Wisdom for Mental Health

Lighthouses

Mental health challenges can make you feel like your mind is caught out in the open ocean. Some days are peaceful, while others are chaotic. Any day could bring moments of peace, terrifying storms, or aimless drifting.

How can we navigate our unpredictable mental health? And how can we move forward when we don’t know if our minds will cooperate with our plans, responsibilities, and dreams?

Let’s imagine we’re on a real ship in the middle of a violent storm. We don’t have GPS to guide us, and we don’t know if we’re about to crash into another ship or hit a rocky cliff. Our only guide is a small point of light coming from a lighthouse on the shore.

Lighthouses are helpful tools that sailors use to navigate. They don’t make storms go away; they provide guidance to help sailors make healthy choices.

What are your lighthouses? Who are the people you seek out when you feel down or anxious? What tools could help you find hope?

Over the next few days, we’re going to identify some mental health lighthouses. We’ll look through Scripture and discover wisdom to help us find hope, help, and direction. Let’s get started.

Lighthouse 1: Giving Yourself Grace

Your mental health is connected to many things, like your body, habits, relationships, brain chemistry, experiences, and spiritual life. Mental health challenges are complex and often out of our control.

Maybe your mental health has been impacted by world events or a recent loss. Maybe you have a clinically diagnosed mental illness, and you’re trying to find lasting peace of mind. No matter what you’re going through, your mental health challenges aren’t signs of weakness.

Maybe you’ve also felt shame, sadness, and embarrassment because of your mental health. If so, you’re not alone. But here’s the thing: God isn’t mad, frustrated, or embarrassed by your mental health. Instead, He wants to help you find hope and healing.

So today, breathe and give yourself grace. Regardless of the source of what you’re facing, God is with you, and He loves you.

Pray: God, thank You for being with me when I feel lost. Please give me strength through Your grace so I can find peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.

This devotional by Life.Church is available at Bible.com. (MCN)