Last night at Oxygen Jeanne addressed the topic of depression and suicide. She nailed it with ways to conquer depression, while encouraging them to gain perspective on people and events that lead to depression. In addition to two great skits, she gave me part of the message time to talk about my dad and my life after a suicide. The response was huge.
One crazy sad story from last night when we were praying for kids was when Missy was talking with an 8th grade girl who was sobbing. Literally that morning, her parents had woke her up at 3 a.m. and told her that she was a mistake, they didn't love her or want her. They brought her down to Atlanta and dropped her off in the foster care system. She landed in the foster care home of one of our church members and the same day came to our youth ministry. Naturally, she was broken. Fortunately, we talk family a lot here and Missy told her, while her heart aches for her and it's a tragic situation, she's welcome here and we'd loved to have her be a part of our family. Words may or may not have felt cheap at that moment, but time will show our words match our actions. Pray for her and the numerous other foster kids in our ministry.
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3 comments:
Unbelievable. What a wonderful opportunity for your ministry to embrace a broken little girl. I'll pray my heart out that she feels the love and acceptance that we know she needs.
My heart breaks for her, and the other kids with similar stories. Praise Jesus that you all have leaned in hard to create a place where she can find His love through others. I will definately be praying.
My heart goes out to that girl. I think it's a safe bet that she's been subjected to far more than the final scene. Any "parents who could do that obviously have serious problems that would affect the entire family. I would keep that in mind when dealing with this girl, especially in light of the fact that both addiction and mental illness (both come to mind with the parents) could be inherited (with or without symptoms at this point). Remember most of the time you hear hoof beats it's a horse. Sometimes it's a zebra.
I do hope that, while addressing depression, a distinction is made between situational depression and biological depression. They are two very different beasts as I'm sure you know all too well.
I've had ministers tell me beofre to not even acknowledge my depression and didn't want to see me on medication. Bad advice! I know you're not of that mindset but be aware that there are some out there who are.
I've dealt with depression for more than 25 years and it wasn't until I properly diagnosed and medicated that I even began to figure out how to deal with life on life's terms. Today, I still struggle with it but having accepted this as a fact in my life has allowed me to learn how to function with it. Listening to people who thought I could just pretend it didn't exist or this would pass almost killed me.
It was actually one comment made to me by a therapist in an outpatient rehab that changed my life forever. I was about to graduate from the program but I had already started using again. I think they already knew that when I confessed to them what was going on in my off hours and told them I needed to quit the program since I was in violation of the requirements for attending the program. That woman told me that, while I could quit if I wanted to, I was welcome to stay because she thought I deserved better than that. I can't remember anyone ever telling me that I deserved anything good and it was a life changing moment. That was more than 15 yrs ago and I remember it as if it was yesterday. That woman saved my life and she doesn't even know it.
You just never know what words you use will change a life. Most importantly, her words were spoken with no agenda, just care and acceptance.
Just something to think about.
Rhonda
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