Author: Ashley Burris

Several months after I was out of the woods with PPD, a gentleman at my church came up to me and asked if we could talk.  His niece was struggling with depression and he wanted to encourage her. He was overwhelmed, not sure  what to say or how to help. Knowing about my experience with… Continue reading To the Outsider Looking In

At one point while I was in the middle of my PPD season, a friend came to check on me. I was grateful for another adult to interact with and a change to the monotony of my days. Our conversation was mostly geared towards adjusting to mothering two little ones. “I’m not handling it very… Continue reading Responding to inspirational stories

I have this word "pruning" buzzing around in my head. My husband and I watched LOKI's first season this summer and while I really don't want to give anything away, I will share one aspect of the show. The theme of being "pruned" by a military task force meant that those who disrupted the space-time… Continue reading Pruning

I was sitting at my mom's kitchen table with my head and upper body weight being supported by my sweet husband. My mom sat next to me with growing concern. I was sobbing because the pain was so great. Five days post-operation, I was struggling to balance my pain with the nausea caused by my… Continue reading Trusting God in the Wilderness

I struggled with trusting in God when people would tell me "things will get better." My inner response was always "When?! This is intolerable! How long must I endure this and what if it doesn’t get better?!” I did not want to put any merit to this statement because my hurt was so overwhelming that… Continue reading Responding to “Things will eventually get better.”

Many people have said this inspirational quote to me throughout my life; many of them were believers trying to encourage me while I was going through a difficult time. However, I have found no evidence to support this statement from the Bible. I’ve scoured the Scriptures for a verse that says this phrase or anything… Continue reading Responding to the cliché “God will never give you anything you can’t handle.”

To kick off this new series, I'd thought I'd share about the cliché I mentioned in my previous post. Here it is, the number one cliché that is not helpful at all to me: "Just hang in there!" There is a popular inspirational poster with this catch-phrase printed underneath the picture of a cute kitten… Continue reading Responding to the cliché “Just Hang in There!”

I think now is a great time to begin a new series! For the next several posts, I'd like to dive into how to respond to common platitudes that people might say to encourage you, but end up being offensive or unhelpful. For instance, ever heard the phrase "Just hang in there!" when you're going… Continue reading Responding to inspirational clichés

I've been having a difficult time writing this month. I haven't been able to write about what I wanted to write about because it's really been hard to do anything right now! And just to be straight up: I've been struggling with depression and spiritual attacks. The thoughts and feelings are very similar to what… Continue reading Following my own advice

It was hard adjusting to all of life's changes after having my children. These itty bitty people needed everything done for them. My husband had to work a full-time job and a part-time job to make ends meet. So, it was just me and the kiddos Monday through Saturday. But I knew that it was… Continue reading Should I ask for time to myself?