Give your loved ones the sounding board they need to process how they feel.
4. Keep Living
Love hopes all things …
“It” is real, but it doesn’t have to be the 24/7 center of family life. Keep your daily routines and annual traditions to maintain a sense of order and rhythm to life. The idea isn’t to pretend nothing is wrong, but to remind you and your family that life is still worth living. Help your loved ones see the meaningful enjoyment of small accomplishments and family games, Sunday sermons and trips to the beach. Make fun together. Make memories together. Laugh together.
5. Pray Together
Love bears all things …
Pray with them. For them. Out loud. Few things will fire more warmth and trust in a relationship than the simple act of asking God to help your loved one. A childlike plea will do. Often, the very act of praying for a loved one in need becomes the answer in the moment of need.
6. Get Used to It
Love endures all things …
Life as you knew it may be interrupted for a while. You may have to become a caregiver and life coach for a season. You may be needed at 3 a.m. to sooth a panic attack. You may have to make time just to help your loved one walk outside, to experience the sun and grass and flowers. You may need to do the laundry, at the last minute, just because. You may need to attend counseling or a support group. Maybe because he wants you to, maybe because she won’t go without you. You may have to become more than you imagined you could.
But, love will endure all this and more.
Overwhelmed Thinking About How to Help Someone with Depression?
Where will you find the inner resources to love this way?
I’ve found that I have to rely on God in order to truly know how to help someone with depression.
I have to bring my weakness to Him to ask for His strength. I have to confess my inadequacy to ask for His sufficiency. I am the average husband and father who makes mistakes, speaks too harshly, listens half-heartedly, who sometimes just doesn’t get it.
But God is great for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. God will pour out the Spirit of Christ to fill you with His love, patience, kindness, endurance and all that you need to love the struggling person in your life well.
And even if this season of life lasts longer than you can imagine, set your hope on Christ’s promise of eternal peace and rest beyond the present suffering. Trust Him for this.
He is great, even when life isn’t.
This article about how to help someone with depression originally appeared here.
