Encourage, Equip, Empower

Each month our very own amazing writers from South Texas publish a series of blog posts written with you in mind. Our desire is to encourage, equip, and empower you through stories, experiences, and insights from our writers and from God’s Word.

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  • Joy Beyond Understanding

    “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 Summertime in the South is not for the faint of heart. Temperatures that soar to unbearable heights, iced tea that can’t seem to stay iced, and leather car interior that is torture whenever you get in…

  • Peace in a Wild Workplace

     I do not work in a church.  I am involved in ministry full-time, but I also work a secular job to provide for my family.  I don’t care where you work, whether it be in a church or out; if you work with people, it can be difficult.   Feeling called to ministry, I have asked…

  • Peace In the Wild

    When I think about the phrase “peace in the wild,” I picture a leopardess in the middle of a jungle. I imagine the sound of monkeys hooting in the background while she cleans her paws. She’s laying down, feeling peaceful, she’s not worried about where her next meal will come from. She’s not anxious about…

  • A Family Restored

    Photo by Caleb Oquendo on Pexels.com

    I love the book of Ruth.  If you haven’t read it in a while I encourage you to read it (or listen to it) this week.  It’s the story of a family; an unconventional one.  Those are my favorite kinds of families because it looks more like mine that way.

    In this story, Ruth is a widow and Naomi is her mother-in-law.  Ruth chooses to struggle with her mother-in-law rather than to return to an easier life with her father.  Her father could have found her a new husband and provided for her while she waited but with Naomi she became the provider in a world that was not welcoming to women in the workplace.

    I love the narrative of a mother-in-law that was so amazing and loving that Ruth wanted to go with her and care for her rather than choosing her own comfort.  This is such a different picture of a “mother-in-law” from what we see in our culture today.  I love this story of the mother-in-law being such an encouragement and motherly figure in Ruth’s life.  I pray often that God would make me into a “Naomi” for my bonus children one day and that He would send “Naomis” to love my children in their families as adults.  In Naomi, God gave us a hero to aspire to in our adult lives.  How awesome is that?!

    But more than anything, this is a story of a family restored and rebuilt by a loving God and not in the way you might expect.  Maybe, not even in the way Ruth would have thought to pray for in the beginning.

    When my marriage ended 14 years ago, I prayed for restoration and as I prayed I decided what that restoration would look like.  When it did not arrive packaged in the story I wrote, I was tempted to judge God with being unfaithful.  I was not the only one.

    When marriages struggle or even fail, our first thought is that we are going to pray and God is going to bring this marriage back together.  The only problem with our plan is that both parties have to be willing to participate with the Lord to achieve it.  

    When my divorce became final and my ex-husband remarried, I rewrote the story.  I was sure that God’s will would be for me to remarry to a Godly man and for all my children to be raised in my home in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.  Right?!  It sounded like the best case scenario to me.  But life did not follow my script this time either.

    Fourteen years later, I am not remarried and two of my children live with their dad.  I watched as my ex-husband seemed to succeed in love and in money and I was tempted again to charge God with being unfaithful.  But nothing was more of a challenge to my faith than to see my children leave my home to move in with him.  (Wow! Stephanie, this is not very encouraging!)  I’m sorry but this testimony needs to be told and someone out there needs to hear it.

    Restoration is not the fulfillment of our plans by God.  Restoration by definition is the repairing, replacing, building up and returning that which was destroyed.  For Ruth and Naomi, death destroyed their home, their security, and their place in society.  My divorce destroyed all the same things for me.  Divorce is a death of sorts; not the death of the family but rather, the death of a home.

    I will be honest.  Part of the narrative that I wrote for God included me succeeding and my ex-husband floundering.  I was hurt and from the outside of his life looking in, it appeared that everything was going his way, while my life disintegrated before my eyes.  I desired justice without mercy for him and mercies new every morning for myself.  This is the result when we write the story.  Our narratives tend to include our fear and pain and incorporate them into the outcome but God can take a story filled with pain, fear and insecurity and breathe His life into it for an ending devoid of the enemy’s schemes.

    I do not tell this next part to brag on anyone but God.  Remember, I am the petty one in this story.  (LOL)  However, when the boys told me that they wanted to go live with their father several years ago, my heart broke but almost instantly there was an overwhelming peace that I could not have managed for myself.  I told the boys I needed a few days before we talked about it and I prayed…..a lot.  I begged God not to allow this to happen but even during that time God reminded me of what I prayed over my children.  I asked God to guide them to Him in all of their lives and to “give them a love for His house, for His people, and for His word.”  God asked me during those days of prayer to remember that He loves my children even more than I do and that He would honor my prayer for them no matter where they are.  I was honest with them and with their dad about my reservations but eventually had no choice but to concede.  They were at an age where it was their choice.  A year later my daughter decided to go too but came back after about 6 months.

