October 15 Reflections
We are only a few weeks from October 15, the day set aside for National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. It’s a day to remember, to come together, and to hope in the Word.
Before I had experienced loss of my own, I had no idea that October 15 existed. Perhaps I had heard it mentioned before then, but it was certainly not something that I had given much thought to. I was completely unaware of how often pregnancy and infant loss occurred. It felt unreal from the outside looking in. Sure baby loss doesn't happen now! We are living in the age of modern medicine!...
Discussions in Grief: Entitlement
Grieving involves new emotions and considerations often too many to numbers. When you find yourself in overwhelming grief, you likely feel buried and lost. In this series, we slowly and compassionately look at one aspect of grief at a time from a biblical perspective for the newly grieving mother. Click {here} to read past posts in this series.
The worst thing imaginable has happened. You have lost your baby. You have suffered greatly and experienced more pain than most everyone you know. You have hit rock bottom, and the only solace is knowing that things ...
Encourage One Another: Her Story
“Put courage in.”
That’s what the word “encourage” means. In my story, courage to face the lonely days, the quiet nursery, the empty womb, the unfilled baby book, the days and days that stretched ahead that mocked me with their childlessness --- courage was one of the many things I needed.
Like all grievers, I had days when I felt completely unable to function, let alone face the day with courage and hope. That is where my incredible husband Blair was such a powerful force of God’s healing work in my grieving heart.
Gwendolyn Hope was born via emergency ...
Encourage One Another: His Story
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
-1 Thessalonians 4:18
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
-1 Thessalonians 5:11
Both of these verses in 1 Thessalonians come immediately after sections of Scripture where Paul the author is giving us a glimpse into things that will happen in the end times. After cracking the window into the future for us Paul concludes with “go encourage one another. Go build each other up.”
I fear that the norm is actually the opposite when we think of the events, both marvelous and ...
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be narrowing in on specific truths of the gospel to learn how they direct and inform us in our grief. As we study these truths together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us!
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”
John ...
An Unearned Inheritance
An inheritance is the acquisition of a possession, condition, or trait from past generations. By tradition, the recipient is not the one who worked for or earned what they have acquired from the contributor. It is simply a gift one receives because of their lineage. I have inherited my mother's eyes, my father's sense of humor, and a little plot of land tucked into the fields of East Texas. I also have inherited heaven. There has been no work on my part to obtain any of my inheritance.
"The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful ...
Discussions in Grief: Fear
Grieving involves new emotions and considerations often too many to numbers. When you find yourself in overwhelming grief, you likely feel buried and lost. In this series, we slowly and compassionately look at one aspect of grief at a time from a biblical perspective for the newly grieving mother. Click {here} to read past posts in this series.
Anxiety and worry have been consistent struggles in my life before loss and after. It wasn’t until I experienced the profound grief of baby loss that I was able to identify the root of my anxiety as fear, and the root of ...
Saran’s Story
I was about six months pregnant with our first child, a baby boy named Riley. Up until this point it had been a smooth and happy pregnancy. I dealt with those typical pregnancy symptoms, and even though those can drive you crazy, the thought of becoming a mommy was the most beautiful gift that I could have ever been given.
On January 17, 2016, my husband and I both started having stomach pains before bed and we naturally thought it was probably something we ate. His pain was gone by morning but mine was intensifying. Nevertheless, I got up and got ready for work, but I ...
Be Patient With One Another: Her Story
Someone has said, “Patience is love on the anvil, bearing blow after blow of suffering.”
Long ago, the Apostle Paul expressed it this way: “Be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2).
And in his famous “love chapter” from I Corinthians 13, Paul said it like this:
“Love is patient…”
The first of 15 qualities that Paul ascribes to love is patience. Long-suffering. Literally “long-fused”. Slow to anger. Bearing with another’s imperfections, faults, and differences.
Just a couple of years ago, after 24 years ...
Be Patient With One Another: His Story
Patience
How my wife has shown me great patience during this deep loss
Pause: The loss of our little girl caused our lives to pause and stop at a moment in time, a moment that will never be forgotten. I’m reminded of a margin in a book or a comma between words; it’s there for a reason. Watching my hurting bride, Kelly, at this deepest pause God put in our path was the hardest sorrow my heart has felt.
Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
Psalm 116:4
Acceptance: At the beginning of this trial, what my wife and I ...
