The Life Challenges Podcast
Modern-day issues from a Biblical perspective.
The Life Challenges Podcast
When Mental Illness Gets in the Way of the Gospel with Theresa Kramer
Pain doesn’t disappear because we can quote the right verse. Together with licensed counselor Theresa Kramer, we unpack how faith, psychology, and everyday community can meet mental illness with compassion and clarity. We talk about the difference between brain and mind, why your nervous system hijacks your best intentions, and how Scripture speaks to real suffering without minimizing it. Theresa offers practical tools for grounding and emotion regulation, guidance on when medication can help and why it isn’t a cure, and ways to build boundaries and skills that actually stick.
We also spend time on the moments that feel faith-shaking: grief that won’t lift, prayers that feel like they bounce back, and seasons when belief and darkness coexist. Rather than measuring faith by feelings, we anchor in passages that validate our limits and point to God’s steady care, including Psalm 88, Romans 8:26, and Colossians 3. Theresa explains how validation differs from agreement, why “don’t worry, just trust God” often fuels shame, and how listening without fixing opens the door to change—especially with adolescents navigating independence without a fully developed prefrontal cortex.
This conversation is a toolkit for pastors, parents, and “regular” Christians who want to help. You’ll learn simple, concrete ways to show up: sit in silence, send a specific written prayer, offer practical help, and encourage professional care when needed. No quick fixes, no spiritual bypassing—just a grounded path that honors both God’s Word and the realities of the human body and mind. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. What practice keeps you tethered when your feelings go offline?
The ministry of Christian Life Resources promotes the sanctity of life and reaches hearts with the Gospel. We invite you to learn more about the work we're doing: https://christianliferesources.com/
On today's episode. In kind of preparing for today, I was looking at some scripture pieces and I I love Colossians 3, talking about clothing yourselves with compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience. When I hold on to that, there really's there's nobody that I sit in a room with that I can't see through God's lens. Not perfectly, but that that is my prayer, right? Help me to be genuine and authentic with each person that you bring to me, Lord, knowing this is a gift that I get to sit in spaces that they would actually trust me with some of the most vulnerable pieces of themselves.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the Life Challenges Podcast with Christian Life Resources. Our world today presents people with complicated issues of life and death, marriage and family, health, and science. It can be a struggle to understand or deal with them. We're here to help by bringing good information and a fresh biblical perspective to these matters and more. Join us now for life challenges.
SPEAKER_02:Hi, and welcome back. I'm Krista Potratz, and I'm here today with Pastor Bob Fleischman, and we have a special guest with us today, Teresa Kramer. Welcome, Teresa. Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, we're really excited to have you here today, and we're going to be talking about mental illness involving mental illness and when that gets in the way, or potentially maybe gets in the way of sharing the gospel and the gospel message. But before we get into today's topic, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, Teresa?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, sure. So I am a licensed professional counselor. It's a big phrase. We could just go with counselor, right? Um, I'm currently with Walk by Faith, Christian Counseling. I've been practicing for about three years. Prior to that, I was in Christian education for about 18 years. And amongst that time, also married, have four kids, get to be oma, grandma. So those are just a lot of ways that I use my time. Getting back to my current role as a counselor, though, I find a lot of meaning, I guess, in walking alongside people in their journeys. Uh I was blessed to have some experience specifically focusing on folks with eating disorder challenges during my internship, which opened a wide world to looking at what else is going on for folks struggling with that. Because that is like an outside behavior that you see. But really, there's a lot more going on with depression and anxiety and and other mental health elements. So that was a real gift and blessing to have those experiences. Also have some personal and professional connection with loss and stillbirth. I don't know. I I the more I've gotten into the field, people have said, well, maybe you'll find certain niches, but I really don't have one. I really like working with anybody. I see children, up to 80-some-year-olds, couples, individuals, family, anybody who would be willing to share their story with me and invite me to walk alongside them. I I think it's a it's a humble calling and a high calling to get to serve people in that way. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be trusted, to walk alongside folks.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell You genuinely um appear to love people. I mean you you love listening to them and so forth. So what's the what's the toughest type counseling? Someone who's wrestled with eating disorder myself and so forth, I understand how that's a challenge. As a pastor, I've had marriage problems, children problems, just disposition issues, job issues. What have been the particularly tough ones? And then I g the the follow-up question's gonna be why.
