Guidance for the Idle
“We urge you, brethren, admonish the idle […] be patient with everyone”
1 Thessalonians 5:14 NASB
I understand, firsthand, that grief can stall a person—it can take a physical toll that might, especially at first, preclude the amount of activity in life that used to take no thought. Though this may seem disconcerting and endless, in my experience, it is an aspect of grief that time does change with time.
But even further, perhaps you have been sitting, for a while now, with a sense that little is worth doing anymore in this life. I have had these thoughts. ...
Eternal Family
“Imagine a priceless vase or ornament is dropped on the floor and smashed to pieces. The woman who loved it kneels down. She picks up the pieces, one by one. She looks at each one in detail, turning it round, as if to remember where it once belonged. The vase was loved and so when it was shattered, every piece was worth picking up, no matter how small. A grieving person will often want to talk about the smallest detail of their loss. It is as if every broken piece is taken up and wept over. When you listen, you may feel that the detail was small, but it is part of ...
5 Ways to Grow in Grieving with Your Spouse
It was just a month or so after our first daughter had passed away and my husband went out for some fun with a buddy of his. I was a bit aghast at the thought. How could he go out and have “fun” when we had just lost our daughter? For much of the initial weeks after her death our grief had been quite similar. We had shed many tears together, felt each other’s pain and it seemed were navigating grief in the same ways.
Until we weren’t.
And simply because my husband’s expression of grief was different than mine, I thought my husband had stopped grieving. I ...
Local Chapter Testimony: “Rooted in Christ”
Read the testimony below of a Hope Mom and her experience with a Hope Group at her local chapter to encourage you! We praise God for the comfort He gives us that we can in turn share with each other (2 Cor. 1:3-5).
Spring Hope Group registration is currently open. This semester only in-person groups will be offered. We will resume online groups in Fall 2018 with the launch of a new study! Learn more about Spring 2018 groups and locations >> HERE.
If you are interested in finding out more about establishing a local chapter in your area, please email our Chapters ...
Parenting Older Children Through Grief
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. We are eager to go above and beyond in showing honor and love for one another (Rom. 12:10, 15). Through this series, we honor each other’s experiences of motherhood in love through our shared God of hope.
My girls were four and a half and two and a half years old when my son was stillborn at 37 weeks. We had presents under the Christmas tree for Zachary, and the girls were as expectant ...
Hope Group Testimonies: “A life-changer”
Spring Hope Group registration is currently open. This semester only in-person groups will be offered. We will resume online groups in Fall 2018 with the launch of a new study! Learn more about Spring 2018 groups and locations >> HERE. Are you on the fence about joining an in-person group near you? Read the testimonies below of other Hope Moms and their encouraging experiences with Hope Groups! We praise God for the comfort He gives us that we can in turn share with each other (2 Cor. 1:3-5).
"I participated in the I am study with leaders Paige and Chelsea ...
Crystal’s Story
In the emergency room I looked at the sonogram screen and couldn’t really see Adalynn Grace. I just thought the equipment wasn’t the best there since it was the ER. A few hours before I had a gush of fluid and didn’t expect to be told it was my water that had broken at 20 weeks.
Unfortunately, we had trouble with this pregnancy even before it started. My husband and I had prayed for 3 years to add this beautiful life to our family of three. We were over the moon to find out that we had been blessed again with another little girl. My oldest daughter was more than ...
Grappling with the Grander Biblical View of Mercy
[Post credit: Unlocking the Bible]
From the pits of grief and suffering, the human heart and soul can yearn to know the cause of earthly pain. Did a particular sin bring this suffering upon me, or did I need discipline?
Tender answers might pour into the soul from Scripture—Job was a noble man who suffered and grieved (Job 1:8). And the man born blind in John’s gospel was not provided by Jesus with a personal sin corresponding to his pain (John 9:2-3). We cannot always draw straight lines between cause and effect for our individual suffering (Isaiah ...
Heaven: What Will Eternity Be Like? (After Jesus’ Second Coming)
Q: So what does the Bible say heaven will be like after Jesus' second coming?
After Jesus' second-coming, our souls will be united with physical, glorious, eternal bodies that no longer experience weakness, pain, sorrow, or death.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-5...
Hope Mommies Publication Release: “I AM,” by Ashlee Schmidt
Editor's Note: This is the first half of an interview continued in the 2018 Hope Mommies e-book.
“Everyone will experience suffering; it is the effect of living in a fallen world where imperfection and sin have touched everything we see and experience. The grief of losing a beloved child is among the most painful and crippling of sorrows. Yet in your darkest moments, God, who suffered the loss of His own Son, longs to strengthen and sustain you. He calls you to draw near as He offers you the hope that your grieving heart so desperately needs. As you learn ...
