Mental Health Monday

Coping + Breaking News + Laughing + Thinking

          Here are four coping strategies that help me with my clinical depression & anxiety disorder.

1. Quiet time with the Lord. The first thing I do in the morning--after making coffee--is spend about an hour with the Lord. This includes scripture, devotional readings, & prayer. [When I was working FT as a Lutheran educator, I didn't think I had time for this. I was wrong.]
2. Writing. I write devotions for Orphan Grain Train. I keep a blog, which--theoretically--you are reading now.
3. Looking for humor. I look for newspaper articles that strike me as humorous. I like reading the jokes & humorous anecdotes in Reader's Digest. I read "late laughs" in the SAT edition of the Norfolk Daily News. I like funny movies. [Sharknado!]
4. I plan road trips. Lois & I have begun planning a trip to Glacier National Park next September. [You can never start too early.]

Breaking News!

From Norfolk Daily News (9/20):  "Bert, Ernie not Gay. The producers of Sesame Street want you to know that Bert & Ernie are not, in fact, gay."

Dept. of Shameless Joke-Stealing

From Reader's Digest (July/Aug 2018): Name actual responses to prompts on Family Feud that are so ludicrous they no doubt started real family feuds. Answer:  These.

• "Name a type of foreign money. Answer:  Monopoly.
• "Name a farm animal that the farmer may grow so fond of, he might not want to eat it. Answer:  Dog.
• "Name a place where you might see another person take off all their clothes. Answer:  The mall.
• "Name something a duck & a chicken have in common. Answer:  They both quack.
• "Name a place where it's smart to know where the exits are. Answer:  Church.
• "If someone tells you a secret, how many people do you tell? Answer . Five.
• "Name something you eat too much of. Answer:  Food."

Thought for today:  FREE IN CHRIST

“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”  Ps. 32:1

“The meaning is this:  No human being knew that the wrath of God is upon all men & that all are in sin before God, but through His Gospel He has revealed from heaven both how we may be saved from that wrath & by what righteousness we may be set free, namely, through Christ.”  Martin Luther Psalm by Psalm, Concordia Publishing House, 2017.