Hi Everyone!
Thank you for your patience, it’s been a few weeks since I posted. I wanted to keep consistent with the blog, however, life gets in the way occasionally. I know this time of the year is busy for everyone, not just me.
My husband and I have been attending a course called Family Connections put on Sashbear Foundation. This week was our last session. It has been an amazing course, that I highly recommend for anyone who has a family member with emotional dysregulation. Our family has suffered from PTSD, anxiety, depression and mental illness. I went seeking a way to connect with my one son who has Bipolar, and I walked away with so much more. The course was jam-packed with so much good information and filled with practical application. One of the concepts they taught, that resonated with me, was the idea of Radical Acceptance.
I know this time of the year can be a hard time for some. I remember all to well the first Christmas I was alone with six children. I was trying hard to make it a good holiday and fun for the kids, yet all along I knew we were all hurting. Their Dad was not home and there was no hope for restoration.
I feel for all those who have lost loved ones and are facing Christmas with a loneliness that can’t be filled. My heart cries out for all those who are suffering from illness, are distant from family, who are suffering financial hardships, who feel alone, and for those suffering with mental illness. Let’s be reminded to care for those in our lives who find Christmas to be the hardest time of year.
As I walk a difficult road right now with a family member struggling with mental illness, I am reminded this season that Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God with us. He came as a baby and grew into a man, humbled himself and walked among us. He came down from Heaven to be among us to show us his love in the most tangible way that we would understand, When the angel said Jesus is to be called Emmanuel… God wanted us to know that Jesus is God with us. He saw the suffering of humanity, felt as we feel, and showed us His love.
I want to encourage you as I have been encouraged. With God on this journey with me, I am embracing what the Family Connections course has taught me on Radical Acceptance. It is similar to the Serenity Prayer, which my one daughter loves. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We don’t have to like the reality we live in, but in order to reduce our suffering, we accept it.
In accepting our reality, it enables us to truly trust in God for what we cannot handle on our own.
The verse God brought to my attention this week was Psalm 46: 1-3
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (NIV)
Sometimes it feels like life is falling apart, like the earth has given way under the weight of our problems. Yet, God is our refuge and strength, our ever-present help in times of trouble. In the midst of the chaos of our lives, God is with us…ever-present. So, as David said in Psalm 25:1, “In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.” (NIV). He is close to the broken-hearted, and I know He is God with us.
May God bring you peace this Christmas! May you feel His presence and know He is with you.
Blessings,
Andrea Vestby
Hardest Time of Year - Lyric Video