We cannot give what we do not have. Even though I had accepted Christ as my savior as a child, I had never fully accepted the Father’s love for me. Until I did, I was not free to love myself or anyone else. When love breaks through and we accept the Father’s love, we’re free to love ourselves as He intended. Do you know the Father’s love for you?
Have you ever faced circumstances that caused you to really search out the scriptures for answers? That’s what happened to me as I prayed for and grieved with a friend who had lost her husband. As a new widow, she wondered how she would make it on her own. As we prayed, I remembered the days my own mother lived as a widow and the years I spent learning to trust God for provision.
There are times when life doesn’t make sense, when pain is great. The most difficult of circumstances, cancer diagnosis, miscarriage, even the death of a loved one, require the greatest trust. They require that we trust God even when we don’t understand.
Holidays are hard following the loss of a loved one. You can’t take away your loved one’s grief but you can be present to provide comfort in their grief. Read more for 10 ways to help a loved one who is experiencing grief at Christmas.
I experienced it in a series of quiet moments. Walking in the front door in the morning and realizing this would not be “my place” much longer, watching the team execute with competence and compassion but realizing that it wouldn’t continue, and doing routine tasks with an unusual enjoyment but also a sense of finality. Michelle and I had made the decision together. The work was good and valuable and productive, but we both knew that the time had come for something new. It was what I had done for the last six or seven years, my professional identity. And it was ending.
Living with a psychologist I knew the symptoms: grief, loss, a temptation to negotiate an alternate ending. This was the end of a major and fulfilling part of life. A small death.
