Having a mental illness doesn’t mean that a person has any less ability to reason than the next person. It doesn’t mean they’re any less able to know when wrong is done. It doesn’t mean they cannot feel the pain when they are being mistreated. And it doesn’t mean that the truth about that mistreatment […]
Read More...As a person with mental health challenges, I claim the right to be considered equal. I may be different, but I am equal. Equal under God, the same as everyone else. Many have accepted people with problems like mine, making us part of their church and community. But this doesn’t mean we’re necessarily counted as […]
Read More...When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Luke 19:5 Do you have a difficult person in your life? Or – could you yourself be regarded as a difficult person? I myself live with mental health issues that […]
Read More...Written in 2009 As a person living with bipolar disorder, I used to feel frustrated that so many people did not understand mental illness. I was angry that people didn’t even try to empathize. But through my writing and educating others, I’ve learned that the problem does not lie with healthy people alone. It […]
Read More...I recently plowed my way through what must have been a few hundred emails I had sent to my friends during that unfortunate year. As I read, I was filled with shame. “Oh, Lord! How I must have sickened them! Such an imposition! Why couldn’t I have left them alone? What was I thinking to […]
Read More...See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 1 John 3:1 NLT If our Father in Heaven loves us enough to […]
Read More...Please stay tuned for further thoughts on this topic, coming next week. In the previous mailing I leaned heavily on the point of view of people with mental health issues – about their need to be seen as equals under God. But what about those who support them or would like to know how […]
Read More...There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 NLT At the time Jesus came to earth, people were not believed to have equal value. But Jesus changed things, treating people with equal dignity and worth. Christianity became foundational to […]
Read More...FINDING A PURPOSE Having a mental illness can make a full life more difficult to achieve than it is for healthy individuals. So far I had only been puttering with life. Nothing I did was serious enough or fulfilling enough. I wanted to do something truly meaningful. For many years I scoured the Help […]
Read More...…in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? Psalm 56:11 The goal I’ve set for myself is to write devotionals that will build you up and encourage you. We all need that. However, as I sat down to write today, I realized we mustn’t overlook the realities […]
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