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Learning to Trust in Christ Enough to Rest
I’d like to share a quick note with you before you read: I don’t want this article to bind the consciences of anyone reading it–to make anyone feel like they ought to do something that they don’t actually need to do. I wrote this article specifically for the women who, like me, struggle to take care of themselves in a way that honors God. I am firmly convicted that rest is vital for the nourishment and upkeep of my all-around health. It’s okay if you don’t share that same conviction, but if you do (or if you want to know more about how God is changing my heart), read on!…
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The Most Helpful Question to Ask a Suffering Friend
“What can I do to help?” When I suddenly started having panic attacks along with anxiety and depression a few years ago, a very close friend of mine asked me this simple question. I won’t soon forget that moment because her asking me this question turned around my outlook on friendship within the church and how to help someone suffering through anxiety and depression (or anything else). I like this question because of all the noble and loving things it implies. It also reminds me of Jesus’ compassion for us. A Noble and Loving Question What makes this question such a noble and loving question? First, it implies that my…
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How to Use Nature to Help Manage Anxiety and Depression
I believe that the use of medicine for anxiety and depression is absolutely okay. If you need to take medicine for the long-term, how wonderful that you found something that helps relieve your symptoms and will work for you for years to come. If you only need to take medicine in the short-term, that’s great news, too! God gave us medicine to help correct this biological, spiritual, and situational, complex health issue, and we must not ignore the hope medicine can provide for those in need. I fall more into the short-term category than the long-term category. On and off since Ruthie was born, I’ve taken medication mostly for anxiety,…
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The Power of Habit
According to Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit, Prologue pg. xvi), the study of habit goes back centuries. Educators, psychologists, scientists, and (more recently) marketers have all studied how people change their behaviors and why they turn those behaviors into habits in the first place. As someone who has tried to change her eating and exercise habits many times (and sometimes with success) over the last ten years or so, the idea of habit interests me very much. In her book Home Education, Charlotte Mason talks about how habits form the core of a good education. While not using the word habit specifically, the Bible discusses the idea of habits.…
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She Lives
She lives below,She lives below the storm.She watches the wind through dream-swept eyes,Desiring to sleep, but unable to. The multitude howl as they pass her by.She cowers, but even they,Though fierce,Cannot reach her below. Her walls go up,Sprouting like sharp flowers.She sees dimly through the haze.She cleans the glass. She hears a crack and snap.Fear grips her frenzied mind.Her fist flies forward;The shards explode in perfect unison. She lives inside,She lives inside the storm.She confronts the milieu,And breathes again. She tackles their fiercenessAnd moves ever upwards.Her wakeful eyes, fully aware and bright,Search for Him. She feels again the truths she knows so well.He stayed with her in the storm;He stays…
