Friday's Faith - Questioning God... after the Death of My Child

Friday's Faith

Questioning God...

after the Death of My Child

"This is a simple yet profound statement, and a true one...something God has shown me from the very earliest days after Mark passed, that NOTHING about God--not His goodness, His attributes, NOTHING about Him is changed or negated by my son's passing... He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  

And that matters, because grieving parents who know Christ rely on the fact that He is real, He is good, and heaven exists--and because that is true, we will be with our children again. Thank you SO MUCH Lord Jesus--for dying for our kids--for dying for us, so that we might spend eternity with You!!"

~Grieving Mother, Nancy Tuz, 

of "Christian Moms Who Grieve The Loss of a Child"

And I say,

Thank you to my grieving mother friend Nancy for reminding me of this profound Truth. 

I remember sitting on my couch just hours after the police officer had come to tell us our child had been killed. In my state of shock, I remember I had looked up to Heaven and said in my soul, 

"God, You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. When I prayed to You yesterday, You knew what was coming, yet You didn't stop it from happening...??? You are the same God I have been crying out to. You are the same God that loves her and guided me in how to love her. You knew what was coming, yet You allowed this to happen? And yet You are the same God today that You were yesterday...  ~ I don't understand…"

As a mother, if I had known for sure something was coming that would destroy my child and I had had the power to stop it, wouldn't I have stopped it? 

And yet, I know God is God, and He is altogether loving and good...

It can just be so confusing…

But I do know He holds my baby today, and yes, I will see her again! 

For now, I must live within the question... Faith is Living in the Question.

But I do know: for all eternity, my child is secure, and I will be with her again. And all because our Loving God was willing to give up His Only Son out of love for us on Christmas day, fully knowing the hell His Son Jesus would have to face on this earth, but He still sent Him... out of love for us. 

That is a love that defies all logic and overpowers all my questions. 

And so I thank my God with all my heart for His willingness to suffer such loss and sorrow for our sakes. 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

~John 3:16 (KJV)

And I join with my friend Nancy, and also pray, 

"Thank you SO MUCH Lord Jesus--for dying for our kids--for dying for us, so that we might spend eternity with You!!" 

Amen and Amen.

Picture, thanks to ~Love for All
KJV - King James Version of The Holy Bible

Thursday's Therapy - After Newtown...What Grieving Parents Need

Thursday's Therapy

After Newtown...What Grieving Parents Need

Many people ask about what to say in light of the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy. Here are some thoughts that may help. We are holding all these families up in prayer- Glenda

Speechless

This morning I watched the most glorious sunrise over the ocean.

The magnificence of God’s creation is hard to describe in words.

Even with all the beauty my heart is drawn to those grieving so intensely in Connecticut . There are not words to describe the pain that so many families feel this morning.

In silence I and probably you pray for them and wish that we could take their pain away. But we can’t.

In this moment words are inadequate to speak because they don’t have the power to change the reality of the devastation in the lives of these families.

Only God can comfort these aching hearts. He alone is the God of all comfort.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (2 Corinthians 1:3 KJV)

His Holy Spirit is able to comfort more completely and perfectly than we can. We must pray that in His way and power He will comfort all involved.

Perhaps our physical presence will be used in the lives of these families but it will be embracing arms and listening ears that are the biggest gifts to the grieving not words spoken.

If you find yourself in the presence of a grieving person give them the gift of your presence and don’t feel like you have to speak a word but just let them know you are sorry, you love them and most of all God loves them.

This is a good time to be speechless. Get comfortable with it!

~thanks to Glenda Parrish, co-author of

Finding Hope in Times of Grief

~~~~~

Top 10 gift ideas for a grieving person

1. A listening ear.. As stated (in the above article).

2. Prayer.

3. A note of encouragement with a sweet memory of their loved one.

4. A piece of jewelry with name of loved one.

5. Starbucks or appropriate gift card that will encourage an outing when they are ready.

6. A gift certificate for manicure or massage.

7. A journal.

8. Scripture cards.

9. For children stuffed animal that they can cuddle.

10. A book such as Finding Hope In Times of Grief but many can't really concentrate well for six months to a year.

~thanks to Glenda Parrish, co-author of 

Finding Hope in Times of Grief

~~~~~

Strategies to Help Bear Our Anguish

By CHRISTY MATTA, MA 

After the tragic shooting in Newtown Connecticut last Friday, many have good reason to feel anguish, despair and misery.

