Faith

FREEDOM IN FAITH

by Stacey K Ellertson1 Comment on FREEDOM IN FAITH
FREEDOM IN FAITH

Within all of the chaos, intellectual dishonesty and immorality being masked as spirutal goodness who do we look to?

For me, it’s JESUS.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Today’s devotional says,

When anxiety attempts to wedge its way into your thoughts, remind yourself that I am your shepherd. The bottom line is that I am taking care of you; therefore you needn’t be afraid of anything. Rather than trying to maintain control over your life, abandon yourself to My will. Though this may feel frightening – even dangerous, the safest place to be in My will

Jesus Calling, Sarah Young

I specialize in treating people who struggle with debilitating anxiety, stress and depression. I must admit the impact of Covid 19 regulations, lockdowns and shaming has been significant. I have clients who fully recovered are now relapsing. The constant pressure to work from home, homeschool, and basically isolate ourselves from family and friends is systemically contaminating everyone with varient levels of fear. We can’t even go out and not be reminded by everyone to wear your mask, social distance, don’t talk to each other etc. People are being destroyed psychologically. We are ALL being impacted in some way.

I have been spending alot of time praying and reflecting on where my focus needs to be. The answer continues to be Jesus. I wish I could share my entire life story with you. This blog is not the place. I experienced alot of hardship as a child. Emotional and physical abuse. Medical trauma after medical trauma. Insecurity, shame and guilt. A total sense of powerlesness.

Despite this God brought me through it all and will brings us through all of this. It’s truly scary to simply have faith and trust but I urge you to let go. Trust God and keep your eyes on Jesus. Even Peter walked on water when he was focussed on Jesus.

In Jesus we are all in this together.

Bless you, Stacey

Faith, Family, General

Agape

by Stacey K Ellertson3 Comments on Agape
Agape

Tomorrow is Valentines Day. There will be alot of talk about love. We see this word thrown around alot in our world. I’m not sure many people really understand love, especially God’s love. The word “agape” is often translated as love in the New Testament.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The word “agape” does not reflect sexual or romantic love nor is it a reflection of friendship or brotherly/sisterly love. “Agape” love is a willful focus of purposeful love. It requires commitment and faithfullness that overcomes all circumstances. Agape love never gives up.

Agape love is becoming rarer and rarer these days. But, every once in awhile there are times when we know we have just experienced this kind of love. This happened yesterday.

Once a year I need to renew my Sirius XM Radio. I’ve been a customer for ten years. Every year it’s been a pain. I don’t look forward to it. Suffice it to say I am a little grumpy when I make the call. Yesterday was different. I called the Sirius XM Canada Customer Retention line expecting another annoying phone call.

Instead, I had a wonderful conversation with a gal in Egypt! Yes, Egypt! It’s crazy. I complained to her that I have to make this call every year and it would be nice if we could just set my yearly rate and automatically renew in order to avoid making the call. Her reply preciptated a wonderful conversation.

Her name is May. She says to me, “You know I totally understand where you are coming from but I wanted you to know that your needing to call me enables me to keep my job. So THANK YOU!” This was totally disarming and I found myself agreeing and my enitre perspective changed. Her intentional kindness and gratitidue for her job led to a great conversation about gratititude, (we exchanged resources) and even became Instagram friends.

I found myself reflecting after, “I wish we could all talk to each other like this.”

She further went on to say that she purposfully asked to work only with Canadians because in her experience we are the kindest people she has worked with. Wow! I thanked her again and said, “I look forward to connecting in a year!”

This valentines day love your spouse or significant other. More than that though, show more agap love. Seek people out with that kind of love just as God seeks you.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TOMORROW!

Stacey

Family, General

Frozen

by Stacey K EllertsonLeave a Comment on Frozen
Frozen

It’s been a chilly week and when I mean chilly, I mean -45 to -50 Celcius. (that’s -49 to -58 F for my American friends). Our furnace has not been able to keep up. So, been burning alot of wood and had our electric heater on all day long. Some of Amerian friends have asked, “how is that even possible?” Trust me. It’s possible. The idea that you can throw a pot of boiling water into the air and it turns to snow, is TRUE.

Despite the extreme cold, we are grateful for our fireplace although my wife is not thrilled in the morning. She’s chilled! By Friday the temperature will start warming up and I look forward to get back on the ice and catch me some perch and walleye.

Have you every been ice fishing? Do you have a “winter story?” What’s the coldest weather you have experienced?

Hard to believe that Spring is just over a month away!

Blessings,

Stacey

Faith, Family, General

The Power of Beauty

by Stacey K EllertsonLeave a Comment on The Power of Beauty
The Power of Beauty

Someone asked me the other day if I miss Fakebook. A little, but not alot. I left Fakebook because of the constant negativity, division and censorship. I no longer want to participate on platforms intent on telling me how to think and to be afraid. I am so grateful I dumped Fakebook and Twitter.