    I will not tell you that I was a saintly figure during this time (or during my divorce for that matter).  I struggled in my faith and in my mental health.  I had served God all of this time and my ex-husband had not.  Why?!  This was not fair!  How is this the faithfulness of God?!

    Here’s how.  What I have come to understand about the beauty of restoration is that the repairing, replacing, building up and returning only happens on the outside when all those involved allow it happen on the inside first.  God was repairing me, replacing my fear with faith, building up my self image to be the one that He sees when He looks at me, and returning the safety and the peace that was lost in the breaking.

    Once upon a time when my marriage was falling apart I told God that I would not survive if He allowed my kids to be taken from me but here I was still standing, still living and recognising that my kids were never taken, nor did they abandon me.  

    If you are in a custody struggle please hear this.  This was one of the most liberating things that God ever revealed to me in this process.  There came a time, after my divorce that my house became my home without my ex-husband.  When my children were there, it was complete.  But it’s different for the kids.  They always have to miss someone.  With him, they missed me and with me, they missed him.  Neither home was ever complete for them.  They love their dad and their love for him does not diminish their love for me.  It’s not a competition.  They had lived with me all their lives and they knew they would always be welcomed back again.  It was because they loved me and felt at home with me that they felt safe to go to his house and try living there too.  

    This is restoration.  I may not be remarried but I love my life and I feel safe and at peace in it again.  My children come and go between both homes now without the restraints of the court ordered arrangements.  At one time, the relationship between their dad and I was so contentious that we could not talk without a lawyer present.  This is restoration.  I am able to pray for his salvation and for things to go well for him.  This is restoration.  I am able to tell this story today because I survived and in my life now, I am thriving.  This is restoration.  

    My life is not perfect.  I have not seen the fulfillment of every promise but I have seen God come through time and again and I know that He continues to move and work for my good.  This is restoration.

    “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

    What does your restoration look like?  If you are living in it now, do you recognize God’s hands and how far He has brought you?  If you are praying for it now, are you writing the story yourself or are you allowing God to hold the pen?

    It may not look how you think best but trust me, God knows better than we do.  Ruth could never have foreseen that a day of hard labor in a field would eventually end in a love story that would make her the owner of that field.  I know that it is tempting to doubt God but I encourage you to welcome the challenge to your faith.  Ask Him questions.  Scream at Him when you need to.  He can take it.  Just don’t stop talking to Him.  Hold on sister, He will restore! 

    Zion City Worship – Restore (Live) 

    Stephanie Sharp is a teacher, a writer, a musician and an ordained minister.  She is also a divorced, single mother of 3 teenagers.  She writes for the South Texas Women’s Ministries Blog and founded a ministry for ladies walking through divorce and single motherhood called The Well.  You can contact Stephanie at thewellwm@gmail.com.

  • Blood Is Thicker Than Water

    Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

    I’ve heard this said countless times while growing up. If I was fighting or arguing with my siblings, or expressed anger at a family member, someone was always quick to remind me that “Blood is thicker than water. You’ll get over it, if only because you have to.” It makes sense, doesn’t it? Blood as a substance is thicker than water, so I never thought twice about what everyone was impling: You must forgive your family at all costs. 

    If you’ve ever met me, you might know that I absolutely detest doing something just because someone says so. Don’t worry.  The Lord is sanctifying that spirit of rebellion out of me, but it will take time. Whenever I would seek God in scripture, I would also see friends that were more like family and family that were more like enemies. In fact, we don’t even make it out of the first book of the Bible before Cain kills Abel and Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery! Apparently because blood is thicker, it can stain all it touches when it’s spilled. 

    Do you feel like you have a relationship that has been stained by those closest to you? Like Cain, overcome with anger and jealousy, committed the first murder? Or Joseph’s brothers, who desired the love and affection that their father gave to another for themselves? Have unmet expectations from family or perhaps the Church or other Christians left a deep stain on your heart? How do we move forward? How do we forgive when it is those closest to us, or those we perceive to be close to God, that have caused such a stain on our hearts?

