Are we doing enough to address the rising issue of suicide, especially among children and teens? Today, we tackle this heavy question head-on, leaving no stone unturned. We discuss the disturbing increase in suicide rates and the complex factors contributing to this trend. The impact of social media, the disintegration of traditional family structures, and the failure of institutions like schools and churches to provide adequate support are just a few of the issues we examine. From the personal choices we make to the traps laid by the enemy, we confront the harsh realities that can push someone towards this drastic act.
But this conversation isn't just about understanding the causes; it's about finding hope and extending support. In a world that seems increasingly cold and indifferent, we believe in the transformative power of love and understanding. Whether you're the one battling these dark thoughts or you know someone who is, we want you to know - you are not alone. We're here for you, ready to lend an ear, a shoulder, a helping hand. We care about you and your well-being. So, join us in spreading this message of hope and support. Together, we can make a world of difference.
Are we doing enough to address the rising issue of suicide, especially among children and teens? Today, we tackle this heavy question head-on, leaving no stone unturned. We discuss the disturbing increase in suicide rates and the complex factors contributing to this trend. The impact of social media, the disintegration of traditional family structures, and the failure of institutions like schools and churches to provide adequate support are just a few of the issues we examine. From the personal choices we make to the traps laid by the enemy, we confront the harsh realities that can push someone towards this drastic act.
But this conversation isn't just about understanding the causes; it's about finding hope and extending support. In a world that seems increasingly cold and indifferent, we believe in the transformative power of love and understanding. Whether you're the one battling these dark thoughts or you know someone who is, we want you to know - you are not alone. We're here for you, ready to lend an ear, a shoulder, a helping hand. We care about you and your well-being. So, join us in spreading this message of hope and support. Together, we can make a world of difference.
All right, good evening everybody. Thanks for joining us. This is the Jordan and Kristen record show. Tonight's topic is going to be suicide and, as you can probably tell, my voice isn't great right now. I've been struggling with my voice the last couple of days. My throat has been all kinds of irritated and it's undoubtedly because the enemy does not want us to deliver this message, and I'm going to tell you right now. I am just not putting up with it. Tonight we're going to discuss this topic because it is important. If it is the last thing I do, hopefully it's not. So before we get into that, kristen, why don't you go ahead and pray for everybody, and pray that my voice doesn't give out here?
Speaker 2:Lord, please heal Jordan's voice and Jesus name and, lord, I pray that tonight's message would just touch whoever needs to hear this tonight, lord, that you would just that we just would be a conduit of your message, lord, to them and your great love for anyone who's feeling alone and just feeling like they're at the end of their rope. Lord, will you show them tonight that you are where they are ending. You are beginning, lord. I just thank you, lord, that none of us are lost and without a guide. Lord, you are in control and when we submit ourselves to you and our way to you, lord, our plans will succeed. In Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 1:So listeners at home who wish I would talk less are going to get their wish tonight. So, Kristen, why don't you go ahead and introduce today's topic?
Speaker 2:That is not true, no one says that. But yes, tonight is a very topic that's very heavy in nature and we're going to be talking about suicide. And this was on my heart because I was just thinking about the suicide rate is up, there's no doubt about that, from years ago, and particularly in children and teens. And I just wonder to myself you know, years ago, when kids were bullied, you'd see, like the Andy Griffiths show and these different shows that represent the culture If a kid was bullied, yeah, they might have hurt feelings or be sad, but they're not going to end their lives. And nowadays a kid gets bullied and it results in committing suicide. And to me, I just, I just know the enemy has had such a stronghold on this, not just for children but for teens and, of course, adults as well, and I'm just wondering what is happening here. Why is this the case?
Speaker 1:You know, Well, I don't know that it's within our core competency to speculate so much at least not a clinical level as to why this is happening. But from my layperson's perspective, what I see is a culture that is in the advanced stages of severe decay. You know, the family is broken. It used to be that it was abnormal to have a broken family. Now it's very normal for kids to be born to broken households. We know that in cities, for example, sometimes 80% of kids are born to single mothers. We know that 50% of marriages end in divorce.
Speaker 1:You turn on the TV and it's nothing but sex and violence. You know kids, video games, video games these days are nothing like what they used to be. There's simulated violence and all sorts of degeneracy there. You know you talk about bullying nowadays. You go on it's social media. So whatever bullying was, it's bullying to like the 10th power. Okay, so you have all of this sort of cultural decay. The things that used to provide stability, like the church and the schools, are totally failing. The church has receded aggressively. The schools have turned into basically laboratories of social experimentation where the kids are the guinea pigs and you look at all of the sort of the counter wins, all of the negative influences that kids have in their lives these days. The real question is not why are so many of them depressed and anxious? But my goodness, the question is why aren't they all? I mean, it's just amazing that they're not all suffering from this.
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting and that's why I love doing this with you and having two different perspectives but also the same. I mean agreeing with everything you're saying. But I'm thinking those are the broad strokes and I'm thinking of the child who is from a broken household, or just individuals. And we know my point is it's an individual choice. You know, that is kind of showing why the culture has gone a certain way. But the individual choice I think about it's that switch.
