Showing posts with label Death of Our Children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death of Our Children. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Tuesday's Trust - by His grace...






Tuesday's Trust 

by His grace...

  





"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 

~2 Corinthians 12:9


~~~


by His grace...


We cannot climb into another's pain
Nor imagine their distraught
That consumed their heart to make them wane
And leave them so overwrought,

But we can climb into God's arms
To ask Him ever to hold
Our dearly beloved safe in His arms
And into His heart, to closely enfold.

We cannot know the ways of God,
Of how He holds the fragile sparrow,
Or how He holds our little ones
Who may fall upon His road so narrow...

But we can know that His great love
Overcomes all our weaknesses and fears
And takes us safely to Him above,
Who lovingly awaits to wipe away our tears. 

Such tender hearts belong to Him;
He guards them all the way,
Even, and especially, when days grow dim,
When they can't see the light to find their way,

For He alone created the miracle that brought them here
To grace this earth and be with us awhile;
So too, He alone could return them Home
To restore their souls, and return the gleams unto their smile.

So He alone can come alongside
Us grieving dads and mothers
Who long for our children through this long while
For despite the pain and the angst that still smothers,

He sends His comfort and soothes our hearts,
While our little ones from our sides are briefly torn away…
Restoring the Hope for when we nevermore will part,
On that blissful, Eternal, Life-giving Day.

Thank You dear Lord for Your Life-giving Grace;
May it ever spur us on, as it did our child, 
As You work in each of our hearts with Your mercy mild,
As we, too, falteringly flail on, until we too finish our race,
And then, by Love's great mercy, we'll see You face to face!


