shared in a post here about all of the happenings since then. In another, similar conversation with a few other wonderful women in my circle, one of them mentioned that it sounded like I was dealing with some mild depression.
Um. YA THINK? *imagine me slapping my forehead*
It’s really amazing when you can see something for the first time and say, “Wow, yeah. That is the issue.” It’s not a first for me, either. I had very bad Post Partum Depression after one of my kids. This is different, though. Lingering, stealing my energy, like a malaise over everything. In all of this new enlightenment I was having, a few questions came to mind.
“Why have I, and I think many Godly, believing, Jesus-loving women, reject and fight the possibility that depression will touch me? My world has been severely rocked since October of 2018. Why wouldn’t I be depressed, and why is it not okay to see and admit it?”
Our mental and emotional health is as vital as our spiritual and physical health. As always, I look to the Bible to get answers, and here are a few verses about the heart and mind:
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life, Proverbs 4:23 (Here’s a geeky fact about this verse: it’s written on the sundial in the garden at Ashley Wilke’s plantation in the movie Gone With The Wind.)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your heart and mind… Romans 12:2a
Cast your anxieties on Him, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
We need to keep our hearts focused on God, His good works in our lives and the hope of heaven. This is a terribly fallen world, and it’s hard sometimes to manage it, even with faith. Having good friends and a solid church should help with that. However, there is a stigma that goes along with saying, “Hey, I’m felling depressed.” Even as those verses, and many others, are familiar, when you’re in a state of emotional fatigue, they can feel foreign.
So, we pray. Even when we don’t feel like it.
We talk to others, even if it’s uncomfortable.
We seek professional help. Pastoral counsel, physicians, etc.
This article on gotquestions is a good source. I have also begun to read this book, Breath as Prayer, and it has been very good. You can get it free on Kindle Unlimited. (I am not an affiliate)
Friends, I pray that this touches someone today. If you know someone who is struggling, reach out. Even if you have before, do so again. It may be the time that they really hear it.
God Bless
Barbara
Stampinopolous 