Sometimes the best help we can give is a sensitive heart and a listening ear. Let's remember to listen. Anton Chekhov understood a newly bereaved parent's compelling need to talk about their loss. Here are excerpts form his short story, Misery. From ‘Misery’, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) "With a look of anxiety and suffering Iona's …
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An excerpt from Never Ceasing: God’s Faithfulness in Grief ... So, I must wait, but waiting does not have to mean stagnating. The Lord still has business to conduct in His universe. There are people yet to be born and souls yet to be saved. The time I have left is shorter than it feels; …
Bouncing around at the base of the hill, across the river that lay frozen between the fireworks techs and us spectators on the dock, was a light. A flashlight. A very bright flashlight. I saw the stream of light widen and play upon the hillside. Then the beam narrowed into a tightly focused square-shaped beam. …
Most of my book was written very early in my grief. These excerpts are not how it is for me now. Time has softened the blow and the Lord has carried me through the worst of it. I share for the sake of those who are just beginning life without their loved one. ~~~ "I …
Grieving is difficult, exhausting work that can become counterproductive if indulged in overmuch. There comes a time when sorrow and anguish are not enough anymore. Not that it wears off, or grieving gets easier. It is just that I have come to an awareness that sorrow is not getting me anywhere. I see that my …
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Yes, it's normal. We are terrified of forgetting them. Afraid that if we let go of that horrible moment when our child died, that it will be like they didn't exist at all. The pain is tremendous, but early in our grief we can't seem to help wanting to stay right there in the past …
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While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; …
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Here is another short excerpt from my book Never Ceasing: God’s Faithfulness in Grief It is the most trying week of my life—physically exhausting, emotionally grueling. I am thankful for everyone who comes to pay their respects and make sure we eat well. I am thankful for every single gift that is sent to us …
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My book, Never Ceasing: God's Faithfulness in Grief, is now available for purchase. Buy Now I began writing in early 2016 just after Hans left us for Heaven and started publishing this blog in September of that year. Just about five years later (almost to the day) my book is now ready to share in …
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Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Ecclesiastes 7:3 When you are sitting there alone and you are weeping, and the longing for your child is a thick and expanding heaviness in your chest threatening to erupt from your throat in silent, choking grief. When …
Continue reading Walk, Don’t Run.
Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Psalm 119:67 BLESSINGS OF BEREAVEMENT by J. R. Miller, 1896 At first we would be disposed to say that no blessings can come out of bereavements. But the grace of God has such wondrous power, that even from the saddest desolating of …
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Kincaid Park, Anchorage, Alaska “How are you doing?” There are no words in any language that are sufficient to the task of expressing what I am experiencing. That is why, in some cultures, the women wail when someone dies. Even wailing is inadequate. There are some things that cannot be halved by sharing them. Grief …
Thank you for sharing the unfolding story of your struggles and growth with such honesty and insightful precision. You truly are an example of a faith in God that that is blooming in the fertile soil of sorrow. I look forward to seeing the precious rest of the story our Father has begun in you and your family. When we are in the depths of our pain and can still declare to a skeptical world that God is Good, it honors Him, it encourages other sufferers, and brings healing to our own heart. Thank you for saying it.
I wonder if we set ourselves up to be disappointed with God.
A friend’s son was in a car accident last weekend. His car rolled down a hill, and amazingly, he was not seriously hurt. The car was destroyed. They are shaken, and will be for a long time. It was terrible.
I don’t begrudge their miracle. I am rejoicing with them, sincerely. Every life saved on the road is a good thing. And I like to think that God’s angels held his head as that car rolled, guarding him the whole way.
Everyone is saying that God is good, because he didn’t get hurt.
We praise God for being good and protecting us when we get what we want. We thank him when the disease is cured and when the relationship is restored. An awful accident, the loss of a car, these things are put in perspective because…
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You Can Trust Him 