These events touched many families personally. For those of us not directly affected, they can still leave us with feelings of horror and wanting to hold our loved ones near.

As a nation and as individuals, we could not possibly have anticipated or planned to have to deal with the emotional consequences of such an event. And yet here we are… many of us saddened, enraged and overwhelmed.

In the midst of tragedy and crisis, it can feel as if life is spinning out of control.  An event like this can remind us of devastating events from the past, which in turn can trigger thoughts and emotions connected to our own personal misfortunes and heartbreak.

We can’t change what has happened, but we can use a few strategies can help get through intense painful feelings and do what needs to be done in our daily lives.

• Turn off the news. Give yourself permission to take a break from the images, thoughts and emotions related to this tragic event.  As with a car accident, when something terrifying or tragic occurs, we can feel compelled to watch and gather information about the event.  But it’s important to your emotional well-being to get a break from it.
• Distract yourself. If you’re plagued by persistent thoughts or painful emotions, try engaging in physical or mental activities that take your mind off of it.  You might try things such as going to a movie, exercising, doing a puzzle or playing a video game.
• Help others. One of the most effective ways to feel better is to help others.  Whether it’s volunteering for a charity, watching a neighbors pet or saying kind words to someone else, helping others can improve how you are feeling.
• Do something opposite to how you’re feeling. You may be feeling angry, sad or depressed.  Don’t take lightly the impact a pleasant experience can have on your mood and emotions.  Some things you might try include watching a funny TV show, talking to a light-hearted friend or listening to comforting holiday songs or upbeat music.
• Soothe yourself. Often when we’re in the midst of painful emotions we neglect to do the things that can make us feel calm and relaxed. You might try lighting a scented candle, baking cookies, wearing soft clothing, putting on a special scented lotion or looking at pictures of loved ones or special times.

When you have good reason to feel bad, it can be hard to regain your equilibrium and get through normal daily activities.  A few simple coping strategies can make a bigger difference than you might expect.

