There was a time when I struggled to get out of bed, which is why I felt compelled to share how to get through your hard season and find joy every day.
What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning? Is it the thought of quiet time with God, your family, sunshine, the rooster next door, an annoying alarm clock, the fresh smell of coffee, the need to make money to support the family? Or perhaps nothing, because you don’t want to get out of bed.
Have you been there? The feeling that nothing motivates you, that life is dull or bleak.
If you have too, you are not alone.
1 in 17 people suffer in silence, so chances are you or someone you know is suffering right now.
The season I dealt with depression was very hard.
My struggle was at its worse one cold winter morning. It was the time of year when the sun was gone and the days were shorter; when the celebrations of the holiday season were over.
I have never felt so isolated and distant than in that season.
Let me fill you in on my life at the time…
I wore a lot of hats; a business owner, planning another business venture, mom, wife and community volunteer. We had two moves within 3 years. The most recent to a bigger house in a neighborhood from what I could see didn’t have any kids or moms. The neighborhood park was run down at the time and my neighbors to one side of me were very disrespectful (all things we didn’t notice before moving).
It was a hard transition, but I thought I was adjusting well.
I told myself I was fine.
If I were being honest I wasn’t fine.
I became sad, withdrawn and it seemed the joy of life was gone.
My sadness was exacerbated by seeing the bare trees of winter, all the leaves from fall had floated away and all that was left was death. Thinking about the trees and paralleling them with the chaos from the world around me on the news and the chaos of my own stressed out life, made me feel overwhelmed with sadness.
I reached a point where I was sad over being sad.
How could this be I thought, I am such a positive person.
It started taking over and before I knew it, my depression took hold of me.
I couldn’t rationalize anything, I couldn’t reflect and I felt I had no way to make my situation better.
I felt stuck in my mind which was being controlled by my emotions. The reasoning part of my brain had obviously been subdued.
The horrible truth was that I was embarrassed to share what I was going through with anyone other than my husband.
I finally did reach out to a couple people close to me, and to my surprise, so many other women went through similar experiences.
I see this as a silent struggle for so many of us. My hope is that by reading this you will know that you are not alone.
We all struggle, but it is how you handle the struggle that makes all the difference.
Let’s face it life can be hard. Learn how to get through your hard season and find joy every day with these three easy biblical principals.
Trails make you stronger
The Bible tells us to rejoice in the suffering of Christ so that we may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13)
And to consider it all joy when we face trials, for they are testing our faith which leads to endurance. (James 1:2-4)
As a Christian, I used to think if I believe in God and live in his ways I will never struggle.
Nope, that is just not true.
We will all struggle with getting through hard seasons and finding joy every day, that is the nature of life. Life is filled with highs, lows and in between’s. It is our job to go through the dark days and then use what we learned as growth opportunities.
You see if I had stayed there in that season I wouldn’t be writing to you today. Instead, it was in this season I found God who helped me endure the suffering.
Seek Gods to help
I was reminded of Luke 22:27 “Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these”.
Have you ever looked at a wildflower, they are so beautiful. They don’t have to work, they don’t produce anything; they just grow. If God can make that wildflower grow he will surely help us grow, sustain us and give us everything we need to survive through the tough seasons.
Take off the mask
There’s this thing we do as women. Maybe we grow up knowing how (I know I did) where we don’t let people see the real us. We hide behind a mask and say things like I’m fine, it’s okay, don’t worry about me. The mask is usually covered in our pain, resentment, guilt or shame.
When we take off the mask we feel exposed, like everyone will know that we aren’t perfect.
We feel like we will be less of a person for going to therapy, living with depression, anxiety or any other mental health disorder.
It can be scary but when you take off the mask you are allowed to be vulnerable.
You wanna know what vulnerability leads to…
Finding out who you are in Christ! (It’s amazing)
Learning how to get through your hard season and find joy every day means trials will come, they are meant to make you stronger, know that seeking God is how you get through it and know that by taking off the mask you are allowed to be your real vulnerable self. With vulnerability comes God’s hand guiding you to be the best version of yourself.