SPEAKER_03:So two things come to mind with that. Some of my adolescent cases are the most challenging, and I'll and I'll get to your why when you ask. And then the other side of that is when you're working with someone who there seems to be a block in them being able to tolerate hearing or seeing or tugging at some strings that from from my professional perspective would probably be a blessing to them because they seem to be stuck in a pattern that's not helpful. But when there's an unwillingness to go there, that kind of just leaves us both stuck because I firmly believe the best counselors aren't behind shoving someone forward or in front tugging them along. They're just walking alongside at a pace that fits that person. But when things stall out, that's just heartbreaking because, like, oh, you see so much potential and we're just at a stuck point.
SPEAKER_01:I I know, and more from um both from a pastoral perspective, but also from just my work at CLR. My experience has been that people would love it if everybody else changed to fit them, but they don't realize that the only one you can control is you.
SPEAKER_03:Aaron Powell And barely that, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. No, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and um I don't know if you want to answer Bob's why on the um adolescence being challenging.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, but well, that that is because they are like when you look at just human growth and development, they are in a tumultuous stage of trying to gain independence and figure out what that is, but not having full frontal lobe development, all of those aspects, right? And so you're trying to join with them and help them clarify for themselves what their values are and what kind of person of character do they want to be, what are they contributing to these things not going well. And you have parental figures to be connecting with, and trying to build a therapeutic alliance with all those parties can be really difficult because inevitably, and now we're back to like it's easier to look at the outward, like they're the problem, not me. And so it can be a challenge to get in that space with everybody, to have to just dial down the intensity for everybody to be willing to pause and take a look at yes, that what they're doing isn't helpful and it's triggering or bothersome to me. And what I'm contributing to this also impacts other people. So building that awareness and awareness is step one. Then are you willing to consider doing anything about it? And then would you join with me in being part of the solution? Because I'm not there to give advice or craft the perfect, oh, you just need to do this. I can ask questions and help you discern what might be a good path forward. I can cheer you on, I can bring you back to skills or different principles that we've talked about in here that generally serve folks well and and help you to learn new ways of being. But you're the one out there in the wild doing the hard work. And I have to honor where everybody's at with that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, as we uh transition a little bit into the topic talking about mental illness. Can you just maybe give us a little background or just a snapshot of what we mean when we talk about mental illness? What are we really referring to?
SPEAKER_03:Sure. So physical illness is something that we're much more comfortable with, right? When somebody has the flu or a broken arm or is having some vision issues, we can often readily identify that there's some sort of symptoms we can see. We can put some sort of care on that, on the outside. Mental health is when we're ailing on the inside. And sometimes, depending, you know, that most things exist on a spectrum, right? So if somebody's struggling significantly, we're gonna see aspects of that on the outside through their behavior, whether they are lashing out or isolating, things of that nature. And also there are many aspects to mental health struggles that we keep hidden, partly because there might be some shame associated with that. I feel really strongly about that in Christian circles to help break down the stigma around having mental health struggles and being a Christian at the same time, because there has been a notion that, well, if your faith was just stronger or if you were in the word more, you wouldn't be having these struggles. And I just I don't think that's true. And I know we'll get further into that in the discussion today, too, of like that God has lots to say about our mental health and well-being, which to me is an indicator that he knows full well that we'll struggle with that, right? So mental health is when you're ill on the inside, and sometimes it comes through on the outside, and and there are a variety of ways that we can tend to that, and that's what going to counseling can often help people get in touch with. Are there some coping skills and things that they could acquire for that? Are there some other ways to come around their struggle, maybe some environmental changes and things that could be a blessing?
