1104 results for author: Ashlee Schmidt
Hope: The Reason We Celebrate
Nine. Nine Christmases without my baby boy. Nine years of slowly driving around town, sipping hot chocolate, looking at Christmas lights, and wondering which house would be his favorite. Nine years of walking down the boy toy aisle at Target and choking back tears. Nine years of feeling like a big part of my heart is missing during the holidays.
As a grieving mother, it feels like pain and sadness just come out of nowhere, especially during the holidays. If you’ve had to excuse yourself from a party because you just can’t seem to hold back the tears anymore, you are not alone. If looking a teeny, tiny Christmas jammies have made you start ...
Healing and Hope at Christmas
“What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
Who is this who lives with the lowly,
Sharing their sorrows, knowing their hunger?
This is Christ, revealed to the world
In the eyes of a child, a child of the poor.
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.”
Two of my favorite Christmas songs are What Child Is This? and Child of the Poor. Their haunting melodies draw me in to reflect on the lowly humanity of Christ and then worship Him as Savior.
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Links for Hope Moms: Holiday Edition
We want to share with you links to posts, videos, and resources from around the web to uplift, help, and encourage you in your walk with the Lord as you grieve.
{What Suffering People Wish You Would Do at Christmas} // "Remind them that our faithful Savior will never fail or forsake them. That Jesus walks with them and He weeps with them. Remind them that He knows every detail of their struggle. Remind them that for all of us, the unshakeable hope of Christmas lies solely in Emmanuel, for our God has come to us and will forevermore be with us."{Celebrating Christmas with a Broken Heart}// "In the wake of grief, emotions are ...
Pregnancy After Loss
Each child gone ahead from among us is a precious person made in the image of God—and all having been made into Hope Moms, we together declare motherhood in each of our journeys. Through this series, we honor each other’s experiences of motherhood in love through our shared God of hope.
I remember so clearly standing at the end of my driveway the day a friend stopped by to drop something off to me. We chitchatted for a bit, and then she asked me what I was doing that day.
“Just going to pop into the OB’s office to hear the heartbeat.”
“Oh, Shelly! You shouldn’t be so fearful. You need to have faith,” she ...
Everlasting Father
Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be studying Isaiah 9 together. In this passage, Isaiah gives us insight into the incredible hope that was given through the birth of Christ. Join us as we discover how the grieving mother can find comfort, especially in the holiday season, in the following descriptions of Christ.
Everlasting Father
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah ...
It is Well With Me
Music has the ability to speak into the deepest recesses of our hearts. God often uses songs to speak hope and encouragement to our souls. In this series, Hope Moms share songs that have pointed them to the hope of Christ in the midst of their grief. Is there a song that has comforted you in your grief? We'd love to have you share your story here.
Often in my deepest and darkest days of grief, the only solace that would provide momentary comfort to my aching soul was music. I played songs on repeat over and over and over as tears poured down my face and my anxiety rose and then softened.
One song in particular stands out to me ...
A Letter to the Grieving Mother
Dear Mother,
Recently you found out that the precious baby you were carrying, the gift you have been longing for and planning for, has left your womb. You had your whole world come crashing down around you. You had a knife thrust right into your heart, right into your family.
Tears can never be enough. Tears can never release the emotions you feel right now. They cannot even begin to convey the aching, agony, and deep, deep, gut-wrenching sorrow you feel.
There are a million questions that begin to flood your mind. Questions that keep you up at night. Questions that seem to not have any real answers. Doctors, specialists, scholarly ...
Elizabeth’s Retreat Experience
This year’s retreat was my second to attend. I attended for the first time in March, 2017, just one month after my youngest son had been born still at 16 weeks. This year, just about three weeks before retreat, we found out we were unexpectedly, yet gladly, pregnant. Then on Tuesday, October 15, just days before the retreat, we learned that our baby had stopped developing and I was told I would be miscarrying. We were devastated.
The day before that, my husband’s car had died, and we couldn’t afford to repair it. I didn’t think I’d be able to attend the retreat with an impending miscarriage and no vehicle to leave with my husband ...
