Give hope this Easter

Before the age of 16, I experienced 5 failed suicide attempts.  Did you know that suicide ranks as the 3rd leading cause of death for young people ages 15-29? Only accidents and homicides occur more frequently among this population!*  A suicidal person feels he or she has exhausted all possible options.  They may be depressed, tortured with feelings of unworthiness, failure, and guilt.  Within a typical high school classroom, it is likely that three students (one boy and two girls) have made an attempt in the past year.
Fifteen years old and sitting in such a classroom, I made my final attempt to end it all.  Angry and exhausted from all the pain, I excused myself from the classroom, walked promptly to the water fountain in the hall, downed the remaining dozen or so valium stolen from my foster parent’s medicine cabinet, and walked right out of the front door of the school.  I don’t remember anything from the following 10 days except being furious upon waking with the same hopeless, helpless torment.
Oh but in John 10:10 Jesus said “I have come that they may have life!” (NKJV)  Less than six months later, I heard the message of Jesus resurrection and my life had changed forever.  Misery was instantly replaced with hope and I learned later that God has a purpose and a plan for my life (Jeremiah 29:11).
It has been a wonderful journey over the past 30+ years of knowing the Lord but it is never far from my thoughts that it is purely by God’s grace that I was not successful that day.  I live on to tell others that I am a “new creation in Christ…Old things have passed away…and all things have become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Please take a moment and think about what you have done in the past 2 hours.  Maybe you worked at your job or watched a movie, drove to the market, or surfed the net.  Within every 1 hour and 57 minutes, a person under the age of 25 commits suicide.*  If this is sobering and terrifying information for you, please help us as we attempt to rescue those at risk.  Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28 NIV).  Our goal is to help provide a place where hurting and troubled girls and women can find that rest and hope in Christ.  Be a part of the resurrection of young lives this Easter.  Mail your offering to:  The King’s Daughters Ministry, PO Box 476, Stanley, NC 28164.

Sheryl Dorsey
President

*statistics found at CDC and American Association of Suicidology