Some Thoughts during Suicide Prevention Week

It's National Suicide Prevention Week. A year-ish ago, one of my friends from college started posting very startling things to social media. Many of us who know this person connected so we could pray and encourage this friend to stick around on Earth. Thanks be to God, this friend is still around and brightening the world with a presence and prayers :) After this whole incident, I began thinking about how sad it is that a few people (like myself) had let this one friend slide by, not really communicating until we saw things go way downhill. 

I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or an expert in anything, but I know that this is not the way to do things. 



Suicide prevention should not only take place on the bridge as you encourage someone to step away from the edge. Suicide prevention needs to happen in our homes, neighborhoods, communities. We have to build relationships with other people so that if they experience suicidal thoughts, we will be able to see the warning signs and get them the help which they need. Furthermore, we need to learn to love and care about others way before they are at the brink of death. How many people do we pass by and shun, not bothering to listen to them until they are about to commit suicide? We need to love others as Christ loved us. All day, every day. Even if a person drives us crazy...especially if a person drives us crazy. 

St. Teresa of Calcutta (woohoo! She's a saint now!!) said it so well: 

If we really want peace for the world, let us start by loving one another within our families. Sometimes it is hard for us to smile at one another. It is often difficult for the husband to smile at his wife or for the wife to smile at her husband. In order for love to be genuine, it has to be above all a love for our neighbor. We must love those who are nearest to us, in our own family. From there, love spreads toward whoever may need us. It is easy to love those who live far away. It is not always easy to love those who live right next to us. It is easier to offer a dish of rice to meet the hunger of a needy person than to comfort the loneliness and the anguish of someone in our own home who does not feel loved. I want you to go and find the poor in your homes. Above all, your love has to start there. I want you to be the good news to those around you. I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know who your neighbor is?

So get out there and love some people today. Let's save lives, transform the world, and imitate Christ! 

P.S. Please say a prayer or two for Oklahoma City. I live in a hole (#hobbitlife), so I only just heard about the new abortion clinic that is opening this weekend. Oklahoma has not seen a new abortion clinic open in 40 years (the last abortion clinic closed 2 years ago) and OKC is the largest metro in America to not have abortion facilities. I am so, so sad and disturbed that this is happening. Abortion is not healthcare (it kills babies, people. Why is this even a debate?), it is so damaging to women physically and emotionally, and it kills babies (again, why is human life not something that we can respect?). With the Satanic stuff that has been going down in OKC within the past couple years, I'm not entirely surprised that the clinic is opening. Anyways, God always triumphs over evil, so I know that He will bring some good out of it, and this is a great encouragement to sacrifice and pray for an end to abortion! 

P.P.S. Happy Birthday to Mama Mary! We're not doing a birthday cake for Mary at our house (I've been eating way too many sugary carbs lately!) but I have blueberries in the freezer, so I'm going to figure out some blue treat to eat in her honor. Someday, I'd love to throw an all-out party, but I'm just not at that point of organized-ness yet.