What to do while you wait for counseling
By Lisa Keane, MAMFC, LPC-S
Pathways Professional Counseling
When our Pathways offices have a waiting list, it is hard because we know people are hurting, and we know they would not be calling us if they did not need help right now.
Current trends in mental health, even on a national level, are showing there are not enough mental health providers for the number of people seeking counseling.
In addition, the rates of anxiety and depression, likely linked to the pandemic, are increasing. More hurting people are out there than the number of professionals to meet their needs.
At Pathways, we know the waiting is hard. We know it is not ideal for you, for your family or for your children.
In light of these realities, we want to provide you with some tips and ideas that may help, if you are in a waiting season.
- Add your name to multiple waiting lists.
- Think about and write down your goal for counseling, symptoms you are experiencing and how you are currently coping with the situation. Not only does this help you organize your thoughts, it makes your first counseling appointment more efficient.
- Focus on your eating, sleeping and movement. Begin to look at how well you are feeding your body, keep a log of or monitor your sleep patterns, and maintain or begin activity to move your body. Don’t feel that you need to overhaul these areas, rather you can start to observe and examine how your physical habits are affecting your mood.
- Seek out trusted friends, clergy or family to be your support as you wait. Ask them to pray for you and with you about what is going on in your life. Ask them to check on you and share with them what you need while you wait.
- Start a journal. Begin by simply writing how you are feeling that day or tracking your mood/activities. Also include things you are grateful for in your life. It is helpful to focus on what is going right or is good when a great deal around you seems to be going wrong.
- Be willing to see a therapist via Telehealth (over video).
- Look for articles (at pathwaysprofessional.org) addressing the area in which you are struggling.
Sacrifice of Jesus ‘once for all’
Once for all.
This phrase is used often in the book of Hebrews to describe the sacrifice of Christ. He is the Great High Priest. He is also the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
Simultaneously, Jesus is both the One offering the sacrifice and the sacrifice itself. His priestly work was better than anyone before or after. His blood that was shed is different from any sacrifice ever made.
Over and over again, year after year, sacrifice after sacrifice was made on behalf of people who could never have their guilt completely removed by the blood that had been shed. That is, until Jesus came along and made the perfect sacrifice.
“Once for all” means the sacrifice for our sins will never have to be made again, ever!
If animal sacrifices could have accomplished the work of saving people from their sins, there would have been no need for Jesus to be our sacrifice. These insufficient sacrifices (and the priests who offered them) were but a shadow of Jesus and His perfect sacrifice.
Thanks be to God for sending His Son, our Sacrificial Lamb! Believers can have confidence that all of their sins are forgiven, not just some of them.
John Owen said, “God was completely pleased, satisfied and highly glorified in and through Christ’s offering; for had this not been so, Christ’s human nature would not have been immediately exalted to the highest glory possible.”
Now, King Jesus sits on His throne, having accomplished the will of the Father to rescue people from their sins. One day a multitude in heaven will be singing “Worthy is the Lamb!” to the One who made the sacrifice, once for all.
Pastor Andy Frazier
Grace Baptist Church, Sumiton
Evangelical Press Association Best in Class — 3rd place
The Alabama Baptist recently placed third across the nation in the religious newspapers category of the Evangelical Press Association’s mid-year competition.
One judge noted: “Clean crisp cover. Images are good. Best one on the cover. Clean horizontal lines. Good headline sizes with subheads for clarity. Like the look of the yellow shirt army. Writing and coverage of the tornado outbreak was interesting and thorough. Getting the weather man profile on the event was an unexpected but good addition … wonderful coverage of the tornado outbreak, preparing for the next, what happened, the weather man and all. Very comprehensive and well done. You also met your goal of covering need-to-know news items. Great balance.”
A second judge said: “I love the separation on the cover. The typefaces and color were fantastic. The image of … the hurricane effect was really informative.”