~~~


Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.…

~Hebrews 12:1-2 (New American Standard)


~~~




Dedicated to Merry Katherine and all our deceased children, and to Andrew, a friend of Merry Katherine's, a beautiful, bright, and caring young man, captain of his State-Championship high-school soccer team, one-year younger than Merry Katherine, who died just 2 weeks after Merry Katherine had been killed… 

Andrew, along with his brother, had just sent us a sweet note of condolence just a few days after Merry Katherine's death. May God be with precious Andrew's mother and daddy and two brothers who are left behind in their great grief… 

Thank You God that Merry Katherine and Andrew, and so many others of our children just like them, because of Your great love for them, have all been safely escorted Home where we all may meet again.










Poem - by His grace… ~Angie Bennett Prince - August 19, 2013

Monday, January 14, 2013

Tuesday's Trust Permission to Grieve: ~Lisa Menz Kirkland, A Mother Grieving Two Children Shares...






Tuesday's Trust

Permission to Grieve:

~Lisa Menz Kirkland, 

A Mother Grieving Two Children Shares...






I hope y'all don't mind, but I'd like to share another piece that I wrote after my son was killed. As you know, I've lost both of my kids.

I want to let those closest to me try to understand what I am feeling these days. I've done my best to put it into words, even though there is so much more. I cant describe all of my emotions, but maybe this will help.





Sometimes I'm forgetful, cant concentrate and seem distracted....

I'm not losing my mind, I've just lost my kids



Sometimes I ache all over and have a hard time getting out of bed.....

I'm not a hypochondriac....my body and soul ache for my kids



Somedays I seem short tempered and angry.....

I don't need anger management....I just need my kids



Sometimes you might see me staring off into space….I'm not daydreaming, my mind is reliving all that has happened.



If I walk around looking like I've lost my best friend....

well, I have.



If you see me have mood swings, unexpected tears or random emotions....

I'm not hormonal, I just don't know what I will be feeling next.



If I seem cold during the holidays and I'm not filled with joy at Christmastime right now....

I'm not hard-hearted, just trying to grow a new one.



If I turn down your church invitations and seem mad at God right now.....

I haven't turned my back on Him. I have questions and I know He'll be right here for me when I'm ready.



When you see me sad, depressed or listless, don't worry......

I'm not suicidal, I'm trying to learn how to live again.



and if you just don't know what to say....

just say a prayer for me.



Love, Lisa


~Grieving Mother Lisa Menz Kirkland 
via ~Grieving Mother Darlene Thomas 
via ~Grieving Mothers


Thank you to Lisa Menz Kirkland for sharing her broken heart with us. Lisa graciously has given us permission to share her writing as we feel led. 

My heart and prayers are with you Lisa as you grieve your precious children...










Picture - thanks to "Grief, the Unspoken"

Monday, December 17, 2012

Monday's Mourning Ministry - Heaven - Dedicated to All Those Who Lost Precious Ones on December 14th... ~Mike Posner









Monday's Mourning Ministry

Heaven

Dedicated to All Those Who Lost 

Precious Ones on December 14th...


~Mike Posner






Last night, a dear Grieving Mother shared this song with me on Facebook...



"To the Victims' families:
I hope this will help just a tiny, tiny
bit to ease the pain of your loss.
Maybe this will make sense in Heaven."


Heaven

~Mike Posner

To the families of the December 14th tragedy...



Today we shed our tears for you
Tomorrow we do it all again
They say that time will make it better
I think about what could have been...

Still...
I believe that there's a whole lot of good people
I believe that there's a Light
And I believe in more than things I can see, my love
And I know this isn't right

But maybe this will make sense in Heaven
And I'll understand why you're gone
Maybe this will make sense in Heaven
'Cause right now it don't make sense at all...

Today my prayers are in the sky
Tomorrow they'll still be there for you
They say that time will make it better
And I hope that what they say is true...

'Cause I believe that there's a whole lot of good people
I believe that there's a Light
And I believe in more than things I can see my love
And I know this isn't right

But maybe this will make sense in Heaven
And I'll understand why you're gone
Maybe this will make sense in Heaven
'Cause right now this don't make sense at all

Yeah right now it don't make sense at all...




  • Please take time to prayer for the families of those that lost their earthly life in Connecticut:
  • We all understand the journey they have begun as they grieve their precious loss..
  • Here are names:

  • Charlotte Bacon (2/22/06), 6 years old, female
  • Daniel Barden (9/25/05), 7 years old, male
  • Rachel Davino (7/17/83), Staff member, 29 years old, female
  • Olivia Engel (7/18/06), 6 years old, female
  • Josephine Gay (12/11/05), 7 years old, female
  • Ana M. Marquez-Greene (4/4/06), 6 years old, female
  • Dylan Hockley (3/8/06), 6 years old, male
  • Dawn Hochsprung (6/28/65), Principal, 47 years old, female
  • Madeleine F. Hsu (7/10/06), 6 years old, female
  • Catherine V. Hubbard (6/8/06), 6 years old, female
  • Chase Kowalski (10/31/05), 7 years old, male
  • Nancy Lanza, 52 years old, female (mother of shooter Adam Lanza)
  • Jesse Lewis (6/30/06), 6 years old, male
  • James Mattioli (03/22/06), 6 years old, male
  • Grace McDonnell (11/4/05), 7 years old, female
  • Anne Marie Murphy (7/25/60), Staff member, 52 years old, female
