Sunday's Sorrow ~ Good Mourning!

Sunday's Sorrow

Good Mourning!

Good Morning!

(Welcome again to my world of sadness.)

Or shall I say, "Good Mourning!"

As I celebrate my child who brought me gladness...

Tears flow~

As I remember my child's and my love for one another…

Must they slow?

No! Such is the life of a Grieving Mother!

Good Mourning!

Do not let the world tell you your tears are bad ~

Our tears are simply God's reminder of what we had ~

Good Mourning!

Every grieving mother knows

Cherishing our child's love is worth being sad!

Good Mourning!

So until we reach Heaven, our tears must flow!

The tears that represent our sacred treasure,

others ~who are blind~ will call "fools gold"!

Good Mourning!

As our Lord said, "Blessed are those who mourn" ~

We, of all people then, are blessed beyond measure!

Good Mourning!

Poem - Good Mourning! - Angie Bennett Prince - April 2, 2016

~~~~~

Grief is not a disease;

it is not an illness;

it is not depression.

It is, in fact,

an expression

of love.

Grief can only 

be a disease

if love is.

~Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, 

fellow psychotherapist and grieving mother

Tuesday's Trust - A Non-Bereaved Almost "Gets It" ~Dory ~with C. S. Lewis

Tuesday's Trust

A Non-Bereaved Almost "Gets It"

~Dory

~with C. S. Lewis

Grieving Like a Christian

We have had two losses among our Christian friends and acquaintances recently. One was a teenage boy who drowned while canoeing, leaving his recently widowed mother and six siblings. Another was a thirty-four year-old mother of two young children who died after a long battle with cancer. Losses like these leave us saddened, stunned, and sometimes even angry. As Christians, though, we can face death and suffering without despair, for our hope is in Jesus Christ, the Giver of Life, the Conqueror of Death.

Yet it seems that Christians sometimes think that if we outwardly show the sorrows we feel, we are somehow demonstrating a lack of faith. In order to honor God, we reason, we must accept His frowning providences without even a flinch, like an abused boy accepts his whippings. This stoicism can become a mere exercise of will, so that what appears to be piety and faith is actually a work of prideful flesh.

God loves life and hates death. He is sovereign over death, and He ordains it, yet He made the ultimate sacrifice--Himself--to secure its ultimate destruction. If we love Him, we should love what He loves and hate what He hates. When we love life, we mourn the loss of it. When we hate death, we are angered by its destructive force.

Grieving like a Christian does not mean we do not grieve. It means we grieve without despair. We crawl into our Father's lap and lay our tear-stained cheeks on His shoulder, and trust that what He ordains is always right, will always work out well in the end, and that all our losses will one day be restored to us. It is running to Him and asking, "Tell me again the story of what You have done and what You will do to destroy this enemy." It is going to Him and asking for the strength and comfort we need to face the new reality of our temporary, mortal lives--a reality without someone we have grown to love, without someone we are used to having as a part of our lives and perhaps mistakenly assumed would always be there. It is knowing that although there is loss, all is not lost.

God does not tell us we will not have sorrows.

He tells us that He will be our comfort in sorrow.

He does not tell us we will not have tears.

He tells us He will be there with us to wipe our tears away.

He does not tell us there will not be times to mourn.

He tells us that on the other side of that mourning is the promise of joy indescribable.

~by Dory, {highlights mine} (Please see bio bottom of page, or click Permalink below)

Posted by Dory on February 21, 2006 at 09:24 PM in Christian Living | Permalink

*****

If a mother is mourning not for what she has lost but for what her dead child has lost, it is a comfort to believe that the child has not lost the end for which it was created. And it is a comfort to believe that she herself, in losing her chief or only natural happiness, has not lost a greater thing, that she may still hope to ‘glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’

A comfort to the God-aimed eternal spirit within her.

But not to her motherhood.

The specifically maternal happiness must be written off.

Never, in any place or time, will she have her son on her knees, or bathe him, or tell him a story, or plan for his future, or see her grandchild...

~C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

*****

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly.

Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively.

But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.

~C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Picture: Thanks to www.123rf.com

Dory's bio:

Dory is a 40-something wife and mother who is the principal of a classical Christian school. She enjoys reading, writing, gardening, researching her family history, and taking an active part in her PCA church, all with her feet in this world and her eyes looking toward the next. She believes the Scriptures are the perfect Word of God. She believes she would be undone were it not for the electing grace of God the Father, the redeeming work of God the Son, and the quickening and sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit.

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Tuesday's Trust - Getting Through: Walking Through Child-Loss Grief

Tuesday's Trust

Getting Through:

Walking Through Child-Loss Grief

Getting through, Getting through...

Is that all by grief I do?

Lord, Your children walked with You

Through the desert a time or two,

Time not wasted, time not spent

Without merit, their spirits rent.

Who's to know what makes us strong?

Muscles weakened, tested, tried...

Counter-intuitive, but not wrong...

Test my heart, by faith abide...

Getting through, Getting through...

Is that all by grief I do?

Who's to know the way of the Lord?

The Way of Weeping brings reward!

Others fear our hearts are torn...

(You say,) "Blessed are those who mourn."

Who's to say that tears aren't right?

Deepest love stirs deepest mourning!

(You say,) "Weeping endures for the night

But joy cometh in the morning."

Be our Fire that guides by night;

Be our Cloud that guides by day.

Who's to say grieving's not right?

We look to You to show the way...

Getting through, Getting through...

Is this all by grief I do?

As long as You lead the way --

Fire at night, Cloud by day...

Time with You amidst the fire

Quickens hearts as You inspire.

Getting through, Getting through...

Is this all by grief I do?

Do not fear. God knows the way

Through Grief's Desert, our Desert Storm.

Look to God to lead the way;

His heart burns for all who mourn.

He'll quench grief's thirst along the way.

Getting through, Getting through...

Is that all by grief I do?

If that's My way, will you follow?

What's grief to you, my precious child?

My Child died...yours to reconcile...

O my Lord,

"Thank You for such sacrifice!

You lead, I'll follow," says Your humbled child...

*****

The LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, that they might travel day and night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

~Exodus 13:21-22

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.

~Ephesians 5:1

Picture: http://bit.ly/gZV9sT

Poem - Getting Through - Angie Bennett Prince - 12/27/10