Choose To Live! Suicide Is Never The Best Choice

By KATHY PARCHEM

Monticello Presbyterian Church

“If it bleeds, it leads!” That’s an old saying I learned from my sister who was in the newspaper business for many years.

Truly the news is full of stories of brokenness, sadness, and tragic circumstances. Sometimes, life is that way. Sometimes there are periods of sadness, loneliness, despair, or fear. Yet if we wait … if we hang on… it will turn around.

We may find a new friend to encourage us, an unexpected opportunity will open before us, or a change of plans may give us hope. In some cases, we may find relief through a physician providing us necessary counseling or medication.

Unfortunately, some of us may not want to wait. Or, we may have no idea where to get help. We may begin to have ideas such as, “I might as well end all the pain and suffering now.” Or, “No one will miss me if I am gone; my family will be better off without me.”

When we meditate on suicide it becomes like a siren’s call; promising great relief but in reality offering only destruction and death. Suicide multiplies pain and sorrow as every suicide has a destructive effect on at least six other people within our circle of family and friends.

If you’re a teenager, your parents don’t deserve to be hurt so deeply. If you’re a parent, your children really do need you in their lives. They are not better off without you. If you are an older adult and have outlived many family members and friends, there are still people in your community who will be terribly hurt by such a decision.

There are people who depend upon your prayers for them, your words of wisdom, and simply your presence among them. Suicide may be an answer but it is not a very good one. I hope that if you are thinking along those lines, that you will STOP and choose life over death.

While suicide may seem to be the answer, it is only one choice. There are many more choices you can make. There is help available to you.

If you need help, grab your phone and call the National Suicide Prevention line at 1-800-237-8255. Or, you may call The Georgia Crisis and Access line at 800-715-4225. These lines are available 24/7.

The famous television personality Mr. Rogers used to say, “Always look for the helpers when you are in need.” He said that if we will look, we will find helpers are there.

Truly, there are helpers among our school counselors, our relatives, our friends, our places of worship and our neighbors. Also, there are the helpers manning these crisis phone lines so that we may choose life.

Please, do not commit suicide. www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.