    I was reminded by my pastor this weekend that those closest to us have the greatest ability to hurt us. That’s why hurt from the church hurts the most and familial hurts cut the deepest. Psalm 55: 12-14 says,

    “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.” 

    I want to touch on a sensitive topic here, but I would be remiss if I allowed this opportunity to pass without acknowledging it. Sometimes it is other Christians who hurt us the most. We have higher expectations for those who walk with Jesus, and many times when those expectations are unmet and people sin, our spirits can deflate. The enemy uses that opportunity to come in and “steal, kill, and destroy.” I am not suggesting that you turn a blind eye and I will not misquote our King and say to just turn the other cheek. Allow yourself to feel the hurt and pain that sin and unmet expectations brings and then allow your loving Father to adjust your gaze back to Him. 

    Whether it is your genetic family, your church family, or your chosen family—blood is thicker than water, but that saying isn’t finished. There is a key part that’s often left out. 

    “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” 

    When the original phrase is quoted in its entirety, it takes on an entirely new meaning. No longer are we bound to just the genetic makeup of our bloodlines. No longer do we have to strive and toil to force relationships where there isn’t one. It’s not the blood we are born into, but the blood of the covenant shed by Jesus on the cross that is thicker than the water of our maternal womb. 

    This realization should not give us carte blanche to write off our siblings or family in favor of others who tell us what we want to hear, or allow us to act in whichever way we desire. It should, however, be a comfort that those who are covered by the covenant of Jesus are also our family. Many of us are born into loving homes with beautiful familial relationships. That doesn’t mean that it is not hard or messy, but it does give us a solid foundation to return to when we are offended.  

    For others who don’t have a good relationship with their biological family, or whose family has passed on and might feel alone in the world, hopefully this is a comfort. You are not abandoned or without a home or family. You are a part of the largest family, those who profess Jesus as their Savior!

    We cannot control what happens to us no matter how hard we try. We cannot control how others perceive us, our words, or actions but we can act and react in love and choose to forgive offenses that come from both blood and water relationships around us. 

    “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew.

    Let us take this opportunity to see where we are standing with our family and other relationships God has blessed us with. Can you audaciously embrace forgiveness and mercy where you have been hurt or stained by another? Can you embrace your Church family and, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:16)?  I challenge you to pray and meditate on the full phrase: “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” Ask the Lord to present opportunities to you where you can share about the goodness of God and His gift of the cross as well as embrace Hebrews 4: 12.  “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

    MaKenzie V. is a global worker who has faithfully been serving the unreached in the Arab World while growing her family. Almost every moment of the day is spent chasing Jesus and her toddlers- usually with a cup of hot tea or coffee in hand. She enjoys learning languages, deep belly laughs, and connecting with others where God has them.

  • Discovering Faith, Hope and Love Through My Family

    “Where is he going?” I asked myself as I watched my father hike up a mountain in the middle of the Arizona desert. Rest assured, this was a normal vacation occurrence for the Young Family. However, he took the car keys with him and left us in the car with no air conditioning. What were we to do but wonder for hours if we’d ever see him again? I always enjoyed road tripping with my parents as a child, but this was not fun. After what seemed like forever my father returned hobbling down the mountain. It seems that he had made a spill into a cactus patch and had spines in his leg. Ouch! I remember my mom helping him remove them over the dinner table at a restaurant that served little plastic pink and blue swords instead of toothpicks. I may still have them somewhere. The things you remember as a kid.

    Can I just say that my mom was not happy with this situation. She did not like sitting in the car for hours with no air conditioning. I don’t blame her. I was there too, and it was very hot in the desert. Not to mention this was before cell phones, and we had no idea if my dad was going to make it back. However, when my mom and I look back on this part of our vacation, we can’t help but laugh about it. She has since forgiven my father, and they continue to travel together.

    Family vacations can either bring out the best in you or the worst. Which we all know that “When mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” and “Happy wife, happy life.”

    This could not be truer. When a mother or wife is feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or unhappy, it can be difficult for her to fulfill her role as a caregiver. This can lead to disconnecting with her children and other family members, potentially impacting their emotional well-being. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m guilty of creating storm clouds of bad attitude.  

    1 Corinthians 13:13- “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

    Last month, my blog sisters and I shared about our struggles with learning to navigate through mental health. As important as our mental health is, our attitude is also important. How can we be our best for our families with a sour attitude? Answer: we can’t! That’s where we need faith, hope and love.

