Suicide Prevention & Addiction Recovery
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and I know it’s important that we talk about this sensitive subject openly. A few days ago, my husband and I visited with, and tried to console, a grieving, single mother whose 25-year-old daughter died by suicide in August without any warning. The sorrow of suicide is unimaginable, and we must reach out and comfort those who suffer this kind of loss.
Once again, I will share the lyrics to the song I wrote with my son, Ben, “There’s a Reason to Live.” The story behind writing this song can be found on my website reasontolivesp.org. You can watch a lyric video for this song on YouTube. You can also listen to the song on Spotify and other music channels. Please share this with your family and friends, and ask them to share this important message, too.
THERE’S A REASON TO LIVE
On the other side the Savior stands,
But can you feel His outstretched hands?
He walks with you every single day;
His love for you never goes away.
Sometimes you feel so all alone.
Your pain is deep, and no one knows.
Your cries for help are kept inside,
But pray for Jesus to be your guide.
Hold on to hope for one more day.
With faith in Christ, you’ll find your way.
Courage and power will come to you
To help you make your dreams come true.
CHORUS
There’s a reason to live!
There’s a reason to live!
There’s a reason to smile;
You’ve been loved all the while.
There’s a reason to live!
There’s a reason to live!
FINAL CHORUS
There’s a reason to live.
Jesus wants you to live.
Please choose to live.
There’s a reason to live.
Additction Recovery
A contributing factor to many deaths by suicide is the use of alcohol and drugs. Excellent health—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually—can be achieved when you have a zero tolerance for these substances. Please read Bernadette Logue’s 120 Positive Affirmations for Health and Healing. She states:
Your mind has a powerful impact on your physical health.
Medical practitioners and scientists speak and write about it, and research is freely available to show you the incredible mind body connection. By training your mindset to new perspectives, you can support your body and wellness. By using positive affirmations consistently and repetitively you are guiding your mind to focus on health instead of illness, balance instead of imbalance, acceptance and allowing instead of confusion and resistance.
Affirmations for health that work through shifting your perspectives in this way, also create positive flow on effects in soothing and elevating your emotional state…
The use of alcohol and drugs, even occasionally, messes with our minds. We cannot become the person we know in our hearts we desire to be when our minds get off track while stumbling along the path of dead-ends and detours, which alcohol and drugs always bring.
Positive affirmations can help you overcome addictions. Inspiring music can also help.
I have a music album called, “Wings of Glory: Songs of Hope and Healing from Addiction” that can be listened to on my website or on Spotify and other music channels. Listening to these songs can give you the courage to change.
There are also many structured recovery programs available if you need them. The following are two programs that I occasionally attended with my son Jonathan, and they are free of charge.
My prayer for each of us is that we will always be free from alcohol and drugs and wake up each day with a clear understanding of our reason to live. Each of us has a mission to perform on this earth, and God will help us find our mission and sustain us as we accomplish it.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
—2 Timothy 1:7