If feelings triggered by the tragic events in Newtown Connecticut are interfering with your ability to function, it’s essential that you employ strategies that will help you bear the moment and get through this difficult time.  These strategies or seeking help from a professional are important.

~~~~~

Connecticut Catastrophe: 

How Do You Face The Loss of Children?

By SUZANNE PHILLIPS, PSY.D., ABPP

One of our necessary beliefs is that children are safe in school with their teachers. One of the reassurances we make to our little ones is that nothing bad will ever happen in Kindergarten.

Today a small community in Connecticut saw those beliefs shattered as eight adults and 20 children were violently killed.

What do you say when children are killed?

The most realistic answer, I have found is given by author, Charlie Walton, a father who himself lost his two sons in one night. What Charlie Walton urges friends, family and loved ones to understand is that when children die – there are no words.Words are insufficient to explain what has happened.

In his powerful little book When There are No Words: Finding Your Way to Cope with Loss and Grief, he clarifies that in the first hours and days of such loss, there is nothing he could say to himself and nothing that anyone else could say to him to make it right. There is nothing right about the death of children.

While the violent loss in Connecticut has broken hearts and stolen words  – it does not take away the connections and power of loved ones to ease and help contain pain. We have learned through trauma outreach that the most viable sources of response are the familiar networks of support.

• The family, friends, and neighbors who just show up to take care of the daily needs of those grieving.
• The parents whose bond to each other helps them walk together through this nightmare
• The Moms and Dads who in holding their big and small children closer, with or without words, reduce the horror of what was experienced, witnessed or even seen on the media.
• The Spiritual Caregivers whose presence affords a safe haven for many.

In this early stage of excruciating and bewildering loss – we know that a crucial step to easing pain and to feeling some emotional safety is to know you are not alone.

This is an unfathomable tragedy of loss by so many. A nation watches in tears. A nation hopes that the families feel their collective support.

1st two articles are from Finding Hope in Times of Grief


Third article: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/19/strategies-to-help-bear-our-anguish/

Christy Matta M.A. is a trainer, consultant and writer. She is the author of "The Stress Response: How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Free You from Needless Anxiety, Worry, Anger, and Other Symptoms of Stress." 

Christy has worked in mental health since 1994, is intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy(DBT) and has extensive training in Mindfulness. She is an experienced group leader and trainer in both Mindfulness and DBT Skills Groups. Christy blogs regularly for Psych Central at Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood.

Last article: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/healing-together/2012/12/connecticut-catastrophe-how-do-you-face-the-loss-of-children/

Suzanne B. Phillips, Psy.D., ABPP is a licensed psychologist. She is Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Doctoral Program of Long Island University and on the faculty of the Post-Doctoral Programs of the Derner Institute of Adelphi University. Suzanne Phillips, PsyD and Dianne Kane are the authors of Healing Together: A Couple's Guide to Coping with Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress. Learn more about their work at couplesaftertrauma.com . Visit Suzanne's Facebook Page HERE.

Wednesday's Woe - Triggered Trauma, Triggered Trauma ~Tommy Prince

How We Survive

If we are fortunate, we are given a warning.

If not, there is only the sudden horror,

the wrench of being torn apart:

of being reminded that nothing is permanent,

not even the ones we love,

the ones our lives revolve around.

Life is a fragile affair.

We are all dancing on the edge of a precipice,

a dizzying cliff so high we can't see the bottom.

One by one, we lose those we love most 

into the dark ravine.

So we must cherish them without reservation.

Now. Today. This minute.

We will lose them or they will lose us someday.

This is certain.

There is no time for bickering.

And their loss will leave a great pit in our hearts:

a pit we struggle to avoid during the day and fall into at night.

Some, unable to accept this loss, 

unable to determine the worth of life without them,

jump into that black pit spiritually or physically,

hoping to find them there.

And some survive the shock, the denial, the horror, 

the bargaining, the barren empty aching, the unanswered prayers,

the sleepless nights when their breath is crushed

under the weight of silence and all that it means.

Somehow, some survive all that and,

like a flower opening after a storm, 

they slowly begin to remember

the one they lost in a different way…

The laughter, the irrepressible spirit, the generous heart,

the way their smile made them feel, 

the encouragement they gave even as their own dreams were dying.

We will still cry. 

We will always cry.

But with loving reflection 

more than hopeless longing. 

And that is how we survive.

That is how the story should end. 

That is how they would want it to be.

~Mark Rickerby

Wednesday's Woe

Triggered Trauma, 

Triggered Trauma

~Tommy Prince

Personally, what has happened when we have tried to watch the news about the December 14th tragedy on television, is... Triggered Trauma. We wanted to know what was going on, but we couldn't deal with the magnitude of what happened. 

It is too devastating to take in…

Just like it was too devastating hearing the police officer say that Merry Katherine was killed...

I couldn't function. I couldn't breathe. Everything slowed down. It felt like I had been hit with a stun gun. I couldn't take in the magnitude of what he was speaking. It was difficult to focus. I couldn't complete small tasks. And I was overcome with an overwhelming sense of sadness.

I am experiencing some of the same symptoms after hearing about the December 14th mass shooting. On a smaller scale, but still it has had a powerful impact on me...

I am undone. 

If it has impacted me like this, and I am far away from the location of the tragedy, as I think about the child-loss parents, the surviving children, the surviving staff, and the community around them, I cannot imagine what they are going through. 

But then again, unfortunately, I know something that they don't: 

They Have No Idea What They Are In For In The Days Ahead...

The media attempting to cover the trauma is doing a totally inadequate job of even coming close to capturing what all these victims are in for. The media can never communicate to the country at large (or the world for that matter) what these people are going to be facing in the coming days, months, years, and even lifetimes ahead.

But then again, some things are unspeakable...

Tuesday's Trust - "A Snowy Wish" ~Grieving Mother, Maggie Helton Sims

Tuesday's Trust

"A Snowy Wish"

~Grieving Mother, Maggie Helton Sims

A poem from my fellow-grieving-mother friend, Maggie… This poem was published in a grief magazine this time last year. ~Many thanks to Maggie for sharing this with all of us!




A Snowy Wish

I wish you could see what I see -
White soft flakes floating to the ground.
Sitting proudly on the tree branches
Making white what was earlier so brown.

I wish you were here to enjoy this scene
To run and to romp in laughter.
Taking us back to a different time
When we expected happily ever after.

I wish you could feel the frigid cold air
Briskly rushing against your sweet face.
Turning noses and cheeks a bright cherry red,
While little snow angels you trace.

I wish once again that I could observe
As you launch weapons of snow at your sister;
Tripping and falling into the deep snow
As your snowballs just barely miss her.

I wish we still had the little round sled
That your dad used to tote you around;
Ending the day so cold and so bruised
After tumbling and toppling frozen ground.

I wish you were sitting next to the fire
Sipping hot chocolate and warming your fingers.
Describing to me your fun-filled afternoon
As the bright, snowy day no more lingers.

Today the snow falls and achingly I wish
That you and I could share this vision.
I trust that the place that is your home now
Is much whiter than what I envision.

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,”
And we would be together.
My wish is that when the time is right,
You and I will share forever.


~Maggie Helton Sims










Picture, thanks to Grieving Mother, Jill Compton

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

Saturday's Sayings - What is Grief? - Part Four ~Grieving Mother, Debra Carter and many grieving mothers...

Saturday's Sayings

What is Grief?

Part Four

~Grieving Mother, 

Debra Carter 

and many grieving mothers...

What is Grief?

~via vintage pics

• Grief is an accountability session. 

