“May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.”—GENESIS 31:49 (NIV)
“My dad says hi,” my husband, Jean-Claude, tells me as we’re cleaning up after dinner. “I Skyped with him on my walk to work today.” My husband knows it means a lot to me to hear that his dad, who lives in France, is thinking of me.
Having a severe mental illness or caring for someone with severe mental illness can be isolating at times, especially when friends and families so often live long distances from each other. But having the internet and smartphones with video chats, texting, social media, etc., can make us feel close to the people we love and who are supportive of us.
Jean-Claude’s family is spread out in three different countries, and my family lives up and down the West Coast and in Arizona. I talk to my mom and dad daily on social media and on my cell phone, and my husband calls France and Egypt regularly with apps like Skype.
We cherish our local friends and church family, but we also see technology as a blessing, allowing us to receive support from across the globe.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending comfort and support from many people and places through whatever means necessary.
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.—Genesis 1:21 (NIV)
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.—Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.—Romans 12:2 (ESV)