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell I've I've always found it interesting how quick we are to seek solutions to physical ailments, and then we shy away when it comes to mental ailments. And like you had said, sometimes talk that, well, if you had more faith and th that kind of thing. But it when you look at Scripture, Scripture doesn't talk a whole lot about medicine in terms of um real obviously. Yesterday I had to answer a question having to do with letting God be God and we shouldn't be using chemicals, we shouldn't be doing this, we shouldn't be doing that, that mentality out there. And but I point out that there's all sorts of references, you've just not seen it, because we we live in an environment where we think of medical, oh, I'll go to the hospital, I'll go to the clinic, I'll go, I'll see a doctor. And of course, none of those really were around in that sense. We had Luke as a doctor, but I I look at some of the my favorite always was King Ahab, who did not want to consult the Lord's prophet, because his his bottom line reasoning was, well, he's just always saying bad things about me. You know, he didn't want to listen to it. And that's a quantifiable mental problem. I mean, you're just so so your solution is that you won't listen to it, even if he's right. No. And of course what he's doing. Well, and when the prophet tells him, you know, well, okay, this is what's gonna happen. You're gonna die in battle. And then you know what he says? He says, see, I told you we shouldn't have gone talk to him. He's always saying bad things about me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I mean, that's but that's uh that's the mental health side of thing that comes out.
SPEAKER_03:Cognitive distortions, right? Taking the thinking gets twisted. And that is something that I feel we're gonna talk about God's healing and what God has for us, but we also need to recognize like our enemy, the devil, works within any avenue he has, and certainly our mental health, our our mind, right? I think we're looking at this difference between physical health and mental health, and we have physical structures, we have our brain, and so there's some different theories where we talk about your brain is like your I describe it to especially my adolescents or people who are new to counseling. Your brain is just your thought-making machine. Just because it makes a thought doesn't mean it's good or right or worth acting on. And we as people of faith, when we read scripture, it doesn't talk about the brain, but it talks about your mind, right? And so recognizing that your brain is going to produce all these thoughts, but our mind is that's what we choose to hold on to in those narratives that we create. And the devil can certainly mess with that. And also we have God speaking in scripture about bringing our burdens to him or not leaning on our own understanding and trusting what he has for us because we cannot think our way out of things, certainly not mental health issues and not a lot of significant problems and crises. We need to be in community and we certainly need to be in the word for guidance around that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think you had kind of touched on this a little bit too, but just thinking like, oh, the word of God will heal everything, or you just need to read the Bible more, or that type of thing. I think as Christians, we're comfortable thinking of the word of God as being pretty much all powerful. Why, why is that? And also, like, is that true? It is. Scripture tells us that, right?
SPEAKER_03:Multiple passages. So looking at Isaiah 55 tells us that God's word accomplishes his purposes. Hebrews 4 talks about God's word being living and active. And in Psalms talking about, well, multiple Psalms, but 19 in particular, about God's word reviving the soul, right? God speaks to it. And for those of us that have leaned into that, we have personal experiences with that. Or as a church community, we hear others speaking to how being in the word was a source of comfort for them. So we have some lived experience around that, plus God's promises around that.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell Well, and the Apostle Paul, uh, my favorite part of Paul's writings in Romans 7, where he talks about the good that I would do that, I do not, the evil I would not do that, I keep on doing what a wretched man I am. And mental health and therapists deal with the fact that that we're all wrestling with it. I've said this, uh, especially a lot of the stuff I've been writing in the last few years, is that if there's anything that I I've learned, you know, through the work that we do here at CLR, and that is we need to be a lot more introspective. You know, I it's easy for me to sit in the bleachers and you know figure out if Krista just changes a little bit this way, you know, it should just be that much easier to get along with, you know, and if and if and if you just you know but I mean we we always act that way. I just I become real big on just finding understanding. That's where I think in the in the role of what you do, Teresa, is that you help people begin to understand themselves. Quite honestly, there's a little bit of a shell game on when people begin to think that, well, if they just change or if we just do that, all you have to do is move and you're gonna have all the change your mind can handle. I have read the historical book, I'm a big history buff, one history book after another, that says if you want a dramatic change in your mental health, go from rural to to urban. Yeah, I mean, it just all of a sudden, if you were inclined to want to live the free and wildlife, but you felt tied down in the rural, go to the big city. You can go be crazy as you want. It'll also mess you up. In other words, those outside changes really will control you. But what what what your real problem is is it's not them, it's me.
