I had a recent conversation with one of my good friends and partners in local youth ministry, Crisman Koechig.  It was fun for me and I think it will be helpful for you to listen.  We hit these important topics, and you should really listen in!

• What are the commonalities you see in families who’s children actually spiritually thrive?
• What kind of families are most challenging for kids to thrive spiritually?
• Should you force your kid to come to church or youth/kids ministry?
• What level of involvement in student and children’s ministry is helpful?  Are you going to hurt them by hovering in there space?
• The concept of Potted Plant Parenting, and giving up being the “cool parent”.

That’s it.  A nice, easy, helpful conversation that will give you just enough goodness to help you through your week.

But it’s only helpful if you listen!

We are one week into 2018.  Have you radically changed your life yet?  Me neither.  I’ve mostly been trying to convince my body that I’m not still in India.  I love mornings.  But I don’t love 2AM.

Many people love New Year’s Resolutions, and others just as passionately hate them.  I mostly stay away from the “resolution” word because it feels like as soon as theirs failure, there’s despair and giving up.  Anything really worth “resolving” at the front of the year should be worth sticking with as the year goes on, even if it takes you most of the year to start sticking.  If you want some help on getting a new habit to stick, I recommend you checking out one of the very early blogs and podcasts I did,  all about how to learn a new habit.

I like to take the couple of weeks at the end of one year and beginning of another to evaluate where I’ve been and where I’m heading.  As I do, I always remember a powerful quote by Andy Stanley:

“Your Direction, Not Your Intention, Determines Your Destination”

This is simple, profound, and convicting.

As an example, I live really close to U.S. 1 in Stuart, FL.  It’s cold right now, so perhaps I decide I want to get as far south as possible, and I know that U.S. 1 will ultimately get me to Key West.  If I head to U.S. 1 and turn left from my house, it doesn’t matter how much I want to get to Key West, I’m headed to Maine!  It’s my direction, not my intention, that determines my destination.  Therefore, a very wise, simple exercise we should do as humans, parents, followers of Jesus, is to take an honest look at our direction.

A simple, powerful question to ask yourself:

I think this is an important question to ask oneself, not just in general, but in specific areas of your life.  Take some time, apply this question to the following areas:

• Your walk with Jesus
• Your marriage
• Your relationships with your kids and family
• Your professional life
• Your finances
• Your physical health

Very likely, if you’re honest, you’re not going to be thrilled with all of the conclusions.  Given that reality, you’re left with two options: 1) Keep on doing what you’re doing and pretend that somehow you’re going to get a different result through magic 2) Change your direction.

If you realize you need a change of direction, I recommend you 1) share this with someone who can encourage you and keep you accountable, 2) make a plan to start baby steps in the right direction and 3) check out this “Hardwiring Habits” post I mentioned earlier.

And if you’re looking for baby steps, here are a few you might consider:

• Read one chapter of the Bible a day; add a specific time of consistent prayer each day; get in a small group with people who will encourage you
• Block one morning or evening every week or two weeks for a date with your spouse, or some intentional activity with your kids each week, or one specific night each week for dinner with your family
• Write out 3 Actionable Goals for this year in your professional life
• Take Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace course and follow his Baby Steps to Financial Freedom
• Start a Food Journal.  Write down everything you eat.

These are just suggestions, and you likely cannot start all of these at one time and have any hopes at succeeding.  So pick on, or two.

Take baby steps.  Change your direction.  Change your destination!  By God’s grace and with His help you can do this!

Let me know what baby steps you’re taking this year!

Helplessness.  Hopelessness.  Darkness.  Lethargy.  Racing thoughts.  Why am I feeling this way?

My good friend Jenny Price joins me again this week for a very honest and helpful talk on anxiety and depression.  Jenny is 26 years  into her marriage and is raising 5 children with her husband, Pastor Matt Price.  She gives a very open, honest account of her personal struggle with anxiety and depression over the years.

It’s almost an absolute certainty that you either struggle with anxiety & depression or someone you love does.  This talk was incredibly helpful to me, and I know it will be to you as well.

Itunes

I can’t possibly cover all that we talked about.  Listen to the podcast.

Highlights of the show include

• Jenny tracing her battle with anxiety and depression from childhood through the teenage years, issues of abuse that exacerbated the situation, physical symptoms that revealed her inner struggles.
• The interaction between mental and spiritual health as well as the stigma around the term mental illness.
  • Why is it acceptable for Christians to get medicine for physical ailments but not mental battles?  
• Circumstantial vs. chemical anxiety and depression as well as the differences between feelings of anxiety and depression
• How mental illness is a sign of spiritual brokenness, but why praying, reading ones bible, and thinking about Jesus might not be enough to fix the problem.
• Jenny’s story of realizing she needs help and the path she has walked to wellness.

Advice
If you are struggling with anxiety or depression

• Get help, because help can’t hurt.  If medical help is what they give you, do what they actually say.   Sometimes it might be a daily humbling of opening the pill container.
  • By the way,
    • A pastor can help you address spiritual issues, help you identify and own sin, give you help and plans for strengthening the spiritual part of your life.  But MOST pastors are not counseling experts and aren’t in a position to council through long term needs.
    • A counselor is there to listen to all of the thoughts going on in your head.  You have time and space to talk things out, work through things, feel the release of sharing.
    • A psychologist will step that up a notch, help give you tools of cognitive behavioral therapy.
    • A psychiatrist will help you address the issues medically. But you might even start with your internal medicine doctor.
• Have people in your life that you talk with honestly
• Share your story

If you perceive these symptoms in your spouse

• The first battle to get over is denial.
• Make note of specific symptoms, help point out to them “these are the things I see” without trying to diagnose all of the root causes.  Encourage them that they will feel helped if they go talk to someone.
• Don’t overwhelm them with an exhaustive list, that could be crushing.
• Go with your spouse to the appointment if they will go.

If you have a friend who lives with anxiety and depression

• If they’re not dealing with it, ask questions.  Show compassion.  Give love and grace.  Give them time to let it sink in that there may be a more serious problem.
• If they’re managing it, talk to them, ask questions, give grace.

Resources whether it’s you or a loved one

• Defeating Depression: Real Hope for Life Changing Wellness
• The Body Keeps the Score  I have personally read this book and can highly recommend it!
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Life 
• Check out this online depression test

Sadly, this is often a taboo subject, especially in Christian circles.  We’ve bought into some kind of lie that says I should be able to change our mental and emotional state if we are just spiritual enough.  To counter that, I present to you the following:

• The Bible is full of lament.  There’s even a book called Lamentations.  About one third of the Psalms are songs of disorientation.  Elijah the prophet wanted to die after his victory on Mt. Carmel.  Sometimes life is so very hard.  Sometimes it’s hard because of external circumstances.  But sometimes those forces are internal.qI have a family tendency towards high blood pressure.
• I have a family history of high blood pressure.  Knowing this, I want to do everything I can to eat well, exercise, and have healthy outlets for my stress.  But if I do all of these things and still find myself with high blood pressure, I want to CONTINUE to do all of these things, and humbly thank the Lord that there is medicine that will potentially give me more years with my kids and grandkids.  The same analogy should govern our mental health.

You’re not alone.  It won’t always be like this.  One day Jesus will make all things new.  In the meantime, get help.

Mother of 5, career coach, and pastor’s wife Jenny Price muses on what she would tell her early parenting self if she had a time machine.

Professional Counselor and adoptive father Bradley McCallester joins me again to talk about strategies for using mistakes to train desired behaviors.