Tag: Childloss
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Not Denial
I recently finished a 12-day devotional series called Hope in the Dark. It was centered around the book of Habakkuk and his response to and eventual acceptance of God’s message to him that he was going to send the Babylonians to destroy the nation of Israel. If this news wasn’t frightening enough, God expected Habakkuk…
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Hard Things
A dear friend gave me a book titled, simply, His Parables. It’s a devotional book with a lesson for each day of the year. I read it as part of my morning Bible study time. The book is divided into sections, each of which focuses on one of Jesus’s parables including supporting or related verses from…
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Vocabulary
I’m a self-confessed word nerd. As an English major, an avid reader, and a writer, words are important to me. I take pride in having a big vocabulary. I like to understand the roots and etymology of words. My husband is also an English major and a writer. His reading interests are probably wider than…
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Seven Years Later
The last two weeks I’ve talked about a hurricane and subsequent flood that we experienced in September of 2017. It was just five months after our younger daughter died in a car accident. Our 30-year-old, newlywed, moving-up-in-her-career, headstrong, sarcastic, kind-hearted, Jesus-loving daughter whose future we were looking forward to sharing. It felt like God was…
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After the Deluge
Last week I wrote about the hurricane we experienced over Labor Day weekend 2017. After the storm passed and everyone in the neighborhood breathed a sigh of relief that we had come out relatively unscathed, folks started pitching in clearing driveways, hauling branches off fences and roofs, and making room in fridges and freezers for…
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Weathering the Storm
We are in the middle of hurricane season here in the southeast US. My husband and I are pretty used to prepping for storms. He was born and raised in Florida and I’ve lived here 34 years. Still, we never take for granted the unpredictability of a hurricane, despite the interactive weather maps with cones…
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Outlet
Our house is in a rural area and we are on a well and septic tank. We have several filters and two different kinds of softeners to take things like tannins, lime, and iron out of the water. These filters have to be changed periodically. Prior to my husband’s knee replacement surgeries, he gave me…
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Do Overs
Parenting is fraught with guilt. Santa isn’t able to bring the exact bicycle your child wanted for Christmas. Zach can’t go on the spring break trip unless he has a job during winter holidays. Mama won’t allow Chelsea to wear her skirt as short as “all the other girls” do. Your child complains bitterly about…
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Different Yet the Same
Humankind is so wonderfully diverse. No two people, even so-called identical twins, are exactly the same. They may look alike. Their voices may sound alike. But, their personalities, their likes and dislikes aren’t identical. Growing up together, they share many of the same experiences, but not all. And, they may have differing reactions to a…
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At Least
I’ve written before about the things not to say to someone who is grieving. I don’t mean to be harsh or admonishing. I get it – it’s hard to know what to say, especially when you are caught off guard by someone’s grief. I’ve been in that uncomfortable situation when I didn’t know the person…
A Light for My Path 