SPEAKER_03:Well it's that internal restlessness, right? And so like God's word is powerful and active, and we are mind, body, and spirit. So we have this thing called our nervous system that weighs huge on how we function, and including our thought processes, bodily sensations, regulating emotion, all of those aspects. We have this nervous system that works against us or for us. And so part of what I get to do is educate people on how their autonomic and their parasympathetic and nerve sympathetic nervous systems work and how knowing how God created us, we can harness some of the blessing and some of the ways that God intended for us for functioning to help settle that restlessness that we have.
SPEAKER_01:One of the issues I want to touch on, you know, I want to make sure we touch on, is a lot of confusion that I when I talk to people, especially nowadays, everybody feels, can we just take a pill? You know, I'm having I'm depressed. Can you give me a pill? I'm, you know, I'm I'm I'm too hyper. Can you get can you calm me down? Can you and uh first of all, there's different levels and and there's counselors, there's psychologists, psychiatrists, and so forth. When somebody comes to you, how do you how do you help them navigate, first of all, you know, because I think a lot of people I talk to really do think there's gotta be a pill for this, isn't there? You know Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and that that comes down to their their suffering, right? They're they're miserable, they just don't want to be experiencing this anymore. And I I have compassion for that, absolutely. And kind of getting back to that spectrum of experiences that we have, sometimes medication is necessary, but other times uh it's really not. And that takes some time to discern. In either case, though, when someone takes a medication, if it's determined that actually like the degree to which you're struggling with this, it's not even really reasonable that we could expect you to learn some coping skills or apply them because your anxiety is off the charts, right? So we introduce a medication to kind of dial down the intensity so that when you're in session, so that when you're with family, you can put into place some of the skills and things that we've been working on to give you a chance to practice. That's that whole mind-body-spirit connection, or you think about any sort of hobby or sport or something that you want to be proficient in, you need to spend time doing it. But if there is a barrier to someone's mental health where they are so impaired that someone's maybe been so depressed and getting out of bed is just they don't have the wherewithal to manage that. Or anxiety or OCD or something. Sure, we can br introduce a medication to try to bring some relief, but medication alone isn't going to solve anything. We have some opportunity to give you a set of skills where you can grow more proficient, you can gain a sense of accomplishment, you can be more effective in your relationship and learn to manage a lot of what used to overcome you without needing to rely on that medication. Perhaps it will be a long-term medication that really is a case-by-case basis, but the whole intention is not to take this, we'll just mask your symptoms and I'll send you on your way. I don't, I'm not even a prescriber. That's not part of my level of care. I meet people in the trenches where let's talk through this, let's give you some outlets for starting to process what's going on. And that can look a lot of different ways. Sometimes a medication isn't needed. Sometimes you just need to be in a space with somebody who's gonna give you 55 minutes of undivided attention. They're not gonna be on their phone. We can go where the conversation needs to go. I I'm not an art therapist, but I dabble a little bit in using some of those creative experiences to help somebody unlock something or find an image that helps them find the words to talk. about what's been going on. It's really just curating a space that feels safe and without judgment that lets them start to wonder, do some of that introspection of, I wonder what it would look like if we spent some time on this.
SPEAKER_01:Trevor Burrus Well and I like what you said about the role of medication basically not curing, but dialing dialing down. And I mean we on a very practical level at New Beginnings, we we encounter this a lot. We get a lot of residents at New Beginnings that are bipolar or something like that, and they're on medication. And one challenge that we always have and that is the consequence of the medication. You know, there's always side effects. And so the side effects all of a sudden we'll have a resident who starts g getting very unruly or something and we can't figure out what's going on. Well the I always tell staff, you know, check to see that they're on medication because it's very common for them. They're they're tired of constipation. They're tired of bloating they're tired of the trots they're tired of all sorts of sleeplessness, whatever it is, and they've determined in their mind that it must be their medication and maybe it was. So they go off of it. And then of course you can't work with them at all. Then they're yeah. But once they're back on it, then we can begin to do what we do.
