Suicide, Depression, and the Gospel

The latest research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding our kids and suicides are quite alarming. With mental health issues like anxiety and depression on the rise among our kids, it should come as no surprise that more and more kids are opting to choose the darkness of self-inflicted death, over a life which to them seems inescapably darker. Since the start of the covid pandemic in 2020, the suicide rate by firearm among children and teens ages one to eighteen had risen by eleven percent. Parents, we need to teach our kids that on several occasions Jesus told his followers they could expect pain and persecution. The Psalms are full of the moans and laments of human suffering and emotional misery. But all of God’s Word points to the fact that God does not leave us alone in times of trouble. In Psalm forty-six one we read these words of truth and comfort: “God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble.” Teach your kids to lean into the hope of the Gospel.