~~~~~

~via Angel Mommy Creations

• Grief is a protest, a temper tantrum, a refusal to give up without a fight over something that is already gone.

~~~~~

~Lessons Learned in Life

• Grief is saying 'screw you for leaving me.'

~~~~~

~via Grieving Father, Dennis Apple

• Grief is saying 'God forgive you because I can't.' 

~~~~~

~via "Lessons Learned in Life"

• Grief is a confession of regrets. 

~~~~~

~vintage pics

• Grief is an intense negotiation over events that have already happened, a barrage of what-if's and if-only's.

~~~~~

You look deep in thought.

I wasn't. I never go deep in thought.

Why not?

Because going deep in thought always ends in uncontrollable sobbing.

~via tumblr vintage pictures

• Grief is wondering why fate chose them and not us.

~~~~~

~via vintage pics

• Grief is knowing we do not deserve to be alive any more than our loved one deserves to be dead.

~~~~~

~In Memory of Lost Loved Ones

• Grief is admitting that there was no gold in the pan.

~To Be Continued...

Friday's Faith - Requiem: Eric Wolterstorff in Memoriam - Part VI: Christian Hope

"Behold I am making all things new. 

I am the Alpha and the Omega, 

the first and the last, 

the beginning and the end." 

~Revelation 21

Friday's Faith

Requiem: Eric Wolterstorff in Memoriam

Part VI:

Christian Hope

Part VI

We have seen a great mystery:

We shall all be changed.

We shall be raised in Christ

…..as we were buried in Christ.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

The dwelling of God will be with his people.

God will wipe every tear from their eyes;

…..and death shall be no more.

…..There shall be no mourning, no crying nor

…..pain;

…..sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

For the old things are disappearing.

Revelation 21

The poor will be raised from the dust;

…..the sorrowing, lifted up from their ashes.

Song of Hannah

Those who sowed in tears

shall reap with songs of joy.

Psalm 126

For the word of the Lord is peace.

Psalm 85

"Behold, I am making all things new.

I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the beginning and the end."

Revelation 21

Requiem: Eric Wolterstorff in Memoriam, by Cary Ratcliff
quoted from Lament for a Son, by Grieving Father, Nicholas Wolterstorff

Thursday's Therapy - What Is PTSD?

Thursday's Therapy

What is PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a severe anxiety disorder that develops following exposure to extreme psychological trauma. Throughout history, PTSD has also been known as Railway Spine, Stress Syndrome, Shell Shock, Battle Fatigue and Traumatic War Neurosis.

About 5.2 Million Adults Suffer from PTSD during a given year. 

About 7 - 8% of people in the United States will have PTSD at some point in their lives.

About 10% of women develop PTSD some time in their lives, compared with only 5% of men.

About 30% of Vietnam veterans experience PTSD.

About 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans experience PTSD.

About 11-20% of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars experience PTSD.

What is a Traumatic Event?

• Witnessing Death or Injury

• Physical Assault

• Combat

• Sexual Assault

• Accidents

• Natural Disaster

• Child Sexual Abuse

Note of Interest

A 2008 Study estimated that 300,000 U. S. Soldiers would return from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD -- and too few would receive treatment.

What are Symptoms of PTSD?

• Numbness

• Guilt

• Anger

• Bad Memory

• Hopelessness

• Self-Destruction

• Nightmares

• No Focus

• Shame

• Insomnia

• Hallucinations 

• Flashbacks

Note of Interest

One of the first descriptions of PTSD was made in 490 B.C. when Herodotus described an Athenian soldier going blind after witnessing the death of a fellow soldier.

What Causes PTSD?

• Direct exposure to trauma as a victim or witness

• Serious harm during a traumatic event

• Feeling helpless during a traumatic event.

• Belief that you or a close relative were in danger during a traumatic event.

• Experiencing a trauma that was long lasting or very severe.

Content via  http://ptsddiary.com/?page_id=916

Wednesday's Woe - "Look What You Can't Have!" ~Tommy Prince

Wednesday's Woe

"Look What You Can't Have!"

~Tommy Prince

