To the Christian Mom With Depression

To the Christian mom with depression, 

You’ve been told to just be grateful; that you have a beautiful family and God has blessed you greatly. 

You’ve been told to pray harder and you’ve believed that something must be wrong with your faith for you to struggle this much. 

You’re irritable, you’re angry, and you have no motivation or drive to do anything. You just want to sleep. 

And you’ve thought, “God, what did I do to deserve this? You must not love me if you’re letting me suffer so much . . . “

You may even doubt if there really is a God but let me tell you something, Mama: God has not abandoned you. 

Nope, not even for a second. 

You are not ungrateful.

You are not being punished. 

There is nothing wrong with your faith. 

We live in a broken world. You may have a hormonal or chemical imbalance in your brain that is causing your depression. That doesn’t mean something is wrong with your faith—it means your body is the issue. And maybe that’s not the case for you. Maybe you’re going through something really hard and it’s situational. Maybe you’re experiencing some serious grief and that’s okay, too. God will carry you through it all either way. 

He is close to the brokenhearted; He’s not forgotten about you. 

He loves you and you are His. 

He turns it all for good. Might be hard to see it now, but He will. 

And there is nothing wrong—and I do mean absolutely nothing wrong—with accepting help in the form of counseling and medication. God does not want you to suffer alone and He’s equipped others to help you. 

But I want you to hear this from someone who once upon a time, wanted to put a period in her story and end it all: God will never leave you and you are never alone. 

There is hope for healing, Mama. You’re not forgotten about and you’re not unloved. 

Depression is a dark tunnel, but there is light at the end. 

Take it from someone who has been there, I promise. 

Yours truly, 

A mama who has battled depression