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com

Since leaving these dark platforms I have been committed to exposing myself to narratives, videos and pics that make me smile: weddings, pregnancy announcements, engagements, babies, beauty, vacations, nature and devotionals. I am doing my best to fill my eyes and mind with beauty and joy! I encourage you to try it. Cut out the toxicity in your life. Replace that with what compells you to feel good about yourself and the life we are living.

Blessings, Stacey

Anxiety, Panic Attacks & Depression Recovery, Faith

Worry 101

by Stacey K Ellertson2 Comments on Worry 101
Worry 101

Being an anxiety disorder recoverer, I have an intimate understanding of worrying destructively. I used to worry about everything: what people thought of me, do they like me, do I have some kind of life threatening disease, am I going to get in trouble etc. I even worried I would die by the time I was thirty (I’m fifty two) for no obvious reason. I just felt like I would die by the time I was thirty.

What exactly is worry? The best definition I know of is this, “using your imagination to make yourself sick.” I could not agree more.

Throughout my recovery from my anxiety disorder I learned a valuable lesson about worry. Most of them with either NEVER happen and/or there is absoluty nothing I can do about them. Those worries I can do something about are actually exceedingly rare.

I have adopted a realisistic yet optimisitc approach to life. The optimist in me expects good things to occur. The realist in me knows I have no clue what the future holds. Only God knows my future. All I can do is imagine what it could be. I have learned to dismiss those worries I can do nothing about and only address those that have a relatively high probability of occuring I can do something about.

There are so many moving parts going on in our world right now. So many things we can get caught up worrying about. I personally choose to dismiss those I have no power to prevent or prepare for. I choose repeatedly to pray those worries over to God.

Spend a little time differentiating between those worries you can actually do something about and those you obviously cannot. Focus only on those that have a high probability of occuring. Let the rest go by the way side. Focus on what you do control. Focus on what you know, NOT what you can imagine.

Blessings,

Stacey

Anxiety, Panic Attacks & Depression Recovery, Faith

Where Does Your Power Come From?

by Stacey K EllertsonLeave a Comment on Where Does Your Power Come From?
Where Does Your Power Come From?

We are all in this together. Is that really true? Are we all in this together? Are we all on the same page? Do we all agree? NO.

Every day I work with people helping them to find their way through the chaos around us. They suffer terribly from anxiety, stress and depression.

Is it really any wonder why?

We are all being constantly indocrinated to be afraid. Over the last year the rhetoric of fear has been amped up like never before except maybe during World War II.

Fear and division seems to be all powerful. It’s not.

There is so much going on we have no control over, politically or socially. It’s not surprising so many are feeling so powerless, hopeless and trapped.

The only thing most of us have in common is that we all feel the same way. At different levels of course, but generally the same.

Most of us are sick and tired of the constant fear mongering, lockdowns and governmental regulations.

Two weeks to flatten the curve has turned into a year of mandates, regulations, political gamesmanship and disinformation.

With so much out of our control where does our power come from? I suggest it comes for your power to choose. I am in control of my own behaviour. No matter what is going on, I like to focus on what I do control. For example I chose to censor Facebook and Instagram.

In reading my devotional this morning, I was reminded to not become distrated by the world. In every way to focus my attention on Jesus. The message I have been receiving the last several days is to focus on HIM, trust HIM. One day at a time. One step at a time. A renewed mind is a presence focussed mind. I am seeking more and more His voice, His light.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Romans 12:2

Blessings,

Stacey

Anxiety, Panic Attacks & Depression Recovery, Faith

When All Hope Seems Lost

by Stacey K Ellertson3 Comments on When All Hope Seems Lost
When All Hope Seems Lost

Truth. Where do we find it? It’s nearly impossible to know what is true these days. There is so much corruption, disinformation, deception and bold face lying going on, it’s easy to lose hope. Piled on top of this, is the obvious censorship being imposed upon truth tellers and those who are desperately seeking truth. It is easy to lose hope. Prior to sitting down and writing this blog God reminded me to:

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

(Ephesians 4:2)

As a therapist my goal is to provide a path to healing built upon hope. I wanted to share with you what keeps me strong when all hope seems lost. In a nutshell, it’s my faith. Jesus said,

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

John 14:1 & 6

The source of truth and foundation of hope is found in what is unseen NOT what is seen.

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.[a] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. (2 Corinthians 5:1-7)

For we live by believing and not by seeing.

2 Corinthians 5:7

I’m aware we all have our losses and this perspective is not easy. I only want to encourage you to have faith in Gods long term plan. God’s Word is unchanging. Jesus is still the same, yesterday, today and forever. Looking for hope from the world is a hopeless endeavour. Let God be your hope.

Blessings,

Stacey