What could cause a life to seem no longer worth living? What could cause a miraculous creation to decide one more day just isn’t possible?
It would be so easy to dismiss ourselves from this conversation, assuming our families are immune from that darkness. It would never happen to us. We’re too happy, too blessed, too close. But let me assure you, none of us are dismissed from this battle, and it is a battle.
Suicide. There, I said it. Taking your own life to end the pain, to avoid another day, to escape a reality that feels impossible to continue. And let me assure you, no matter how happy you are, no matter how good you know your life to be, there are circumstances that could bring you to this darkness. Maybe you’ve felt the touch of that darkness before, or maybe you haven’t. But I assure you, it is there.
It is there for you, and it is there for your family. And here’s the bad news, you can’t insulate your family from ever facing those pains that would cause this hopelessness. Yes, it happens to the good kids. Yes, it happens to the ones who go to Church every week. Yes, it happens to the families in the big houses with all the fancy toys. Yes, it happens to the families with good marriages and dinners around the table. Yes, it happens to college degrees, successful careers, and beauty queens.
Yes, freaking beauty queens with a crown on the perfect body, a high rise apartment in New York, and everything a girl could ever dream of. Then there is darkness and hopelessness that makes a beautiful soul like that feel life is no longer worth living.
We can’t make that darkness go away. We can’t dish out hope that will guarantee you to never feel the feelings of hopelessness. But maybe there’s something we can do to take away the tool the enemy uses in that darkness. Maybe we can fight the battle by cancelling the very thing that would be used against us in our weakest moment.
What if suicide were just taken off the table? Seriously, what if it were no longer a viable option? What if a promise was made to NEVER, EVER, regardless of circumstances, end your own life.
Why? Why make that promise when the reality is there may come a day when you feel like you can’t continue? Here’s why you make that promise now … for any and every person who loves you. What you may not understand is the complete devastation your willful exit would create for everyone who loves you. The questions, the guilt, the grief is nearly unbearable. You need to know that, and you need to understand you can keep that from ever touching them.
How? Decide now, suicide will NEVER be an option for you. Ever. It’s not on the table.
I know the questions after someone you love ends their own life. I know the guilt and the grief. I’ve seen it take it’s toll in families, and I’ve seen it’s gruesome work in my own family. My husband lost his own father to suicide. He was a good man, eaten away by regret, who one night decided everyone would be better off without him, and he took a bottle of pills never to wake up again. While he never woke up, let me tell you, his family wakes up every day to the nightmare left behind. That is not a pain he would have ever wanted to create for his sons.
Sometimes we will do for others what we won’t do for ourselves. If you can’t live for yourself, then honey live for anyone who loves you.
This is not a pain you would ever want to create for the people who love you. Decide now, SUICIDE WILL NEVER BE AN OUT FOR YOU. IT’S NO LONGER ON THE TABLE.
Scripture says in 1 Peter 5:8 “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
The devil is your enemy. He opposes you. He is against you. He is against your life and the continuation of your life. And any weapon that is left on the table for him to use against you, will surely be used. If the option of ending your life is available, you better believe your enemy will twist truths, whisper his lies, and paint his pictures of sheer hopelessness until you are convinced your life is no longer worth living, and then it will be used against you.
So, as of this moment, it’s no longer on the table. We decide, no matter the circumstances, no matter what may come, I will never make suicide an option. Ever. If I can’t find a single thing in my life worth living for, then I make this promise for the people who love me. I will not leave them with unbearable and unanswerable questions. I will not put this grief and guilt on them. For the sake of anyone who loves me, I will never do that to them.
Did you know suicide is the #2 cause of death in teenagers? And did you know when there is one suicide, it typically sets off a chain reaction of more suicides within those schools and communities? It’s called suicide contagion, and it’s real. You need to know about it.
Understand what happens is one suicide creates awareness. Awareness is good, right? Unfortunately that awareness can act as a tool put on the table of others, and now it’s a viable option when facing the same hardship. It’s even a subconscious connection of problem and possible solution.
In my kids’ highschool, a 14 year old boy from a good family was fighting battles no one knew about. He ended his own life. The entire school honored his life, as they should have. Memorials and gatherings, ribbons and balloons. However, what I didn’t know as I stood there with my 3 teenagers releasing balloons, was this weapon of the enemy was being placed on the table of options for my youngest daughter. I didn’t know the connection was being made within her brain at that moment of hardship equals a way out. Struggle equals the end. A few short weeks later, hardship happened. I’m talking about life-altering hardship for a 13 year old girl. Innocence preyed upon, rumors spreading, guilt and shame that weighed entirely too much for a young girl to carry on her own.
So, what did she do? She resorted to what she now knew. And what did the enemy use? The weapon laying on the table. Because it was an option now within her mind, it was a weapon now for the enemy to use. She tried to end her life. By the grace of God she survived. And I can tell you, this family still deals with the pain it created every single day.
What’s not talked about in the wake of losing someone is the sheer disaster it has created for the people who loved them. If you could see that disaster, I promise you would never want to leave that for your people.
But in a moment of weakness, when everything is so hopeless, you’re not thinking right. My friends, that’s when the enemy swoops in and picks up the weapon on the table and uses it against you. So right now, you take it off the table. THIS IS NOT AN OPTION. Because of anyone I love and anyone who loves me, I will never resort to ending my own life.
Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy …”
Yes, that thief is the same enemy who prowls around like a lion. His goal is to steal, kill and destroy. Steal every hope of life being better. Kill every ounce of fight you have left in you. And destroy the good plans God has for you.
You may not be able to change what happened in the past, stop the bullies at school, or fix overnight what is broken here. I can’t either and oh how I wish I could. But you and I can take the weapon the enemy wants to use against us, and we can throw it away forever. He will NOT get my life. I will not give him the never ending grief of the people who love me. I will not reward him with the pain my suicide would cause.
Now, the good news is the rest of that verse spoken by Jesus, John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Jesus is here offering you life. Not a little life, a BIG Life, life to the full. It is still available for you, and it will be available for you beyond this current darkness and hardship.
Your decision to take the dangerous weapon of suicide off the table ensures the enemy won’t be tricking you into forfeiting all Jesus has promised you. You won’t be creating that pain for your family. Nor will you be showing a single other living soul suicide is a viable option. You’ll be LIVING. The people who love you are so grateful!!!!!! You just have no idea.
Good choice! I’ve decided with you!
National Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255
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