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Announcements:
Today we will begin session 4 of Me, Myself and Lies and I would have to title this message..Reaping the Harvest of a Healthy Mind
Let us pray….
Ladies I want to review the 3 goals for this study:
1. To recognize what we say to ourselves
2. To begin to refuse the lies we speak to ourselves
3. To replace old destructive self talk w/ powerful, life changing soul talk- that comes straight from the pages of Scripture.
I Thessalonians 5:23 let us turn there – Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will go one verse further verse 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it and …
I am a person that needs to understand words to truly understand a sentence. So I went to the dictionary and to Scripture to look up the words Reaping the Harvest of a Healthy Mind.
Reaping is an action word- a verb meaning receive a reward or benefit as a consequence of one’s own or other’s people’s action.
Words that are similar to reaping- to receive the harvest, to obtain the harvest, to get the harvest, to acquire the harvest , to secure the harvest , to realize the harvest and in this case the harvest of a healthy mind
In understanding the opposite of reaping we can appreciate the word reaping- the opposite is to lose or to forfeit and in this case to lose or forfeit the harvest of a healthy mind.
I am sure we all understand the idea of a harvest- the gather of a healthy , mature crop. This time of year we have seen harvest of pumpkins and apples at the local farms. 1 Thessalonians 5:1 states “concerning the times and the seasons…” and Paul was writing to the young congregation to continue their growth or harvest in the Lord.
Lastly in the phrase Harvest of a Healthy mind we need to define the word mind.
Mind can be defined as the part of the person that thinks, reasons, feels and remembers.
As I pondered each of these words and definitions God gave me this message for you today:
Take action or we will forfeit the harvest of a healthy mind.
Let me talk to you this morning about my area of expertise, mental health. . By definition Mental health is a level of psychological well-being, or an absence of a mental disorder;[1] it is the "psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment.
Mental health is the ultimate goal for each individual and yet we have a negative connotation in American culture and especially in the Christian community when we hear the words mental health.
We still equate mental health services or counseling with “crazy” “delusional” “less than” and many of us would not dare admit to even needing mental health services. This is hurting our church and it is hurting our community. Because we are not taking action to help our mental health we are losing the harvest.
Let me share with you some statistics:
According to research:
One in 17 Americans is diagnosed with a serious mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Since the decline of the economy in 2008 with the loss of employment, homes and high debt, mental health practitioners have seen an increase in prescriptions for mild to severe depression.
Because we are not seeking help for our mind continues to translates into us losing the harvest:
Medically we are seeing more illness manifestations due to mental illness about 15% of all visits
80 % of children in foster care have a diagnosiable mental health condition.
In 2005, half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health condition.
My Master level thesis was titled Does Adhd and Oppositional Defiant disorders if not treated lead to adult criminal behavior? The answer was yes. The U..S. Department of Justice estimates that 56% of State, 45% of Federal, and 64% of jail inmates suffer from mental illness.
Folks we are losing the harvest because we are not taking action to heal our minds.
When asked the barriers for treatment of depression in 2014 Americans stated:
40% said denial, they don’t have depression
38% said they are ashamed or embarrassed to admit they have it
31% refuse help, I don’t need help
29% said they lack insurance money
17% said fear
17% lack of knowledge about treatment
And what about the church you say:
Amazon released an article stating the most popular scripture in the Bible , as the Bible is still on the Best Sellers list:
It found that the commonly highlighted portion of the Bible is Philippians 4:6-7. Turn there with me this morning:
In the verses, the apostle Paul admonished the church, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Why this verse for so many people? Some speculate For those drawn to the verse because they may be dealing with anxiety or mental stress.
The New York Times and the Christian post featured an article about Pastors and said that Depression was becoming the new occupational hazard in the pulpit. As much as 80% of pastors have felt as some time like the Psalmist David unqualified and discouraged. Pastors stated with technology, social media and cell phones pastors are more accessible and stressed as ever.
Wayne Cordeiro wrote the book Leading on Empty to address this concern in leadership. The back cover reads “don’t let burnout get the best of you.” Cordeiro goes on to share in the book how hard it was to admit his depression as a pastor and church planter. Having planted over 100 churches, he found comfort in counseling and in scripture and penned his book highlighting the need for congregations to understand that pastors’ also get depressed.
We need to take action or we will lose the harvest of a healthy mind.
So besides my 15 years in the field of psychology, and the research I have shared. I know mental health is real because my family is a family plagued with mental illness not mental health.
You see I lived my childhood hearing my mother say things like “I wish I would go to sleep and never wake up.” “I wish I was never a mother” “I don’t know why God put me here to suffer such sadness.” My father used alcohol to drown his sorrows and depression being an adopted child whose mother was known as the town prostitute, he never found acceptance for himself or in his community.
My sister and brother attempted suicide in their teenage years due to claims of depression. both failing miserable by the grace of God, after their attempts spent time in hospital and treatment centers. My sister refused to come home after her time in the hospital and our youth pastor at the time provided her temporary shelter until she was able to return home.