“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
German theologian, author of “The Cost of Discipleship”
As followers of Christ, we desire to live obediently and pursue righteousness above all else, trusting in the Father for all our needs and wants. An eternal perspective changes our desires.
Trust solely in Christ. He reunites us to the Father.
God is sufficient enough for every other longing in our life. The presence of Christ is the power and wisdom of God.
Ryan Christmas
Minister of missions
NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville
This world is not a very happy place right now, but when you open the pages of the Bible you find a different world. It’s not a make-believe or pretend world. It isn’t a world that is trying to get an escape for us from the realities of this world.
He recognizes this world is a mess. It’s a mess because of our own evil, but God has given us promises for every contingency and that’s the great message here. The promises are greater than the problems. The promises outlast the problems.
Pastor/author Robert Morgan
I was reminded of what the Church is called to do. Let’s be reminded to stop going to church and start being the Church.
Pastor Brent Rawson
FBC Satsuma, Ala.
Alabama Baptists have done a great job staying focused on the Great Commission, evangelism and making disciples. Hopefully we can maintain that culture.
Pastor Buddy Champion
FBC Trussville, Ala.
In the refugee camps, I saw a lot of children. I decided to teach them Bible stories using sports.
Hector Cabrera, a global missionary partner with IMB who serves Sudanese refugees living in Uganda
Hear me, Church: we can never go and find “who’s our one?” if He is not our first one.
Pastor Ted Traylor
Olive Baptist Church
Pensacola, Fla.
Instead of walking up to a single mom and patting her on the back and telling her, “You can do this,” why not teach her how to biblically?
Shea Lowery, longtime Alabama Baptist who created a single mothers ministry recently at FBC Dallas called Strong & Courageous.
Your coverage of persecuted Christians has really touched my heart over the last months and years. Very instructive that you are hitting on that issue in the paper, and I think that’s a good thing. Thank you!
Bob Cosby
Birmingham, Ala.
Suffering in life is actually “street cred” for the gospel, because everybody understands what it means to hurt on some level.
Ed Litton, SBC president
Redemption Church, Saraland, Ala.
Because we are made in His image, we have value in and of being His creation. We felt like that was a message God wanted us to share.
Pastor Davey Lyon
Imago Dei Church at the 45, Haynesville, Ala.
From the Twitterverse
@haines_matt
Pastor friends, today we have one of the greatest of all honors — to stand before the people of God and proclaim the word of God in the power of the Spirit of God to the glory of God. Focus on faithfulness and clarity, not perfection and performance.
@dandarling
The worst decisions are made when leaders are isolated and emotional.
@brocraigc
“Churches have to die to self, or they will die.” —Mark Clifton
@ricklance
Often we pray for unity in our homes, in our churches and in our country. Perhaps we need to pray for stability, which can bring about unity. Without stability, there is no unity.
@BillWilks
The greatest sin of omission in the church today can be defined by two words. It’s our personal failure to “make disciples.” To make disciples is not a good suggestion, it’s our Great Commission.
@LysaTerKeurst
The more alone we get with lies, the more confused we become. Let’s call or text a trusted friend & invite them to speak truth into our heartache and confusion. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to speak truth to us through God’s word. Let’s invite Jesus into our deepest pain.
@shane_pruitt78
If you win people with gimmicks, you have to keep them with gimmicks. Eventually, you run out of gimmicks. If you win people with the gospel, you keep them with the gospel, and you never run out of the gospel.
@ethicist
Sometimes restlessness in the heart of a believer is not caused by sinful discontentment, but by a righteous longing for heaven.
@JackieHillPerry
If you don’t transform your pain, you will always transmit it. Someone else has to suffer because I don’t know how to suffer; that is what it comes down to. —Richard Rohr
@DanielDickard
I’m convinced that we need less spotlights, leadership manuals and self-help formulas in the church and more humility and dependence on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
@pastorjgkell
If you do not want to fall off a cliff, do not walk along its edge. Don’t flirt with sin … Flee to Jesus; He will keep you safe.
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