SPEAKER_03:Well and to your point too like that's I I'm all about truth, right? So helping provide that education to someone to know like the medication is an option and this is the threshold that it helps. And then when we cross this line of there are legitimate side effects that you might like you need to know about if you're going to make a decision. And it's also part of the reason that I encourage folks like let's use this for a time and hopefully it's not a forever because these other areas that could come into play with some physical ailments, I wouldn't want you to have to manage that forever either, right? So let's see if we can get some skills on board, if we if there are relationships that you've been a part of that are really detrimental to your mental health and well-being, let's talk about how you how we can put some boundary in place or put some support. Well we're always going to be kind, but sometimes our type of community that we're in or if we have a lack of community, that's something that I help folks identify also and that and that's something that God speaks to as well like carrying each other's burdens, being in a sense of community. We're not meant to do life alone. And so sometimes helping people walk through those other outside influences are can be helpful as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah I think sometimes too when people maybe well intentional people that don't have mental health issues just feel like people that do, okay, they just they need to trust God more or they need to just be be like give it you know just give it to the Lord just you know don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01:Um and which by the way skinny people do that to the heavy people all the time. They don't understand why you know why we're always you know having trouble with eating and that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02:And you know and and so it can come out of a good place. I mean we we do want to trust God more we do want to give him our problems. We do want to do all that but what is maybe kind of missing there or the piece that is just maybe that people aren't aren't seeing or don't know?
SPEAKER_03:Well I think God has a lot to say about how we navigate life with each other, right? And Jesus of course modeled this perfectly but there's so much value what when we are trying to walk alongside someone who's struggling whether they realize it or not, whether they're asking for our help or not some ways that you really can't go wrong is if you are able to hold space for them to just listen without trying to fix anything when they're so hard to it's just going to say that that's the hardest thing but but people aren't problems to be solved. We all have problems but we aren't here to solve each other. The Lord only knows how to put all those pieces together if you think of us each as a puzzle, right? So we can sit with someone just listen don't fix. Another really valuable skill is learning how to validate someone if you're telling me about an issue that you're having Krista with I don't know Bob with Bob did you know that you were here for Bob and I today? So you're you're telling me about some sort of struggle that y'all are having going on to validate you in that moment isn't for me to agree like yeah Bob's the worst. To validate you is to find what aspects of what you shared with me can I genuinely empathize with and offer you something like I can see how you would feel that way because I can tell the podcast means a lot to you and you just want it to go well. I'm not trying to fix anything between the two of you I'm just saying like I hear you and I I can appreciate that that would that would weigh on your heart and mind. That would be hard.
SPEAKER_01:If we keep at this Krista she's going to send us a bill I'm sure of it. Well the and when you when you talk you know I've always thought the life changing you know there's certain scriptural passages that really mean a lot to people but the one that always seems to jump out at me is Philippians 2, you know, and humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also the interest of others. How how valuable is that passage in counseling I mean from a from a professional perspective?
SPEAKER_03:Because in the world of mental health comparison can really mess with people. In in kind of preparing for today I was looking at some scripture pieces and I I love Colossians three talking about clothing yourselves with compassion, kindness, gentleness and patience when I hold on to that there's there's nobody that I sit in a room with that I can't see through God's lens. Not perfectly but that that is my prayer right help me to be genuine and authentic with each person that you bring to me Lord knowing this is a gift that I get to sit in spaces that they would actually trust me with some of the most vulnerable pieces of themselves and help me be the Jesus light. He was patient God our Heavenly Father is long patient all throughout the Old Testament too but when you're looking for like how do I put a face on that read how Jesus interacted with people yes he had he had teaching moments and he would bring law and he would talk about expectations of like for behavior change. That's part of what he did. But if you're gonna have an opportunity for that kind of conversation first you need to just show up human to human knowing like by the grace of God your stuff isn't my stuff. I have my hard you have your hard from one human to another I care about you. That's what everybody can do for each other.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So what do you think we pastors should be doing better in this regard in our relationship with counselors.
