163 results for tag: Ashlee
Death is Swallowed Up in Victory
Death has shaken your soul to its core. Mine too.
When I first heard the words, “I’m sorry, there’s no heartbeat,” it seemed like my life was being siphoned out of me. I strained to take in each new breath of air, and as I looked up at the monitor, staring at the stillness of my baby, I felt as though I was watching someone else’s nightmare unfold before my eyes. In that moment, death seemed to consume me.
The death of your child is an excruciating heartache that alters the course of your life.
There may be times when it seems as though you are being crushed and overcome by the weight of death. Perhaps you feel as if you will never ...
Hope for the Holidays {All Things New}
As Christmas celebrations begin to come to a close, we find ourselves in anticipation of a brand new year. In many ways, the new year feels like an opportunity for a fresh start. We resolve to read more, work out more, be more organized, more patient, more loving…
But inside many of us long for the new year to bring something more meaningful than better eating habits and more trips to the gym.
We long for the shattered pieces of our hearts to be brought back together.
We long for the undoing of all the pain and sorrow of this world.
We long for the the day when HE will come and wipe every tear from our eyes and make all things ...
Hope for the Holidays {Why We Give Thanks}
Dear ones, there are so many sorrows in this world — so much heartache, so much pain, so many questions. We who have said goodbye to a beloved child have known great pain.
But in this season of Thanksgiving, we are reminded often about what God’s Word says about being thankful.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
-1 Thessalonians 5:18
“Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
-Ephesians 5:20
“Praise the Lord!
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
for His steadfast love endures forever!”
-Psalm 106:1
We watch ...
Choose Hope 2016
The pain of losing a child, whether to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss, is among the most agonizing of sorrows. Whether your loss occurred many years ago or very recently, the ache you carry in your heart is heavy indeed. There is nothing that can prepare you for the devastation of losing a child, and there are no words that can take away the pain that results. But dear one, your grief does not need to be carried alone.
For the past ten years, our nation has officially recognized October 15 as an opportunity to honor and remember our precious babies who have gone home before us, and to spread awareness of the tragedy that befalls 1 in ...
Identity: We Are New
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
-2 Corinthians 5:17
As mothers who have walked through the death of a child, it is easy to define ourselves by our losses — to feel unworthy, damaged, incomplete. But, dear one, this is not the sum of who you are. In Christ you have been made new! You have become a new creation!
“And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”
-Romans 6:4b
This reality of being made new in Christ is achieved upon salvation.
You were once blind to spiritual things, but God ...
Identity: We Are Children
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."
-Romans 8:14-17
ONE of the most precious themes in all of Scripture is that of the sonship of believers in Christ. This ...
Identity: We Are Chosen
Deep down we all long to be accepted and pursued. This longing is also accompanied by a deep sense of rejection when we feel as if we don’t fit in or seem to be forgotten by others — when you don’t get called back after the interview, when someone else gets the promotion, when you don’t make the team, when everyone around you seems to be bringing home their babies and your arms feel heavy with emptiness.
But dear sister, please hear this: as your friends are posting pictures of beautifully decorated nurseries while yours remains empty, as the moms in your community meet together, and they don’t think to include you because your child is ...
Identity: We Are Alive
Join us on the blog over the next eight weeks as we study together what God's Word says about who we are in Christ.
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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
-Ephesians 2:4-7
But God.
These two little words carry life-altering significance. Whenever you see these words, you know ...
Identity: We Are Forgiven
Join us on the blog over the next eight weeks as we study together what God's Word says about who we are in Christ.
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“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
-Colossians 1:13-14
We are all sinful beings. In fact all of creation — every drop of rain, every blade of grass, every fish in the sea — is groaning under the weight of sin. Our sin separates us from the presence of our Holy God, and there is nothing that we can do to remedy this on our own. We can never measure up to the insurmountable holiness of God. If ...
