Self-Care Essentials:
(RISE) Recognize, Implement, Serve, Empower (Part 1)
Self-Care Essentials:
(RISE) Recognize, Implement, Serve, Empower (Part 2)
Contact Amethyst Roberson for resources and courses at
As many of you already know, the month of May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
Tonight we held the second of two sessions with Licensed Professional Counselor and Master Life Coach/ Trainer, Amethyst Roberson.
God gave my wife and I a ministry of presence. What that means is that we have a ministry where we just come along side of people and we just try to be present with them; to sit with them, or walk with them through their trouble and pain. We don’t try to preach or give a lot of advice, or force feed them the answers and solutions for their life while they are in that mental or emotional state.
It’s already a scientifically, medically, and psychologically proven reality that when people are in crisis, they don’t even have the full cognitive ability to receive a lot of teaching, preaching or well-intentioned advice, which is what most people try to do.
In the aftermath of a critical incident or a traumatic event, what they need most is a comforting and consoling presence and a gentle word until they can get themselves together enough to begin figuring things out, like: what just happened to me?, and what do I need to do now?, and how do I face an unknown and unexpected future? And that process is a journey, and that journey doesn’t have a certain speed, or destination date. We have to be willing to take the journey with people, walking at their pace, and just be a ministry of presence.
In no way are we dismissing the Word of God and the Power of God by bringing mental health support in on that process. We are seeking to operate in the wisdom of God. The Bible declares that He that wins souls is wise.
Please allow us to further explain why we do it this particular way.
Jesus Christ gave a parable about the different types of soil into which the seed of God’s word gets planted . We learn from that parable that the seed can go into stony soil, never even reach the soil, be plucked up before it can take root, or even be choked out after it starts to grow. So we’re not questioning the power and effectiveness of God’s word. That’s not the issue. The real issue is the condition of people's soil before the word comes to them.
So we employ a more holistic approach to helping people. We try to cooperate with God's wisdom to prepare soil; so that when the seed of God’s word comes into their life, there is a better chance that they can actually hear it and receive it.
So that’s why we invited Amethyst Roberson to step in and help us in the preparation of soil.
We’ve known Amethyst and her husband Hosea for many years; in fact, we were part of their wedding ceremony 14 years ago. We’ve known Amethyst over 30 years. We’ve watched her journey to earning her degrees in counseling, and we have often recruited her to help us in our efforts to provide some mental health awareness to our church and our leaders, long before "mental health" became a front and center topic in our world.
We also brought her onboard to talk to us about mental health awareness during the covid19 crisis, and since then we have collaborated and partnered together in the field of life coaching and life coach training.
Amethyst is more than qualified to address us on the challenges of maintaining good mental health. The past few months have been very traumatic for a lot of us in the Fruitful Life Community's Spiritual Wellness Support Group. We’ve experienced the loss of loved ones, mental and emotional crisis, spiritual crisis, and all kinds of traumatic events and occurrences that have had us reeling in the aftermath of a lot of serious incidents.
We realize there are a lot of people of faith who struggle to face and walk through the aftermath of critical incidents because they find themselves conflicted between their Faith confession and their disappointment, confusion, and the reality of what has happened and what is still happening.
However, the Bible and our Faith doesn't minimize or ignore the reality of this conflict. The apostle Paul once wrote the following In 2 Cor. 1:8. He said, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our [tribulation] trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
This is the same man who wrote: We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—
So we brought in Amethyst for these past two weeks to provide us the tools for navigating life in the aftermath of critical incidents.
She’s talked to us about: Self-Care Essentials: RISE
RISE is her acronym for Recognize, Implement, Serve, Empower.
Her presentations taught us how to recognize our needs, implement practical strategies, serve our well-being, and we were empowered to face life's challenges with confidence and strength.
We invite you to join us in this journey to health and wholeness in every area of our lives.
--- Chris and Carol Green
****