SPEAKER_03:Well I think that there's a great opportunity to partner in that way. I think like that analogy of the three-legged stool right you have your church community which is just the the general folks right like we were just talking about you have pastors who have that deep scriptural knowledge where pastors stand at a great opportunity to come alongside people to share those those pages those sections in scripture that do honor the fact that we suffer and there's a time for mourning and that God knows that we will have times of overwhelm. So the the Romans passage is it 826 where he talks about how the Spirit can intercede when we don't even have words. So he can change our groans inside the fact that a Christian finds themselves in that state so depleted not even knowing how to put words to it for a pastor to validate that and and sit alongside them with that, that's so he to not give somebody the impression that they need to work more on their faith or that somehow they're not Christian enough, like God speaks to that. He knows that we're going to struggle so a a pastor that can validate that and continue to bring somebody back to the truth and the groundedness in God's word. Depending on the situation that's a delicate walk I think for many cases in the most significant health struggles you're playing a long game with people. I know that's something that I try to keep in mind also that this isn't about me and my performance just like it's not on a pastor just like it's not on a congregation member to fix somebody all we can do is be present, be faithful, be kind. My education gets into the nervous system parts and coping skills and I could I could bore you with a bunch of facts on DBT and ACT and like the pillars and concepts there. Those are all the books on my library shelf and I have that in my mind when I'm sitting with people I'm blessed to have participated in Christian education my whole life taught in that realm for 18 years and then pivoted towards this I also got to raise four kids which comes with its own set of challenges right so life background and these the skill set of things that I'm developing from my master's program and the privilege of sitting with people I think that and what congregation members do and pastors being able to be that steady anchor in God's word is living and active and powerful. But it's not magical it doesn't override your human experience of your nervous system being you know functioning with that fight, flight or freeze sort of reaction that we can find and helping reassure somebody that even though you're struggling to this degree, God sees you, he has compassion for you, you're not outside of what he has for you because shame is a huge driving force for people. So as anybody working in ministry whether it's pastors, teachers, parents that I sit alongside, really helping people choose their words and their tone and their timing carefully so as not to put a layer of shame over what's already going on. Because chances are the person you're sitting with that child, that adult, that couple whatever, there's a bunch of shame laced through there because the devil is just so good at what he does.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of really great stuff that you said there. I think you know one of the things so I mean not really necessarily mental illness but um uh I've gone through grief before. Yeah. And that was really difficult for me from the standpoint of having been raised a Christian you know my whole life and just knowing like oh God's always there for you and and and I think too like when you've been a Christian your whole life you um you I mean there are times where it has felt awesome to be a Christian. And so I mean I know like you know we try to separate the like okay God isn't a feeling and you know he'll and that type of thing. But but you know you remember those times like where it's been awesome and wonderful. And then you know when you're in the trenches with grief too um the pain really hit me very hard. Yeah. And I it was a very big struggle to sit in pain and to realize that I still had faith. Like that was really hard. That was a hard hard place to be and I just wonder if maybe there's some similarity in that with mental health issues too when we talk about some of these things because you know you're you're feeling maybe one way and and I mean maybe it is tied to how you feel about God too like maybe you do feel like God has blindsided you or given you something that is really difficult or that type of thing too. But you know maybe you still do really have have faith and know that God is all powerful and he's there and you still believe in what he's done for your salvation. Maybe moment to moment you go back and forth. Yep. Yeah yeah and so um I don't know just having walked through that and feeling like that how your body and how you've talked to about like all these things that your body goes through and that and dealing with with pain and loss um but still having that assurance that God is with you too.