    When you’re on a road trip, it’s important to determine how many miles it’ll take you to get from Point A to Point B on one tank of gas. When you start to notice the fuel gauge getting close to the E, it’s time to fill up.

    When was the last time you checked your faith gauge? Is it getting close to empty, or are you running on fumes? Faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Through my relationship with God, he brings me connection with my family. Our faith is what keeps us (my family) going, and without it we can’t function anymore.

    As a wife and mother, I can start to tell when my faith gauge is getting low. I begin to feel weary and stressed as I get short with my family members. There’s been times where I’ve had to put myself in a time out and pray for God’s strength. Then after a good cry, I’m able to compose myself and start again. But that’s why it’s crucial to give yourself grace and look for the nearest gas station, err I mean Bible, as soon as possible.

    Along with our faith gauge comes hope. “I hope we can get to the hotel before dark. I hope this restroom is clean. I hope my daughter takes a nap in the car.” We all have our “hope statements.” But what about, “I hope my husband knows how safe he makes me feel,” “I hope God can bring healing to mine and my sister’s relationship,” or “I hope I can be a good example for my daughter.” Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. These are real hopes from a real person who is not always her best for her family. I have my struggles, and I have my desires. God is the only one who can make my hopes a reality because I trust in his promises.

    Psalm 33:20-22

    20 We wait in hope for the Lord;
        he is our help and our shield.
    21 In him our hearts rejoice,
        for we trust in his holy name.
    22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
        even as we put our hope in you.

    I look back on the past six years, and I can see how much I’ve been stretched since I became a mother. As I’ve written before, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for my kid, but I also recognize not being my best-self for her. She needs my love every day, just as God shows me love every day; even when I mess up, he’s still there.

    1 John 4:10-11- “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

    We just took a family vacation last month. It was all four grandparents, our daughter, my husband and myself. During these ten fun-filled days we celebrated three different events: my husband’s master’s degree, Mother’s Day, and our 13th wedding anniversary. All of which were wonderful days filled with faith, hope and love. My husband’s graduation was filled with faith, because God gave him the strength to keep with his studies even when life got hard. Mother’s Day was filled with delicious donuts and overwhelming love for the women who loved us first. Lastly, we celebrated our anniversary filled with hope of a bright future together.

    Each of these moments were little reminders that God is good, that I shouldn’t take my family for granted, and they deserve my best. This doesn’t mean perfect. Your family is not looking for you to be perfect, just present.

    This summer instead of settling for stressed out, burned out, and grumpy moments, ask God to help you see the beauty in your family time because your family deserves your best.

    Melinda Brown is a mother, co-pastor, entrepreneur, and now she can add author to her ever growing list of gifts. She and her husband, Jason, pastor Columbus Community Church in South East Texas and now, Melinda has agreed to come on board as one of our newest authors on the STXWM Blog Team. Her heart is to share the love of Jesus through her writing and to tell the world of the healing and comfort that can be found in a relationship with the Lord.

  • Hope & Encouragement for Caregivers

    I have struggled with how to write this blog for several weeks.  I called a friend for prayer and I told her that I was struggling with how to bring hope and encouragement to others in a part of my life where I often need it too.  She encouraged me to share what I’ve learned and what I still lean on even today.  So here it is…

    When I was 14 my mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and we began our journey of finding the right mix of medications and treatments to help her to live and function in the world again.  Hindsight is often 20/20 so looking back even further we could see that this was something she had been struggling with for most of her life but at the time misinformation and stigma around such a diagnosis kept her from receiving the proper help.  I have been helping to care for her for the better part of 30 years and for most of that time, her diagnosis was a carefully guarded secret.

    Now that you know who I am, allow me to share my struggles:

    I have wrestled with a legal system and a health care system that is not as interested in helping patients as it is with making money and avoiding liability.

    I have struggled to the point of exhaustion when caregiving for someone who very often did not want care.

    I have mourned how some in the church world have chosen ignorance and fear rather than being willing to look at my mom (at all of us) and see a child of God.

    I have contended with God for her healing and fought to stay faithful year after year as she continues to struggle.

    I have sought direction and feared that every move I made was wrong.

    I have grieved the loss of my mom without the peace of knowing that she is safe in Heaven because she still walks the earth and yet the mom I knew is already gone.

    I wish I could tell you that I had all the answers and that after reading this it will all be better but that’s not what I have to offer.  All I can give you is the hope that I have received and it comes from Psalm 23.

    “The Lord is my Shepherd.  I have all that I need.”  