  • Emilie Parker (05/12/06), 6 years old, female
  • Jack Pinto (05/05/06), 6 years old, male
  • Noah Pozner (11/20/06), 6 years old, male
  • Caroline Previdi (9/07/06), 6 years old, female
  • Jessica Rekos (5/10/06), 6 years old, female
  • Avielle Richman (11/17/06) 6 years old, female
  • Lauren Rousseau (June 1982), Staff member, 30 years old, female
  • Mary Sherlach (2/11/56), Staff member, 56 years old, female
  • Victoria Soto (11/04/85), Staff member, 27 years old, female
  • Benjamin Wheeler (09/12/06), 6 years old, male
  • Allison N. Wyatt (07/03/06), 6 years old, female









Sentiments, thanks to "Writing Through Your Grief"
Picture of Jesus praying over the school, thanks to ~grieving mother, Pat Dattoli Wentworth
Graphic of the Children's names, thanks to "Writing Through Your Grief"
Grief Video ~http://youtu.be/Jy3qplsjH1g


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Wednesday's Woe - Writing About Our Children







Wednesday's Woe

Writing About Our Children




I am in the process of reading and ordering some books by other broken-hearted parents who have written about having lost their precious child,  (Swish: Maria in the Mourning by Pamela Palmer Mutino; Farther Along: The Writing Journey of Thirteen Bereaved Mothers by Carol Henderson; Branch in His Hand by Sharon Charde, Who Is Kim Cress? by Gina Lay, and Beautiful Nate: A Memoir of a Family's Love, a Life Lost, and Eternal Promises by Dennis Mansfield).

Even now, I have tears streaming down for all of these grieving parents. The newest book, soon to appear on the market (March, 2013), is Dennis Mansfield's book Beautiful Nate, about his 27-year-old son Nate who had been struggling with a drug problem before his ultimate death. Dennis had been on the staff of James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" for years. (I was introduced to Dennis by another Christian brother, as soon as this brother learned that Dennis had just lost his son, meeting him on Twitter of all places!)   

Mansfield's excerpt brought tears as it so resonated with mine and Tommy's feelings after having worked in the Christian helping field, trying to save marriages and families all our adult life… only to lose our only daughter to death … A quote from his book description says it so well:

(In regard to) "faith and family…even when you follow all the "rules, "life can go very wrong."


Here is the poignant excerpt from Dennis Mansfield's new book (Click "View Full Note" at the bottom of his entry):


You may have to go here first before you can read the excerpt:




One of Dennis's readers asked him, 


"I am wondering if writing this book was a healing experience for you?"

Here is Dennis's answer:

Dennis Mansfield "Nancy - a good question. It could well have been a helpful tool that God used in having me see Him more clearly, but not really a 'healing' tool in the sense of accepting Nate's behavior and his death.

"There is no true healing with an amputation. There's only ghost-limb movements that an entire family knows will always be there.

"And there is Heaven, waiting for those who see this life as it is - a vapor, here today and then gone. Yet we remain forever. That's where Nate is and where we'll be."

(highlights, mine)


~May God bless each of you amidst your own severe "amputation"…












Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Blessed Independence Day









Thanks to all those who serve and all who have served that we may have our freedom ...


And thanks to all the moms who lost a child, dying to protect our freedom. 




~With great thanks to my readers for all you have sacrificed in loving your child, 


... may each of you have a blessed day, feeling God's loving arms around you.




~Thankful to God that we may have yet another 

Blessed Independence Day ~










Picture, thanks to grieving mother, P. Rogers

Monday, May 30, 2011

Grieving Mother Alert!


Grieving Mother Alert!



Dear Blog Readers,

Please read my fellow grieving mother and blog friend's blog post regarding her child's death and of the local officials' inaction to thoroughly investigate her child's death:

http://mamapundit.com/


Please check out this precious grieving-mother friend's petition to our courts to get her child's death thoroughly investigated. If you find it in your heart to do so, please sign your name to her petition either today or tomorrow! (No matter where you live, you may sign her petition.) Below is my note that I added when I signed her petition today:


http://www.change.org/petitions/justice-for-henry-granju


Dearest Katie,


I am so sorry that your precious child's death has not been thoroughly investigated here in Knox County. It is a travesty and an outrage that a death so heinous and so callously treated by adults who had every resource available to them to assist your son to get the help he needed when he was completely unable to help himself has continued to be cruelly and callously treated, to my understanding, by our local officials whom we helped to vote into office who also have every resource at hand to bring justice to your son and to your family but are refusing to do so.


I am appalled and outraged by such despicable treatment by those who are in a position to take the due course of action that justice demands. If the "powers that be" do not do their jobs to protect our citizens and work to bring about justice when they could not protect our citizens, may all our voices continue to be heard in the voting booths and in the public forum.


Your friend and fellow grieving mother,


Angie



To sign the petition, click "Sign Petition" in left side bar of my blog, or cut and paste the following to your browser :


http://www.change.org/petitions/justice-for-henry-granju





Thank you!