Christ Is Relevant to Depression

relevant: having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand; affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion. (Webster's dictionary)

This is how Amanda tells her story about finding Christ relevant to her depression.

God has taught me to be more dependent upon Him through a struggle I’m having with depression. I tried to find my love, joy, and peace in people. It didn’t work. I felt disappointed. I tried to find it in my job. It didn’t work. I felt dissatisfied. I even tried to find worth and value in how I looked. And again it didn’t work. I have too many imperfections. The only way I could find my love, joy, and peace is through Christ and Christ alone.

I’ve let this struggle with depression almost destroy me. Life the past five years has been somewhat miserable for me because I was trying to find my worth and value in things other than Christ. I spent many days lying in bed thinking, “how could God love someone like me” and thinking, “I have no purpose.” Thankfully, God has helped me to change my thoughts in so many ways, although it is an area where I’m still healing. I now know God loves me and know that He does have a purpose for me.

I am a Kindergarten teacher and have been for 5 years. The first few years of teaching I didn’t really think to pray for my students. I mostly focused on myself and what I could or couldn’t do. These years were not my best because I had my focus in the wrong place. Not having God in the center of my life caused me turn inward and because of this I ended up depressed.

It’s only been recently that I’ve changed my perspective in my job and can now see the reasons why God has placed me in a classroom full of 5 & 6 year olds. I’ve learned that I should take time to pray for my students and their families every day. I am there to make a difference in the children’s lives and want to share God's love with them. Teaching my students their ABC’s or to count to 100 is important, but not as important as them knowing God loves them.

My purpose is to be His servant and to be dependent upon Him in every area of my life. I just have to remind myself each day to keep my focus on God and off of myself. I pray for God to give me strength to make it through the day, because without Him I couldn’t get very far.