Tag: Bereavedparents
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Logical
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post titled “It Could Happen Again.” I talked about my fear of losing another child or a grandchild. This fear is always in the back of my mind, no matter how much logic I talk to myself. For example, according to the National Center for Health…
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Words
Many of my friends who are writers have had a significant loss in their lives (child, spouse, parent, marriage, home, job, etc.). These losses are devastating even if they were foreseen. My mother died of breast cancer in 1995 at age 62. She was diagnosed with the disease five years prior and the doctors warned…
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Trouble
In the Our Daily Bread devotional for October 7th, Arthur Jackson talks about something Oswald Chambers wrote at the beginning of WWI. He references John 16:33 where Jesus warns his disciples of the “inevitability of peril.” Bad things will happen. Christ was specifically warning them about his upcoming arrest and crucifixion as well as the…
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The Thing With Feathers
There’s a famous poem by Emily Dickinson called “Hope is the Thing With Feathers”. The first verse says: “Hope” is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soulAnd sings the tune without wordsAnd never stops at all It’s a beautiful metaphor in that it implies that we can carry hope with us always. It is…
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What’s In Your Pocket? (redux)
Today is September 1st. Labor Day. It’s also my dad’s birthday. He would be 95 if he were alive today. I originally wrote this for a writing critique group I belonged to and then posted it in 2022 when I first started my blog. My dad set an example for me of what “good grieving”…
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What’s the Plan?
A Bible verse that is quoted frequently is Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Taken out of context this verse can feel like a feather pillow or a stumbling block. We can take…
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Triggers
Last week I talked about grief triggers and how pictures especially can trigger tears. Both pictures with my daughter in them and ones taken since her death can stab my heart and make me smile at the same time. The last pictures I have of Rachel were taken at her wedding. She died in a…
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Here’s the Thing
Here’s the thing. No matter how long it’s been since you lost a child (or another loved one), the grief never completely goes away. You can receive peace from knowing God and that eternity awaits you. You can feel joy and hope in the blessings He has bestowed on you and those yet to come.…
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Unanswered
Every single one of us who has lost a child prayed that God would save our child. Whether your child died in utero or was born too prematurely to survive. Whether your child had a severe handicap or disease. Whether your child took his or her own life or had his or her life taken…
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Bright Shining
Last week I wrote about the children lost in the sudden flood in Texas and how my heart aches for their parents. I vividly remember the gut-wrenching pain and the horror I felt at the realization I would never see my daughter in this world again. And I was frightened at the thought of getting…
A Light for My Path 