Caring for our caregivers Lord, I know that, despite the illness I struggle with, I’m a caring person, like so many of us. We help others whenever we can and many of us have made contributions to our communities. Even then we run into problems with depression and other kinds of emotional distress. It becomes […]
Read More...Suffering: a gift? Lord, when I go through hard times, all I feel then is the pain. I often wish I could die. Looking for a way to escape it, I call out to you. To friends as well. But I receive only momentary relief. There seems to be no apparent reason for what’s happening. […]
Read More...What did Jesus do? Lord, you yourself know how there’s no pain like this pain of being rejected. Not only rejected, but sometimes even mistreated. You understand how much strength it takes to accept what I’ve gone through. It took more strength than I’ve needed for anything I’ve done before. I’ve heard that you just […]
Read More...When fences become walls Some words a friend shared: “I keep thinking about fences, especially the ones on our street. I’m not sure that fences make GOOD neighbours. Wherever there is a fence on our street, it feels like they are keeping everyone out of their corner of the world. It becomes a definite boundary, […]
Read More...Fences make good neighbours? Lord, this photo of a fence with flowers growing on either side is helping me learn some important lessons about boundaries that I didn’t understand before. For a long time, the concept of boundaries didn’t make sense to me. It hurt when I was shut out of various people’s lives. Oh, […]
Read More...Overcoming our insecurity I was just thinking, Lord. It would be so good to have a second chance at having a mother who would be all the things a mother could be for me. Warm and kind. Understanding. Giving. At times I sure long for that, though I have found friends in whom I see […]
Read More...Controlling the urge to connect Some people have what’s called “anxious attachment” which starts during childhood. They seek approval and reassurance from others, never having a relief from self-doubt. In their relationships the feeling that they’re going to be rejected worries them and causes them not to trust. This drives them to be over-dependent. They […]
Read More...Respecting boundaries Lord, this morning I emailed a brief note to a friend. I thought I was getting pretty good about respecting her boundaries, trying not to email more than every couple of days or so. We had not formally discussed that this should be a boundary, yet it’s what seemed to work best. But […]
Read More...Always lesser than Lord Jesus, I know it’s hard for those who don’t have mental illness to understand: I, and many of us, feel small next to our supporters. I don’t think they consciously set themselves above us, yet we feel lower. We feel inferior. For me it was like my supporters were father and […]
Read More...I confused them with God himself My Monday devotional from December 18th explains how badly I need God in my life. How very badly I need his love! How very badly many of you need his love! It’s at http://marjabergen.com/archives/he-watches-over-us if you’d like to have a look. Lord, I see your love shining through the […]
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