June 1, 2025
Today we’re celebrating Mental Health Sunday! Here are some statistics on mental health. Nearly three in ten adults have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives and about 18% are currently experiencing depression.
The most commonly diagnosed mental disorder is anxiety disorders. About of third of Americans will experience anxiety sometime.
Half of people won’t get help with a mental health issue. If you have been battling – Depressed Mood – Loss of Interest – Sleep Problems – Difficulty Concentrating – Agitation – Restlessness” consider making an appointment with a doctor or counselor.
It’s not a sin to have a mental health issue! Jesus went around healing people; God wants wholeness and healing for all of us!
God is our help! When the world says you’re not good enough, or when you’re afraid of failure, God offers comfort and assurance. Meditating on God’s word and spending time in prayer helps us to slow down our world and reminds us of God’s everlasting love for us.
Today we’ll talk about building resilience and strengthening hope! How you can uplift someone and set them up for success!
The amazing thing about Jesus is when he looked at a person who was sick, an outcast, or someone who was looked down on, he saw strength where other people saw weakness!
His disciple Peter, who denied he knew him three times when Jesus went to the cross? But the risen Jesus looked at Peter and saw a church leader! He asked Peter to feed his sheep! Peter would preach on the birthday of the Christian church, which is next Sunday! Jesus didn’t see weakness; he saw strength in Peter!
Once, parents brought their children to Jesus for him to bless. The disciples looked at the children and saw weakness. They tried to keep the children from getting to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t have time for children! But Jesus looked at those children and saw strength! He blessed the children, and said to his disciples, if you don’t become like these children, you won’t enter the kingdom of God!
Another time, Jesus visited Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus. One day, Martha is crazy busy getting a dinner prepared for Jesus. And we’ve all been there like Martha where we want the people around us to help us, but they don’t. We feel like we’re doing everything and are not supported. It’s really good when people help! But Martha kind of embarrasses Mary! She goes to Jesus and says, “Tell my sister to help me!” Martha is trying to shame Mary, telling Jesus she’s not responsible, or helpful! We’ve all tried to shame someone to get them to help us.
Jesus took a different approach! He pointed out a strength in Mary: she chose to listen to Jesus teach. And he said to Martha, Mary gets to sit and listen, she doesn’t have to help. He didn’t look at Mary and see a pathetic excuse of a person. Instead, he saw someone with a great strength! She really wanted to listen to God! So, when you can put judgement aside for a moment, and see a strength in someone and believe in them, you can change their life!
Here’s an example of the big difference that seeing strength instead of only weakness can make.
Dr. Robert Brooks is a psychologist. The school would call him in to help students. He would go to meetings at the school, where the teachers, parents and their child would meet. At these meetings there would be a lot of discussion about the student’s disabilities, struggles and/or behavior problems. Dr. Brooks would sometimes feel depressed by these meetings. He tried to figure out why. And he realized he felt depressed at these meetings because it was all about the weaknesses the student has. He thought it might be better to discover and discuss strengths as well. So, he started to focus more on strengths.
A school asked him to help with the behavior of one of their students. This 10-year-old boy had ADHD, and he would come to school every day, and first thing he would either punch another kid, or else hide behind the bushes. Dr. Brooks met with the boy. He asked him, “What do you see as your strength?” The boy said, “I don’t think anything’s wrong with me.” Then he said, “I don’t think anybody can help me.”
Dr. Brooks asked him, “What do you like to do? What are you good at?” The boy said, “I love to take care of my dog.” Then the boy spent 45 minutes telling Dr. Brooks how to take care of animals. When it was time to go, he said, “Good session, doc!” Dr. Brooks was glad he so quickly found out this student’s strength!
So, Dr. Brooks went to the principal and asked, “Do you have a monitor for the animals at the school?” The principal said, no. He told the principal about the wonderful discussion he had with this student, who was a pet expert! The principal made the student the school’s first pet monitor, in charge of making sure the school rabbit and other animals were ok.
One of the weaknesses this boy had was he never wanted to write. His teacher told him there were no books in the library about taking care of pets. She asked him to write a book like that! He said, “I can’t do that.” His teacher said, “I’ll help you.” So together they wrote a little book for the school library on taking care of pets.
Then the school had the boy give a talk in every classroom about animals. He got positive feedback from the others kids, who were so impressed by his knowledge.
After this, the boy never hid behind the bushes or hit another kid. He said he used to punch kids because he would rather be anywhere but in the classroom, where he felt like a dummy compared to the other students.
Dr. Brooks says it’s important for parents and teachers to find the islands of strength a child has, to be very encouraging and help them use their strengths to address their weaknesses.
My homework for you this week is to tell someone you know, “You’re so good at________.” It will make them feel good! You’ll be a hope builder!
In Jesus’ time, people looked at sick people, children, and beggars and saw weakness. But Jesus saw strength! It’s easy to see weakness. Anybody can do that. It’s harder to see, and remember to encourage someone, over and over, about the strength you see in them. But when you do, you help bring out the best in them, build resilience, and strengthen hope! Amen.
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 