Blessed Youth Survival Guide

Pastor and national mental health advocate Sarah Griffith Lund has written a brief supplement to Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence about Mental Health with Children and Teens (ISBN 9780827203204) for youth to help them understand and recognize when they are experiencing mental health issues and how to seek help for themselves or a friend. Blessed Youth Survival Guide destigmatizes the most common mental health issues young people will experience in a format small enough to be discreetly carried or passed along to a friend.

Today's youth need to hear the message "It’s okay to not be okay." They need to know hope and help are always available. A companion to the book Blessed Youth (9780827203204), Blessed Youth Survival Guide offers the tools youth need to survive when they are feeling disconnected, confused, and alone. This survival guide is specifically for youth and covers topics that today's youth will undoubtedly face such as anxiety, sadness, depression, phobias, OCD, panic attacks, PTSD, trauma, and therapy. Blessed Youth Survival Guide helps youth recognize when they are experiencing an issue and encourages them to tell a parent, doctor, or another adult who can help them receive the appropriate care. Youth are encouraged to be proactive with their mental health by developing good overall health practices and taking a Safety Pledge — a pledge to promise to identify three people who they can contact if they begin having thoughts of self-harm and/or suicide.

Through vivid and powerful storytelling, Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness with Children and Teens will remove the barriers of stigma and shame associated with mental illness in children and teens. Readers will know they are not alone and be reminded of God’s grace and loving presence in the midst of the heartache and struggle of mental illness. In addition to stories of children and youth experiencing mental health challenges, Blessed Youth includes practical resources such as prayers and a guide for having age-appropriate talks with children about warning signs and how to get help for themselves and friends. Ultimately, this important resource offers hope and help for everyone who loves a child or youth with mental health challenges. Also available is Blessed Youth Survival Guide, a pocket-size companion guide for youth.

When do you learn that "normal" doesn't include lots of yelling, lots of sleep, lots of beating? In Blessed Are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness, Family, and Church, Sarah Griffith Lund looks back at her father's battle with bipolar disorder, and the helpless sense of déjà vu as her brother and cousin endure mental illness, as well. With a small group study guide and "Ten Steps for Developing a Mental Health Ministry in Your Congregation," Blessed Are the Crazy is more than memoir-it's a resource for churches and other faith-based groups to provide healing and comfort. Part of The Young Clergy Women Project.

Navigating the decade of the 20s and beyond can be tricky. Most women are making life-shaping decisions during these crucial years--but how can they know the choices they make now won't mess up the rest of their lives? How can they use this time to lay a foundation that is strong enough to support their long-term dreams? Survival Guide for Young Women is the essential guide for Christian women who long for a lifetime of spiritual meaning and personal fulfillment. Holly Wagner and her 20-something friend Nicole Reyes help readers discover who they are and why they are here. Packed with relatable illustrations and practical tips, this handbook for life will challenge young women to make the most of every minute of their 20s . . . and beyond.

Youth pastors often burn out, bail out, and are pushed out of ministry. In this book, you'll be given practical insights and action steps to help you build fences against failure.

So you are a Youth Pastor or Youth Worker, and someone dies. It could be the grandparent, or parent of a youth in your ministry. Or it could be a youth in your youth who is killed in a terrible accident, or it could be a student in a local high school or middle school. How will you respond to help the families, the individuals in your youth group or the youth in the local high school? Could it be that God has put you in the situation for a divine purpose? I think that is why you are reading this now. I don’t believe in accidents. I’d venture to guess that there is a reason behind why you are reading this even now! This is not the typical book for a youth pastor. But this book is about real life problems that happen everyday and in some way affects many of the youth in your group and could be a way to come to know others deeply in a matter of hours.