Just before awakening this morning, I dreamed about Merry Katherine… Cruel and inhuman punishment. It's like going to a funeral over… and over… and over.

In the middle of the dream, what happens is, I am felling a sense of well-being. This is the way life is supposed to be… She is here---at home where she is supposed to be---just getting her things organized.

There's an abruptness to it when I wake up. It's like we've talked about before on the blog ~ It's like going to the starting blocks over and over and over… Revisiting that whole thing of, "She really isn't here anymore." And because of that abruptness, it takes me several days just to get back to the functioning level.

One of the many things Merry Katherine and I had in common was a love of good music. In the dream, we were just going through some c.d.s --- I found one that was hers.  

"Here, do you want to listen to this?"  

A normal occurrence that was so refreshing because it was so normal. 

I awaken only to discover I'm thrown back to Square One.

It's as though, like cancer, my trauma and pain goes into remission temporarily, and then it comes back out ~ with a vengeance.

It's like a 

"Gotcha! Look what you can't have!"

Like with Angie…  

She sat down yesterday to have her coffee, and the house was empty. Peace and Quiet. And all of a sudden, the grief surfaces, and eight kleenexes later, she's in a pile, in touch with the abject reality of missing her baby, all over again. (That is the state she was in as she wrote the poem she  put in yesterday's blog post.)

Just now, as she's writing this post, her tears are flowing again; the kleenex come back out. The unbearable pain surfaces as she relives the normalcy of having our baby "back" even as she hears the details of my dream. 

Again, the gut-wrenching tears flow, as if, like a mine-drilling, it's like the "oil" gushes up from the heart of her soul, as her heart and soul dredge up a tiny portion of their pain. . .

It's time to go back to bed. 

Oh wait, now the bed is not a sanctuary for me… Lately, just trying to get rest is the source of my pain!

Whether it's sitting down to the quiet, or having the space in your life to have dreams, it seems our grief will "out"… one way or another. This is a snapshot of grief at six years…

Tuesday's Trust - A Mother's Cross

Tuesday's Trust

A Mother's Cross

What can extricate me

From this terrible pain?

I must train my eyes to see

My loss is still her gain…

But O this is such a terrible loss!

(…Yet she sees her Master upon the cross...

He gave His all that her child might live;

She bowed her head and humbly said,)

"Lord, what can I give?"

"My child, you're bearing the world's worst pain

That your child may have Me, her eternal gain.

It's a Sacred Trust you bear for love;

She's resting now in her Home above.

"So remember each time you shed a tear,

I draw your baby ever near:

Your salty tears she helps me collect

For by each tear, your souls connect!"

Paroxysms of grief begin to flow

As my love flows up from here below.

"My painful tears are the least I can give,

You gave Your life that my baby might live!

"The birth pangs from here to bear her There

Are this mother's sacrifice, 

As, Lord, our Sacrificial Love for her,

 Together, we might share."

~~~~~

"I believe that writing is an account of the powers of extrication."

~John Cheever, Journals  

~~~

"What is healing, but a shift in perspective." 

~Mark Doty, Heaven's Coast   

~~~

"I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means."

~Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

~~~

~quotes gathered and shared by Louise De Salvo in her book, 

Writing as a Way of Healing

~~~~~

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book."

   

~Psalm 56:8 ~ New Living Translation (©2007)

~~~

"But now, like a woman in childbirth,

.......I cry out, I gasp and pant."

~Isaiah 42:14b New International Version (©1984)

~~~

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

'For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

~Romans 8:22-29 New International Version (©1984)

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"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." ~John 16:21 New International Version (©1984)

Poem - A Mother's Cross - Angie Bennett Prince - 12/10/2012