Grieving during the holidays can make it seem like the least wonderful time of the year. Everyone around you seems happy and although you'd love to feel happy, your heart aches for the one who isn't here anymore. No matter how many years go by, I find myself missing my Dad even more when the holidays come around. His laugh, our traditions - nothing is the same. Knowing that celebrating will never look the same again can be overwhelming and can magnify the pain you already feel. As I move further out, the ache is still there but the fog that hung over me the first year or two of holidays … [Read more...]
Unexpected Grieving: A Grief Journal Excerpt
On this journey of grief, I have found it helpful to be honest with how I'm feeling. To allow myself to face whatever it is I'm feeling, take time to really feel the pain, then get up and keep going. Writing is one way that I have processed my pain, and I encourage you to try it as well. Each of us has a grief story, and that story matters. Your pain is not without purpose, and as you are honest with yourself and your Creator, healing begins. I've begun sharing bits of my own grief journal in the hopes that it helps you take that first step. I woke up wishing I could have a hug from … [Read more...]
Grieving in the Face of Unanswered Prayer
I follow an amazing artist on Instagram (@lindsayletters.co) and her young daughter Eva Love was in a freak accident that resulted in her hospitalization with a traumatic brain injury and the prognosis as I'm writing this does not look good from a medical standpoint (BUT GOD). As this is the time of year we were in the hospital with my father, it's gotten me thinking about grieving and God's goodness all over again. When I first heard about this sweet girl struggling for her life, all I could do was pray. She's been on my mind constantly. But over time, in response … [Read more...]
Father’s Day: Loss and Legacy
I am blessed to have had a strong, funny, Christ-focused father in my life for 27 years and each year on Father's Day I celebrate his life. This is the second year I've celebrated him here on earth while he parties in heaven, and I miss him. To honor his life and legacy, I started jotting down some life lessons that he taught me - some directly and some simply through the way he lived. At a Bible study a few weeks ago, we had a conversation and I realized afterwards that I had started at least 5 sentences with "When I was growing up, my dad taught us..." It just drove home the fact … [Read more...]
Choosing All-In Faith When Faced With Grief and Loss
Grief presents us with a choice - to turn away from faith or to jump all in. Before my father was diagnosed with cancer, I would have said that I believed in the gospel and that I knew God was good. But when he got sick and was gone so quickly, I found myself wrestling with some deep questions. How could a good God let this happen? How did the gospel - the good news - line up with this awful news? How could Jesus be the light of the world and still let this darkness into my life?Have you ever gone through something that makes you question - that presents you with the choice to turn away … [Read more...]