Loss comes to us in different ways. One of the most devastating ways to experience loss is when it’s through a miscarriage. The promise of a new life that doesn’t come to full flower can leave one feeling confused, angry, guilty, and uncertain about the future. Understanding what happened can be a step toward finding healing and wholeness after miscarriage. Making sense of a miscarriage A miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a fetus before reaching the twentieth week [...]
Living a godly life as a single mother can be difficult. You may feel lonely, defeated, unsure of what to do or how to accomplish something. You can feel that things are unfair and become sad or angry. All of these are valid emotions that single mothers feel. Single mothers experience a day-to-day life of having to be mother and father, the one who makes all of the decisions and who does all of the work. Decision fatigue can [...]
Shame is one of the most toxic mental and emotional states that we as humans can encounter. It may be no surprise why the enemy uses this against God’s people to persuade us into believing less than what God says. It differs from the guilt that provokes remorse when we do wrong. Shame seeks to imprint itself on our identity, thus evoking a sense of being inherently wrong or bad. As a virulent enemy, shame damages our self-perception, and [...]
If someone were to ask you to describe the colors you see when you look at a variegated rose, would you be able to do it justice? Or if someone wanted to know what the burger you’re eating tastes like, could you convey the sensations, textures, and flavors in a way they’d get? In both cases, you could do a fair job of communicating what you’re experiencing, but it’s fairly difficult to express certain experiences such as depression through [...]
Chronic anxiety can create physical and emotional issues if not controlled. But events, tragedies, worries, and loss are a part of life. You cannot shield yourself from everything that feels uncomfortable or stressful, but you can lessen the effects. You need to know how to reduce anxiety for the rest of your life. How to reduce anxiety with lifestyle changes High blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity can develop over time from chronic anxiety. [...]
If you have ever wondered if you or someone you know may have a mental disorder, this article on the warning signs of mental illness could be for you. Mental illness is a broad term that refers to a wide range of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, or addiction that affect your mood and the way you think, feel, and act. They can be a source of intense distress that has a negative impact on [...]
Single motherhood can be one of the loneliest and most overlooked experiences any woman can face. Whether she is widowed, divorced, or has never been married, a woman who is parenting alone faces an array of challenges that a married parent does not. Although single parenting is much more common than it used to be, it often carries a stigma, including in the church. No matter how someone became a single mother, they are worthy of love, inclusion, and [...]
There are many misnomers around depression. One is that it is just sadness. Another is that it is rooted in a negative experience – a break-up, job loss, or something else. People think you can power your way through depression or just look on the bright side and things will be better. But as anyone who lives with this pervasive disease can tell you, none of those above statements are true. There is such as thing as functioning depression. [...]
Having a best friend for life can be a blessing. That blessing, however, is if the friendship is a healthy one. At times, an unhealthy dynamic of codependency friendships is mistaken for committed care for one another. Knowing the difference between the two can make all the difference. What’s at the heart of codependency in friendships All good relationships have at their heart the mutual care and concern that ought to mark interactions between people. When it comes to [...]