5 Things to Do When Your Teen is Diagnosed with a Mental Illness

by Julia Greif Watching your child/teen being diagnosed and living with a mental illness is hard. This is something no parent wants to experience.  In fact, after being diagnosed many parents feel lost as to what is next. There are many things to do and not to do when you’re dealing with any mental illness.…

Read More

Beauty From Pain

  As parents of teens in crisis, all we see is pain.  That pain is evident through our teen’s struggles and hurts, through their mental illness, disorders, and addictions.  We also see that same pain directed towards us through the avenues of their behavior.   It is often very difficult to handle and we get emotionally…

Read More

I Can’t Take It Anymore God!

Feeling safe in her locked bathroom, she stood there in front of the mirror with swollen eyes. With a warm washrag, she slowly and meticulously wiped the tear-streaked mascara left on her face. Barely audible, she forced the words out of her mouth, “I can’t take it anymore God.” With uncontrollable sobs, she dropped to…

Read More

Judges and Attorneys and Courtrooms, Oh My!

So your teen is facing a felony, a speeding ticket, a drug offense or some other matter before the court.  As a parent, this is your first time having to think about lawyers and judges with possible fines and jail.  Your fear and anger is running rampant because your teen’s risky behavior or crisis led…

Read More

MERCY TREE

Christ came for the broken, the hurting, the imperfect.  He came also to heal your hurting and struggling teen in crisis.  Through the dark days, God is our Hope, our Light to guide through the unknown.   There will come a day in which disorders, mental illness and addictions will be no more.  God’s love…

Read More

I Will Trust in You

It’s hard us parents to see the dreams we have for our teens fading away when they are in crisis and are not doing what we had hoped for.  We are in constant battle.  Either keeping them alive, moving forward, or finding healing, this is what we are aiming for. Sometimes we run into mountains…

Read More

When It Rains It Pours

Sometimes it is hard to breathe…hard to think…hard to just keep going. Just when things seem like they are calming down, another crisis hits or more bad news comes. You can’t take this anymore. The downpour of problems coming one after another has you collapsing and crying out for relief. How much more God? This…

Read More

Is KIK Safe for Your Teen?

The KIK App has now claimed another child’s life. In this situation, it was through the luring of a young, vulnerable and hurting teen who was looking for friendship and a source of support because of bullying in school. Kik came on the scene about five years ago and today there are millions of app…

Read More

Silence.

It’s been days, weeks, months, and for some of you…years. Still you wait. You wonder if God even hears you. You have prayed and prayed and now have come to a dreaded conclusion in your mind. You have started to doubt in God. You imagine God lowering His head to listen to every word of…

Read More

Desperate Parents Who Think They Are Helping Their Teen

In the news recently was the mother who tried to buy a baby for her 14 year-old daughter who desperately wanted a child. Despite the fact of how very wrong this was, I did have some understanding of why this mother made the choices that she did. When you see your child hurting, you as…

Read More