In Biblical terms, making space to grieve is called “lament.” Lament is part of the process that brings us to hope. Like a splinter in your finger, it’s painful to begin with but it’s best to endure the “yuckiness” of tweezing it out in order to heal.
Put very simply, to lament is to name your pain or suffering and give yourself permission to feel all the feelings you have regarding it. It takes honesty. And it needs to be expressed in some way outside your head.
Read MoreThere are no rules to this growing-in-community thing. It can look different in each friendship circle. Jesus set the example with his disciples. He called them his “brothers” (Matthew 12:49, NIV). They met for prayer, for meals, and for ministry.
Have you ever re-read a favorite story from your childhood and thought, “Woah, were these messages in there the whole time?”
Something happens when we read children’s stories. Our hearts are open to messages of love and fear, struggles and redemption in ways that we would never grasp in a Sunday sermon.
Yes, they are great for my children, but hold on, they are good for me too!
Through a story written for children, my heart received the tender care it needed from my loving Father. His message of unconditional love got in. It cemented itself in my heart forever. It is part of me now.
That’s the power of children’s stories as soul care.
Read MoreWhether it’s infertility, secondary infertility, or the complex wait of adoption, countless women have gone through Sarah’s transformation from Waiting Mother to Expectant Mother. Just like Sarah, an unexpected message at an unexpected time changed my laughter from laughter of despair to laughter of joy.
God doesn’t owe us the details of his timing when he is about to fulfill a promise. But sometimes, by grace, we receive those details anyway. Laughing with joy is an appropriate response.
Read MoreDevotionals are a great way to start a habit of meeting daily in a Quiet Time with God. If you’d like help starting a daily devotion time, please email me or leave a comment below. I’d love to help you. I’m thankful for quality devotionals that lead me to a scripture and give me something to think on during a busy day or busy season.
Here are a few devotionals that I’ve had my hands on recently.
Read MoreYou give and take away. Blessed be your name.
It’s one thing to sing those words when life is sailing along fairly well. But to say them when you’re standing among the shards of life as you knew it — and life as you wanted it? It’s admittedly hard to declare in the face of deep loss.
I get that a loving God can give. We know that as our Heavenly Father, all good and perfect gifts are from above. God so loved the world that He gave. He tells us to come to Him and ask and He will give us what we need.
But it’s harder to embrace that a loving God could take away.
{Guest Post by Lisa Appelo}
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