Links for Hope Moms: Summer 2018 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.

1. {The Beauty of Lament In Sandra McCrackens New Album} // “The psalms drive us to God, seeking His light in the darkness of earthly toil. They give voice to our protests and frustrations. They provide a framework and vocabulary for approaching God, even when He seems distant. The protests and expressed frustrations of lament might seem beneath the Christian believer, but they are all over the pages of Scripture.
   McCracken isn’t voicing frustration just to vent. This is not an album of her needing to share the scars of her own story. Instead, this is music to remind us (and herself) that suffering does not have the final say. As Tim Keller observes, “Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.” Songs From the Valley sees clearly the reality of our strife, while also seeing the God within it.”
2. {How Can We Find Joy When We Have Lost Everything?} // “When I keep my eyes and thoughts on Jesus, my perspective radically changes. Only then can I find happiness apart from my circumstances. I can experience joy in simply being with Christ, poring over His word, talking to Him constantly, sensing His presence everywhere I go. And this joy strangely grows deeper in adversity. I have found that when the intensity of the storm has passed, I have later longed for the fellowship I had with God in the hurricane.”
3. {Flashback post: Joy Rising in Pregnancy After Loss} // “Sometimes I wake up and feel the stillness, I wonder if I’m empty again. I wait, trying just to breath when everything feels too quiet. And then I feel her. She moves so deep within me. That pulse inside—the universe shifts—I feel her intertwined with my body and blood, nestled deep inside, everything that I am is protecting her. And yet I am completely out of control, this seed growing and growing takes no thought from myself. I don’t knit her together. I don’t form her blinking eyes, curling fingers or kicking feet. Yahweh does—the One who has always been the Creator and always will be.”

Ashlee is the Editorial Coordinator for Hope Mommies. She and her husband, Jesse, have four children on earth and two little ones in Heaven. You can get to know her more by reading her blog, Beyond Undone.

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