If the tongue is a double-edge sword, the pen is a grenade with the pin already pulled.

~Shell Vera

Today is World Mental Health Day and in honor of preserving our mental health and addressing any issues that we have to deal with, I want to remind us all that what we write on social media, in email, through text, in letters, and in our journals lives on beyond the moment. A word spoken in anger can cut down and injure; a word written down for the reader to see as often as they desire can lead to suicidal thoughts or worse.

Be kind. Use your mouth and your pen (keyboard) to speak hope into this world.

As I’ve said from the beginning,

“Hear hope. See possibility. Speak love.”

~Shell Vera (Tag line when my business and blog was called “Eyes Straight Ahead”)

There is no room for hate in this world. Anywhere.

For those of you struggling today, the world still needs you. Seek help and become your best version of you. A mental health diagnosis doesn’t mean the end. It just means now you have a starting point toward true healing, whether through medicine or a miracle one day. Start with what’s practical and then build up as you get stronger. There are too many people praying away what needs to be medicated in the name of Jesus’ stripes. Those same stripes died for the scientists, psychiatrists, and osteopaths who help people by using the full realm of science to diagnose the whole person. As you start to feel better thanks to the science, you will begin to connect on deeper levels spiritually and will be able to think more clearly about the path forward. We need you; don’t give up.

*National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
*Crisis Text Line: Text “home” to 741741

For additional encouragement that you aren’t alone, visit these posts from my first blog, Eyes Straight Ahead and my current creative lifestyle blog, The Essential Creative.

• To the Person Ready to Give Up On Life and Who Needs a Reason to Live
• Using Essential Oils to Deal with Difficulties and Emotions
• Dear Person Who Has Been Hurt by the Church (If your hurt and depression stems from an incident that happened within the church)