Speaker 2:Do you turn it on, do you turn it off? Do you give in to the enemy or not? I mean, I remember when I was a teenager, there was a time, a period of time, where I had given in to self-pity and I had these thoughts coming in my mind and they were definitely thoughts about ending my life, and I had the choice Do I give in to it or do I not? And that is just proof that the enemy has a soul. I do. You're the only one who feels this way, you're the only one who hears this, and I really think it comes in. I know, for me it came in whenever I was alone. And you know, I feel like whenever we're alone, that's when we're vulnerable and we live in a society right now, where there's everything at your fingertips, with the internet and everything right in the palm of your hand, yet we are more alone than ever before.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting that you relate this to loneliness, because I was thinking how the people who feel suicidal are often the ones who are closest to God. And I don't mean that in a macabre sense, I don't mean like if you're about to kill yourself, you're going to meet your maker or something like that. Quite the opposite, actually. You know, the feeling of loneliness is one of the great lies of the enemy. The Bible actually says that God is nearest to the brokenhearted. Okay, what I would suggest to you and if you guys hear me say one thing today, let it be this that suicide is the enemy's perversion of the Christian spiritual death and resurrection. Okay, christianity is actually, when you really understand it, it is a suicide substitute and, like all things with Christ, it is the perfect substitute. Okay, both suicide and Christianity say that there's something that needs to die. Right, someone who's suicidal says there's something inside me that needs to die. But the problem is suicide says you need to kill the body. Christianity says you need to crucify the flesh, and it's an important distinction. Both involve death of the self. The difference is, with Christianity, you're replacing the self with Christ's self. This is the apostle Paul says. He said I die daily.
Speaker 1:The Bible actually talks about this a lot. He says in Galatians I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So he's saying I'm not even alive anymore. When I became a Christian, I'm not alive anymore. I suffered a kind of death right, although I'm obviously still alive because now Christ is living in me.
Speaker 1:That's the whole concept. That's why we Christians talk about being born again. We say, if Paul said, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. The entire purpose, you understand, is to crucify yourself. Two words now you're and self.
Speaker 1:The self is the part of you that seeks its own gratification and it can never be satisfied. That's where you get the anxiety from Depression, addictions, anger, things like that. The inward part of you. Crucify that, deny it okay, and replace it with God's self, god's spirit, by yielding totally to him. That's why the Bible says we give our bodies as living sacrifices.
Speaker 1:That's a paradox. How do you sacrifice and be alive? That's how, okay, the inner self dies. And so all of this is to say even though I promised to talk less, I just went on a little bit of a monologue there, all of which is to say, kristen, that maybe the wrong message, maybe we're getting this all wrong when we tell someone who's suicidal that, well, you shouldn't feel that way. No, I get it. Maybe you should be saying I understand why you feel that way. Okay, but the answer isn't to kill the body. The answer is to replace your inner self. Crucify the flesh, crucify the anxiety and the depression and all these other things that are causing you distress, and replace it with Christ's spiritual self, by yielding to God and accepting Christ as your savior.
Speaker 2:And see, that is why the enemy wanted to silence your voice tonight, but he did not win, praise God. So you were able to get that message out. That's all very, very good, very, very true. And listen, I forgot to say, when I was talking about being alone, that I just want to say this point for anyone who feels that way and feels alone, the practical step is please, please, get yourself around Christian people, and I don't mean just a cyber interaction or messaging, I mean face to face. The human body. We were created. God created us for relationship and so we need that.
Speaker 2:And also for those of us who are in a place of helping other people, make sure you check on your friends and make sure you are a friend to somebody and just say you never know how I come across people all day long who just want to grab a cup of coffee, just want to have a friend, just are like, wow, you want to just spend time together.
Speaker 2:You will never know how far that goes. You could be saving someone's life, but you know really, life and death are in the power of the tongue and the enemy. Everything the enemy stands for is death. Everything God stands for is life. The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy. So we've got to really rebuke. I mean, when I was in that place of self pity and I had those thoughts come at me, I never for a moment thought I really was going to end my life. I never got. But had I entertained it and allowed it and kept marinating on it and just really listening to that voice, it could have gone that way. We need to be very, very vigilant about shutting that door and not leaving that foothold you know it's interesting.
Speaker 1:You talk about how you should find other people to talk to, and I'm certainly sure there's a saying that misery loves company. One of the worst things that I think depressed people do is they're like magnets for other depressed people and that just sets you into a spiral. Now I think I would be remiss if I didn't do the socially responsible thing here and point out that you and I are not trained clinical psychologists. We are people who are trying to help because the world needs a lot of help. Okay, and there are a lot of professionals out there and I would emphasize, a lot of Christian counselors out there who are, who are not just radio voices like like christin I are, but but are actually people who you can have a relationship with. People you can see, you know, weekly or multiple times a week.
Speaker 1:I'm not suggesting that anything we're saying is necessary like a light switch that's gonna go off sometimes and we emphasize on our show sometimes get to fight through things, okay. So if you're experiencing this, get yourself the help you need from professionals were trained, because god has has ordained people to do this. Find yourself A good church, good pastor, good prayer group, good bible study and if you need a good christian counselors. Certainly no shame in that, but emphasis on christian counselor because, because you know you don't need the world to help solve a problem that the world is creating, you need god to help Help solve this problem.
Speaker 2:God is the light and the darkness I love how your lawyer brain went into like a disclaimer is a disclaimer.
Speaker 1:We're not the clinical psychologist because we can't get sued for this. We're not in lc yet. All right, christin, my love, my beauty queen, do me a favor and pray for all these people.
Speaker 2:Absolutely well, lord, I thank you that every person listening to this is just apple of your eye. Lord, if we truly knew, as we go back to our I was just thinking our identity Episode, if we truly know our identity and you, we would not allow the enemy to come in and attack us. But, god, I just pray for your precious, your precious ones, lord, that you love so dearly, lord, that they would just feel your, your blanket of comfort and hope and peace, god, and that we would truly find victory in you, and that this whole suicide rate would Would decline in the name of jesus and to zero. Let's go to zero in jesus name.
Speaker 1:a man, I guys. I certainly hope this help listen. If you're struggling with suicide, I hope this helps you and if you're not be know somebody who is. Please feel free to share this with them. We love you, guys and we want nothing but the best for you, so listen. Thanks again for listening. We really appreciate it. We'll see you week, as always. Until then, be blessed and be a blessing everyone.