And my brother also suffered with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and later was diagnosed w Bipolar depression that went untreated because my family refuse to medicate him or to acknowledge his mental illness. and he became a statistic. Barely passing high school, he decided to join the navy. he was discharged from the military within a few years and then made an impulsive and terrible decision that landed him in prison for the last 13 years . he was finally released earlier this year and is stable working a state job.
So when I say mental illness is real. I lived with mental illness and by every textbook and statistic out there I should be suffering from mental illness. And I have….
I dealt with seasonal depression, low self esteem and still deal with many residual effects of a family history of mental illness. So all of you are saying so why aren’t you crazy. I am but I took action.
God had a plan for my life and that plan was not a life of mental illness.
God maneuvered my every step. I played popcorn Bible and the verse Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty 2 Corinthians 3:17
answered the prayer of where I was to go to college and a few weeks later I packed up and went to Liberty University. at Liberty University as a college student I sought help and treatment. You see I grew up in the church, and prayed without ceasing but still suffered depression and began to ask God why , Being on a campus full of Happy Christians was very difficult. I prayed to God to give me help and God gave me great counselors in the form of pastors, youth pastors, teachers and finally trained counselors.
As an adult and a graduate student, right after having my own family, I went back to counseling to help learn strategies to help in this phase in life to include how to maintain sanity in marriage, how to resolve conflict without anger and I promised myself never to have my children experience what I went through with feelings of sadness and abandonment.
I began exercising and eating a good diet. I begin monitoring my sleep and making sure I dealt with stress immediately. I have my own version of God therapy , during my quiet time with God and I do things daily that help me,
for example I will sing gospel tunes with my soul and heart- my kids call it “mommies emotional singing in the car”. But God used Scripture and psychology to heal my mind, body and spirit.
God me gave a desire to heal people mentally as He had healed me. I teach college students online and on campus and I always share how it was a psychology teacher that influenced my decision to be a psychologist- helping people to heal their mind is my calling and my gift and to me next to being a minister, I have one of the greatest services to the kingdom of God.
I know that by the grace of God mental health is real. And we need to take action or we will lose the harvest of healthy mind.
You can take action too- which is why I am here today. Do not let the spirit of fear keep you from having the Peace of God, from having wholeness and completeness in your mind, body and spirit.
I want to help with the fear that is keeping us from the harvest of healthy mind before I leave today.
So let me tell you about counseling and what I do for a living:
Counseling as I say to the families I see “is like the old fashion cars that when they break down would just need some jumper cables and another car to get you back on the road.” Counseling is a process of helping individuals to be restored to mental health when they break down.
There will be forms to fill out with lots of questions. Yes. I need to know your “business” as many of us are afraid to share our history. I need to know because like me there may be a family history of mental illness that will immediately point me in the right direction for treatment and will have faster outcomes if I know what we may be dealing with. I train therapists and students to look for patterns of mental illness by asking the right questions right from the start.
Are we trained? Yes We are trained. The state of NJ requires that before a person can be in private practice they must have 7 years minimum of training, college and graduate school, and 3 years of supervision by a licensed supervisor. 4500 of documented hours. The nurse in the ER has less training than we do and yet they are saving lives every day.
We use a book called the Diagnostic Statistical Manual or the DSM that has over 50 years of research to support the criteria and mental health disorders we now treat. We have seen so much advancement in the last 15 years alone that we had the newest edition of this book come out w new diagnosis and treatment.
A very common fear is Do I need to take medications? No but for some mental health disorders we now know that there is a biological reason for your mental illness. Like a diabetic or a asthmatic, there are medications that help the body to function better. My daughter had to take medication for years due to asthma, thanks be to God she is healed now but I shared that with parents who would always ask me about medication. I trust the medical research why not trust the psychological research.
For example, anxiety is a disorder that properly treated with medication can see a reduction of symptoms with 24 hours. No pun intended, but do not be afraid folks God is with us and he has given us this knowledge to help heal minds and to reap the harvest. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control
We in the counseling settings also see exercise as it really is, the cure all next to God himself for many mental health illness. We are recommending increased exercise for ADHd, Anxiety, Depression, stress and other mood disorders. 30 minutes a day can help heal a mind, help rid off disease and restore emotional stability. Also looking at our diet and activities can also make a difference.
A wholeness approach is taken by every major managed care insurance company. Many individuals can not get psychtrophic medications renewed without seeing a counselor and a psychiatrist.
So what are the types of therapy? The most common approaches and ones that I use with the families I work with include cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and solution focused therapy.
Cognitive therapy- which states that thoughts, feelings and behavior are all connected (mind), and that individuals can move toward overcoming difficulties and meeting their goals by identifying and changing unhelpful or inaccurate thinking, problematic behavior, and distressing emotional responses.
This involves the individual working collaboratively with the therapist to develop skills for testing and modifying beliefs, identifying distorted thinking, relating to others in different ways, and changing behaviors.