Devotionals for the Heart: Hope for the hard moments in our life story

In the Hardest Moments
A devotional by Jessica Brodie

Have you ever endured a challenge that turned out to be the greatest blessing in your life?

My daughter is 16, and about seven years ago she was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. A couple of years after that, depression started. The last several years have been difficult, and though this last year she’s been in a really great place, this season has taken a toll on me emotionally and physically. I’m her “person”, and I’m in the trenches with her. It’s not easy.

Mental illness runs in my family. Like heart disease, high cholesterol, and cancer, some people are simply genetically predisposed to it. Thankfully, I knew how to recognize it. My daughter was an extremely challenging toddler with sensory processing disorder and very strong will. In the third grade, she started going almost daily to the nurse’s office at school for a stomachache and dizziness. Fast-forward through a lot of specialist appointments, lab work, and counseling, and we finally discovered it was anxiety. She was having panic attacks (disguised as overwhelming stomachache and dizziness), and we were able to get her the help she needed.

Then puberty kickstarted her depression, and it was touch and go for a couple of years. Today she’s thriving in her faith, extremely mature, and a great student attending a virtual charter school. While she has not perfectly mastered managing her moods, she certainly knows how to do so better than I did at her age.

Walking through her mental health journey wasn’t easy for her. It also wasn’t easy for me, for my marriage, and for our whole family, but we committed to fighting through and we’re on the other side now.

Getting to the other side took learning and relearning so many critical lessons and skills, such as listening, healthy boundaries, and the importance of structure and self-care. It took rereading the Bible through the lens of mental health. It also took phenomenal doctors, counselors, and Christian mentors.

Now I’m so grateful I was able to walk through this journey with her because it taught me so much as a person and as a mother. It also taught me a ton about God’s incredible love for us. Not only do we have the gift of salvation, but we also have a personal Savior—a Savior who’s not just there for the big stuff but the difficult everyday moments, too. He’s there in our grief and our pain, our depression and our heartbreak, our good times and our bad times. He might not take that grief or pain or sickness away, but He’s there with us, walking right next to us. There, right there, in the trenches with us.

During the hardest moments of our family’s mental health journey, I didn’t always “feel God” right there with me every step of the way, but I trusted that He was there. I also knew He spoke and cared through the people He sent to help us through. And looking back, I saw the evidence.

That’s how it is for so many of us. Most of us have experienced struggles in our life, but often it’s only later, when we look back, that we can often see God’s Hand clearly. Hebrews 4:13 tells us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (NIV). And 1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Sometimes we go through situations and we’re so grateful to be done with them that we don’t look back. We think we got through because of “luck” or our own hard work. But consider today the beautiful, personal, and sometimes intimate ways God speaks to us and walks with us through our most painful moments.

If you are in the middle of a difficult season right now and you doubt God’s walking beside you, thinking you’re maybe in all of this alone, pause. Breathe. Take a look around. Ask Him to speak to you or show you a sign. Then watch as his love comes to life. Amen. Thanks be to God.

Let’s Pray: Lord, thank You that You care for me so personally. Even in those times I can’t see You or feel You, help me remember that You are there. In Jesus’s Name I pray. Amen.

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Author Bio:

Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist, author, blogger, editor, writing coach, and devotional writer with thousands of articles to her name. 

Since 2010, she has served as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism, which has won 123 journalism awards during her tenure. Her latest book is Preparing Our Hearts: An Advent Devotional to Draw Closer to God at Christmas.

She has won more than 100 writing awards. Jessica is a seasoned speaker and frequent contributor to Christianity.com, BibleStudyTools.com, and Crosswalk.com, among many others. She has a weekly faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com and is part of the team at Wholly Loved Ministries, with her work included in many of their devotionals and Bible studies. Jessica also produced a free eBook, A God-Centered Life: 10 Faith-Based Practices When You’re Feeling Anxious, Grumpy, or Stressed.

Jessica holds a Master of Arts in English. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in communications/print journalism from Florida International University. Born and raised in Miami, Jessica now lives in Lexington, South Carolina, just outside Columbia. She has also lived in Ohio and in the mountains of western North Carolina. She and her husband, Matt Brodie, have a blended family of four teenage children and stepchildren.

Jessica has written several novels and is actively seeking publication through her agent Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the 2018 Genesis contest for Contemporary Fiction from American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and her novel Tangled Roots won a third place Foundation Award in Contemporary Romance at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in 2019. She is finishing the third in the series, Hidden Seeds, now.

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Connect with Jessica:
Website: https://www.jessicabrodie.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessicaJBrodie
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Devotional by Mary Manners: Is Today Really Necessary?

My dear writer friend Mary Manners pays her first visit to my blog today as our official devotional writer! As I mentioned in a previous post, Mary will contribute one devotional to the blog every month starting today! :)

Traditionally, the posts will be published on the last Monday of every month.

I hope you will enjoy visiting with Mary. She has a wealth of wonderful wisdom to share that I believe will encourage you in your journey through life. 

Enjoy! :)

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Is Today Really Necessary?
A devotional written by Mary Manners

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."~James 1:2-4~

My dad has always been my hugest inspiration. Long ago, when I was barely a teenager in the early days of my middle school journey, I came home following a particularly rough day to find him sitting on the front porch waiting for me so he could ask about my day. I joined him on the concrete landing and he spent a good hour listening while I vented about the trials and tribulations of being a thirteen-year-old in a cruel, cruel world. I imagined he had no idea what I was going through, since he couldn't have possibly ever been as young as thirteen. Little did I know!

The next day, Dad came home with a small treasure for me--a poster with the most forlorn-looking bloodhound sitting in a washtub full of soap bubbles that had been dumped over his head. The caption read, "Was today really necessary?" 

Dad helped me mount the poster in a place of honor on my bedroom wall, and then we sat together and talked some more. That's when I began to understand the power of adversity in shaping who I am as well as my life's path.

Today, I use the trials of my life--both the small inconveniences that jab like bony fingers along my rib cage as well as the tsunamis that sweep through to wash away any semblance of sanity--to shape and mold my writing. Characters come alive when their story is infused with nuances of my personal trials. In daily tribulations I find a never-ending fount of inspiration. The passion to write the next story burns continuously inside me, and with every detour that comes my way I know that the round-about will lead to another exciting chapter.

My dad succumbed to Non-Hodgkin lymphoma thirteen years ago, but his memory is alive and well in the poster that has traveled with me through the decades. It now holds a place of honor on the wall across from my office desk. Each time I glance up to read the caption, I smile and think, "Yes, today is really necessary and thank you, God, for allowing me another breath, another test…and another chapter."

REFLECT: God is the master of the universe. He hears our every cry and knows the deepest desires of our hearts. His plan is for good, not to harm. Trust in this and carry on.

PRAY: Dear Lord, please help me to trust in Your will and Your plan for my life. Help me to be fearless in each trial and heartache that comes my way, knowing fully that you hold the paintbrush for the universe, and with each careful stroke You form the path of my existence.