{"id":6137,"date":"2019-10-22T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastorbrad.blog\/?p=4672"},"modified":"2025-07-29T19:56:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T00:56:30","slug":"my-mind-is-a-fixer-upper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freshhope.us\/es\/my-mind-is-a-fixer-upper\/","title":{"rendered":"“My Mind is a Fixer Upper and Still Under Renovation” by Katie Dale"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s this popular Facebook group military wives are into these days. It\u2019s where they post pictures of their amazing farmhouse and contemporary decorated homes. It\u2019s called White Walls. I go there for inspiration and to rest my eyes on some aesthetically pleasing d\u00e9cor. I get jealous of the magazine-like photos a lot of the group members post. I think to myself, \u201cHow do they make it look so good?\u201d They are the home d\u00e9cor advocates of clean and simple spaces. I\u2019m over here looking on, wishing I had it all together like that. They make renovations look so easy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m guilty. As a mental health advocate, I make my recovery look easy. In that, I\u2019m also guilty of contributing to stigma. I ignore how my friends and church family and even my husband are really doing. I haven\u2019t gone up to one single person since I can remember and asked them out of genuine care and concern, \u201cHey, how are you <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> doing?\u201d I guess I am scared to hear the truth of where they may be at. Could their \u201cmental home\u201d be cluttered? Do they keep emotional baggage and outdated memories like a hoarder?<\/span><\/p>\n

When I think of how little mental health is talked about in my own life, I get scared. Why would I be a mental health advocate online if I can\u2019t even care enough about my friends and family in person? There\u2019s something amiss. I need to take a long look inside and find some compassion. Sometimes I tell myself I\u2019m great and got it all together. However, in reality, my mental health is under renovation. Yes, I\u2019ve put a lot of work into making it better, but it\u2019s still not finished.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of how seldom a conversation with another church member, heck even my own family members, goes beyond the stuff of our plans for the week or our opinions on other people\u2019s choices or our usual complaints and surface conversations. I\u2019d like to know what it\u2019s like to be a true friend to someone else. I can\u2019t keep this front up forever. It\u2019s like applying some white-washed photo filter that lets the light look just perfect and yet there are deeper issues \u2013 like inefficient heating and cooling or clogged pipes.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I confess, I\u2019ve been out of touch with the reality of other people\u2019s wellbeing, others who I should care about and really be genuinely concerned for, but am not. I\u2019m guilty of wasting time and effort making small talk and not getting to the nitty gritty. When was the last time I was honest and vulnerable with someone? Aside from the first therapy visit I went to last week, it\u2019s been too long. I discovered I have lots of inefficient heating and cooling going on. There are clogged pipes, among other broken things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where to from here? Do I throw my own pity party and sit quietly in the corner hoping someone see me? Do I throw my hands up and forget the purpose of maintaining my mental health and advocating for others who aren\u2019t aware enough to? Or do I go out of my way to find that person struggling with just as many doubts, questions, misguided beliefs and cognitive fallacies and give them an ear, or a shoulder to cry on? Sometimes people without a vision for their lives need inspiration. Not to aim for a picturesque home, but for the peace and comfort that comes from working out our issues in a Christ-like way. Being the body of Jesus means getting real and getting messy. We need each other and that takes getting involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

These days I\u2019m afraid it\u2019s become too easy to hide behind a screen and fake it, and in person too. How our lives look like they\u2019re floating along, until we realize we have been addressing the cosmetic and surface issues, applying filters and putting on a mask to make it look like we\u2019re okay. The gospel of Jesus isn\u2019t neat and tidy and White-Walls-worthy. It\u2019s messy and unclear and gray matter. There is order in the gospel, and a cleansing through Jesus\u2019 work, and the war is won. But the battles are still fought for the completion of each of our stories our Creator keeps us on earth to finish. We are always under renovation. Let\u2019s stop hiding behind photo-filtered images and be real. That\u2019s when the healing begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ready? Let\u2019s get to work.<\/span>
\nKatie Dale is the mind behind\u00a0BipolarBrave.com<\/a>\u00a0and the e-book\u00a0GAMEPLAN: A Mental Health Resource Guide<\/a>. She works full time at a behavioral outpatient clinic, ministering to those with mental illness. She can be found on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fresh Hope es una organizaci\u00f3n sin fines de lucro basada en la fe que permite a las personas vivir bien a pesar de su desaf\u00edo de salud mental.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

TU regalo proporcionar\u00e1 a una persona Nueva Esperanza de Dios para la vida diaria.\u00a0<\/i>Haz clic aqu\u00ed para donar, hoy.<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I think of how seldom a conversation with another church member, heck even my own family members, goes beyond the stuff of our plans for the week or our opinions on other people\u2019s choices or our usual complaints and surface conversations. I\u2019d like to know what it\u2019s like to be a true friend to someone else. I can\u2019t keep this front up forever. It\u2019s like applying some white-washed photo filter that lets the light look just perfect and yet there are deeper issues \u2013 like inefficient heating and cooling or clogged pipes.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":17746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,439],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hope-and-encouragement","category-mental-health-and-faith"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFresh Hope for Mental Health - "My Mind is a Fixer Upper and Still Under Renovation" by Katie Dale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Uncover the truth about mental health: it's an ongoing renovation, not a perfect facade. 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