    When I feel like I have lost everything, He says that I have all that I need.  God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you; and my strength is made perfect in your weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)  Through the years I have lost her.  

    I feel like this applies to those who are caring for someone with a memory loss condition as well.  The person you love disappears inside this person you are caring for, so far inside that they are hard to recognize anymore.  Often caregiving for someone with a life altering condition takes a toll on the family as well. 

     In the face of losing family relationships, financial resources, plans that take a backseat to caregiving….still He says that we have all that we need because HE is all that we need.  All of the joy, patience, peace, provision and help that we need can be found in Him.

    “He lets me rest in green meadows; He leads me beside peaceful streams.  He renews my strength.”

    Peace and strength are free and God gives them to us liberally because He loves us and because we are not walking this road alone.

    I know that this work can feel lonely and draining but God provides comfort and strength through His word and through the love of brothers and sisters in Christ who can walk this road along with you.

    “He guides me along the right paths bringing honor to His name.”

    He will guide me.  He is faithful to close the doors that need to close and to open the ones He wants me to walk through.  I am not making these decisions by myself.  I am working with the only One who loves her more than I do.

    “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me.  Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me.”

    This valley gets so very dark sometimes and I do get afraid but He is here and He holds me when I’m scared.  He stays close to me.  He uses His rod and staff to fight off those who would attack me and seek to discourage me.  His protection and love are a comfort to me while I struggle through this with my family.

    “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  You honor me by anointing my head with oil.  My cup overflows with blessings.”

    God provides for me in the moments when I need to defend myself and turns those who would approach me as enemies into co-laborers with me breaking bread at a common table with a common goal. 

    God anoints me for the work of caregiving and He lets me know that this season in my life does not exclude me from ministry to the greater church but rather equips me with special tools to be used for His glory.

    He blesses the work of my hands in every avenue of service.

    “Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

    As I read this my mind sings “Your goodness is running after, running after me.”  His goodness and love pursues me!  I do not have to earn His love.  I will never be so undeserving that He would stop wanting me.  

    He loves my mom and seeks, just as I do, for her good and He loves me too.  I am not just a tool to ensure the care of my mother.  I am His child and I am important to Him.  I am so loved.  He is proud of me.

    For much of my life, I have gauged my worth in this world (and to God) by how well I serve others and what I have to offer.  That is quite frankly, not scriptural.  It is a lie of the enemy and a weight that we sometimes voluntarily assume.  The only reason I can think of for this, is that we have spent more time listening to the world than to God.

    Dear sister,

    This is a season.  Maybe a really long one but a season, nonetheless.  This is not your only calling even though it can often feel all consuming.  “He grace is sufficient” is not a platitude or an indictment against you.  I know when I first had someone tell me this when I was walking through a tough time, it sounded more like “get over it.”  It is reassurance that He has got this.  He has got you and He has got them.  The whole situation is in His hands and He can be trusted.

    I know how tiring this can be.  You are so loved and you are not alone.  Not only is God with you, but there are countless others who are also in this season with you.  Trust in God and lean on us.  I need you and I want to be there for you too.  Together we can do this.

    “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

    Mental Health Resources are available at https://www.stxagwm.org/mental-health and if you are in crisis you can visit your nearest emergency room or call 988 24 hours a day for live help.

    Support and education for caregivers can be found at https://www.nami.org/support-education/support-groups/nami-family-support-group/ and for local support please get involved in your local church and seek support within a faith community.

    Stephanie Sharp is a teacher, a writer, a musician and an ordained minister.  She is also a divorced, single mother of 3 teenagers.  She writes for the South Texas Women’s Ministries Blog and founded a ministry for ladies walking through divorce and single motherhood called The Well.  You can contact Stephanie at thewellwm@gmail.com.

  • Mental Heath Care Through Grief

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    “The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That’s the deal” –C.S. Lewis

    I grew up untouched by sorrow and unacquainted with grief. I literally grew up in a home with a white picket fence and a loving family. I was never hungry or went without necessities, and almost all of my memories are wrapped in love. (I have two older siblings, so of course, there is also the occasional bad memory, but even those I can’t truly complain about.)

    I remember hearing people whisper about depression, and others would sweep anxiety under the metaphorical rug, and I was shaped to believe that mental health struggles were not Godly and that if someone just believed hard enough, they wouldn’t struggle. That was all there was to it. 