SPEAKER_03:A beautiful representation of that like internal tug of war in your soul for moments like that. Psalm 88 the writer talks about being a believer like I believe and yet I'm in this great darkness and I'm crying out to God but I can't feel anything coming through. And it's it that holds both of those right like I'm I'm looking to you Lord but my body and mind like I I'm not feeling it for the I've got so much suffering at this point. It's like I can't absorb the things that used to so easily penetrate my soul and mind it's it's not working or feeling like it did before. And that's a very human experience and the devil would look to capitalize on that for sure. Yes. And so a good Christian counselor and a pastor and good Christian friends can help anchor somebody into their scripture into the word to just say like you're not you're not alone you are enduring something so hard and and God's heart breaks for that Isaiah talks about like God binding up the brokenhearted right it breaks his heart to see his children suffering.
SPEAKER_02:We never want that for us and in a broken world it's just going to be part of the paths that we walk we can be there for each other and point each other back to him reminding of that truth whether we feel it or not we've talked a about Christian counselors and we've talked about pastors and we've touched a little bit on other people but as we kind of bring it all together here too just giving our listeners maybe some some tools or some important things to think about what what it means maybe for like a just I don't know quote unquote regular Christian who isn't a a pastor isn't a counselor. How can they help people with with mental illness? Sure.
SPEAKER_03:So I have some bullet points that I just kind of collected for like a some tips and tricks, right? That's probably putting it too concise, but show up with compassion right be there of genuine interest. Listen without fixing validate what you can if there's opportunity to offer practical help do that. Maybe they need help getting some daily things done but like if that's part of their burden, what a gift to get that gallon of milk or to pick their kids up after school or something, right? If there's a tangible thing you can do, don't underestimate that encourage professional care where needed that is it maybe takes a little bit to kind of get a handle on someone's situation. Not everybody who's struggling is going to need professional counseling and at the same time I also say counseling isn't just for when you're in crisis there's there's some real value whether it's a friend who's really grounded in the word pastoral counseling life coach a therapist like myself you're gonna go through seasons where it's gonna be such a gift and blessing to have that resource so if you find as a regular person that's air quote there you're you're you're sensing someone really struggling and going through a hard season try to earn the opportunity to know them, to walk alongside them long enough that you have an avenue to suggest if it's going to be time to bring in somebody on a professional level. To just throw Bible passages at something or to say like you need some help that's not compassionate at all. So we want to actually invest in others as we can bear burdens together. Again you don't have to fix it but sometimes just holding space for someone to share what they're going through is a bright spot in their day. And if they bump into that more often than they ever got to before that can have a significant impact on them to just know that somebody remembers, somebody notices. If you don't have a lot of time, right? That's one of our most precious commodities to actually go out for coffee or something like that with people don't underestimate a handwritten note that you could send to them. You don't again you're not fixing you're just saying I'm thinking of you or I prayed for you today. And on prayer that's a such a powerful tool I went to a workshop a couple summers ago I don't even remember what it what it was but one of the premises that came from that is this idea that we often tell people I'll keep you in my prayers or I'll pray for you. But what would it look like to actually send them the prayer right? We have text we could easily do that. Or if you're if you're a hand, you know, write it down by hand take a picture send them that photo there's something really powerful that we can share with each other that I took a moment to do this. I didn't just say I'm gonna pray for you like this is what I what I said to the Lord on your behalf today or what my hope is for you.
SPEAKER_02:Well um thank you so much Teresa you've given us a lot to talk about or think about here with with all of this stuff. And I know I mean there's probably a lot more we could talk about with all of this too but thank you so much. And um if any of our listeners too have any questions on this topic um you can reach out to us at lifechallenges dot us on our website and we'll we'll give them to Teresa. No we But um no, we would appreciate any questions or comments, and we'll get back to you. Um thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you back next time. Bye.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for joining us for the Life Challenges Podcast from Christian Life Resources. Please consider subscribing to this podcast, giving us a review wherever you access it, and sharing it with friends. We're here to help. So if you have questions on today's topic or other life issues, you can submit them as well as comments or suggestions for future episodes at lifechallenges.us or email us at podcast at Christian Life Resources.com. You can find past episodes and other valuable information at lifechallenges.us, so please check it out. For more about our parent organization, please visit Christianliferesources.com. May God give you wisdom, love, strength, and peace in Christ for every life challenge.
