Please pray for this family.
Message: Apologies for the unsolicited long dm, but I see you post prayer requests from time to time and figured it was worth asking.
My father left us for a lifestyle of homosexuality nearly 20 years ago, leaving my mother to raise us (ages 15, 8, 5, and 1, now 33 [me], 28, 24, and 20) on her own, which she did faithfully. We endured trial after trial but she held firm in the faith, taught us how to honor the Lord, and homeschooled all four of us to graduation. She’s incredible.
But the enemy never stopped trying to break up our family since my father left. In 2020, my sister fell for the LGBT propaganda and left the family, which broke my Mom’s heart.
In late summer last year, my Mom fell into a terrible depression. She started having panic attacks, and couldn’t sleep. She had no peace. I did what I always do and tried to comfort her and encourage her that God was in charge, quoting scripture and praying over her constantly.
In this past year things have only gotten worse. She has no peace, ever. She exists in a constant state of fear, and has panic attacks daily. Just getting to bed is a 2-3 hour affair most nights, and never ends peacefully. She is utterly tormented by her own thoughts and believes that God has abandoned her. She has no faith that He will do anything for her, because she’s made too many mistakes and failed too many times. Unfortunately, my brothers have essentially backed away, not knowing what to do they simply do nothing at all. I’m essentially all she has, other than her mother.
I continue to try and encourage her; but I’m utterly exhausted. My words, once met with belief, are now met with skepticism at best and outright rejection at worst. I’m sleeping 3-4 hours a night on average, as she doesn’t get calm enough to sleep until 4-5am most nights. During the day I run an IT company, and the stress of that just compounds with everything going on at home.
That said, I love her dearly and I won’t give up on her. I know God hasn’t abandoned her, but she’s completely defeated. She feels totally alone and forgotten. I’ve tried to get her to see a counselor but she won’t work with me to pick one. She’s tried antidepressants with no effect. She stopped going to church years ago and won’t go now. She barely eats enough to live & prays for death every day.
I’m just utterly lost. I know God is in charge and I know this is not how He would have her to live, but I don’t know what to do. I can’t fix it, and my words of encouragement no longer carry the weight they once did. Every day she says to me through tears and panic “Help me, please!” over and over again. Every time eroding what’s left of my heart as I simply can’t fix anything.
Please pray that Jesus will fix everything. I KNOW He cares and that He can do it… but after a year of living in utter misery and abject hell, I don’t know what to do but keep clinging to Him for redemption.
Sorry for the huge depressing message. If you could just say a prayer for the restoration of my family, that would be so appreciated. I just don’t know what to do but beg God to fix everything.