    Depression? Well, you should go for a walk and get some good old-fashioned sunlight! Anxiety? Well, you know to cast those on the Lord, for He sustains you! Bipolar? No, you just need a diet change and some exercise. So I heard and so I believed. If we just had more faith, or better faith perhaps, and tried harder, we wouldn’t struggle with mental health issues. 

    So anytime my anxiety washed in, instead of praying and releasing my control and trusting the Lord, I just shut down my mind and went into robot mode. A fake smile and even faker, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!” was what I clung to. Not the real Jesus, but my own strength. 

    Somehow that was “enough” to have me squeak along in life until one day I was met with, “I’m sorry there is no heartbeat.” That led to being rushed to the hospital and inducing birth. Every step of the way, I prayed. I clung to scripture. I did everything in my control to hold onto my daughters’ life, but I don’t hold the keys to life and death. Twelve hours of labor later, my first fruits, my firstborn after years of infertility, was stillborn at 38 weeks. 

    To this day, I still feel like pieces of me were left in that hospital room. My reality wasn’t matching up with what my faith tradition had taught me. “God will never give you more than you can handle,” and so many more untruths flooded my mind. But who could handle this? Instead of wrapping my Lily in her pink blanket, I was swaddled–no strangled, by grief, and I was defenseless.  

    It dragged me down to depths I didn’t know existed, and with it, a depression swallowed me like I didn’t know possible. Life became a chore, and the thought of ending it flirted at the edges of my subconscious on and off. My uneducated mind became a battleground for the enemy to twist and poison, and since I had been taught that mental health struggles were weakness and only those who didn’t truly believe in God had them, I also began to question not only my salvation but if God existed. 

    Mental health awareness is crucial not only so we can acknowledge what the enemy is throwing at us, but also for us to educate and train the next generation of believers so that they are more prepared for how to handle any struggles they too will face. Not if, but when they face them.

    It is better to do the work and have the resources available for ourselves and others in Christ so that no one has to shoulder any burdens alone. We also need to stop misquoting scripture and saying things like, “God just needed another angel.” Those ‘well-intentioned’ sayings can be kindling for someone in the depths of struggle. 

    We just need to look at Job for a biblical example of too much to handle and abounding grief. Lazarus’s sister, who ran to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem and said, “If only you had been here, he would have lived.” Jesus weeping in the garden. Jacob wrestling with God. David lamented. God poured His heart into scripture and gave it to us not for us to twist and sling at each other, but for us to hide deep in our hearts and rely on when our reality doesn’t live up to our expectations. 

    Grief can be a gift. I don’t think I could have written those words six years ago, kneeling at my infant daughter’s gravesite, but God has transformed me and my faith. God has used my grief and all the mental health struggles I have had with it to glorify Himself, and He is using my testimony to do it. 

    Step by step, he walks with us like the infamous Footsteps poem reminds us. “LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed you most, you would leave me.” The Lord replied: “ My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

    I pray that God would transform and educate you on mental health awareness so that you would have love and compassion for all who walk closely with various struggles. Perhaps you are someone who has pressed down or tried to control your mind to what you have been taught is a “Christian mindset.” Maybe someone you love walks the tightrope of mental health, and you feel pulled and stretched by the tether it has on them. Maybe you do not believe a Christian should take medication or doesn’t have enough faith, and that mental health struggles are “all in someone’s head.”  Wherever you stand on this scale, I pray that you would have audacious faith. You would be willing to be open and used and educated by our loving Father and be a conduit of His grace and love to all you meet. 

    Heavenly Father, you created our bodies and everything in them. When you were weaving each of us together, you did not falter, your hand didn’t slip, you did not make any mistakes. I pray that we would surrender ourselves and all we are to you to be used for your glory. Use all our life circumstances to draw us into your loving embrace. Amen. 

    Mental Health Resources are available at https://www.stxagwm.org/mental-health and if you are in crisis you can visit your nearest emergency room or call 988 24 hours a day for live help.

    MaKenzie V. is a global worker who has faithfully been serving the unreached in the Arab World while growing her family. Almost every moment of the day is spent chasing Jesus and her toddlers- usually with a cup of hot tea or coffee in hand. She enjoys learning languages, deep belly laughs, and connecting with others where God has them.

About STX Women

We are the Women’s Ministries branch of the South Texas Assemblies of God.

Women across South Texas desire a community where we celebrate each other and share each other’s burdens.

Together, we walk out our God-given purpose in our family, church, and community!

Our passion and love for Christ unite us to reach the lost at home and across the world. 

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