Living God's plan for your life
5 Tasks of Grief
Dr. Susan J. Zonnebelt-Smeenge and Dr. Robert C. DeVries describe grief work as five tasks that must be completed. These five tasks do not have to be done in a specific order. They are like puzzle pieces: there are many different orders in which you can put them...
Secondary Losses
Losses never come as isolated events. They are either connected to other losses or they create ‘secondary losses’. The full impact of these may hit you later. At first, you may not even realize all the losses that will occur as a result of the primary loss you are...
1,000 Memories
When grieving the loss of a loved one, it is very helpful to become the historian and celebrate his or her life by writing about it. One way to do this is by compiling a list of 1,000 memories. There’s nothing magical about the number 1,000, but by the time you get to...
The worst grief and loss
Have you ever noticed that often a certain type of loss doesn’t seem as bad until it happens to you? The worst grief and loss is your own that you are experiencing at this time. This is an important concept in grief. Individuals facing loss and grief are subject to...
Secondary Wounders
When a person is in crisis or traumatized, the words we use, our tone of voice, and the suggestions we make have a bigger impact on them than they would normally have at other times in life. Our words can heal or they can harm. We need to say things that are...
Picking up the pieces
Do you ever feel like you are just picking up the pieces and starting over? I completely get that. I understand what it’s like to have a dream dissolve before your very eyes and what it means to lean on Christ to see you through and give you direction and purpose. I...
I knew it was coming
Anticipatory grief. You know a loss is coming and you begin grieving in advance. When I was pregnant with my twins, Isaac and David, I dealt with this. I was only 23 weeks pregnant when I went into labor. I spent 10 weeks in the hospital on bed rest to try to allow me...
In hot water…but it’s a good thing
I had the glorious experience of taking a hot shower today. Ok, maybe it wasn't so glorious, but it felt like it to me. I'm sure you must wonder what would make a hot shower so wonderful. Our hot water heater has not been working well and we got a new one...
Clutter in our lives
I’m going to….. With a new year, we sometimes get these big ideas that “I’m finally going to ______”. Often, one of those things we decide to do is organize our life or one of our living spaces. We see it even in the stores. They capitalize on everyone’s fresh start...
“Lovers of themselves”
I’ve been thinking about this post for a while. The topic’s a little painful, but something God’s really been working on me about. Our culture today is self-absorbed. “Lovers of themselves”. All about “me”. I’ve been trying to do a little self-reflection and really...
