17 results for tag: Hope Dads

My First Father’s Day: A Memoir

My first Father’s Day was not like the one we all imagine in our heads. Of sleeping in late and waking up to fresh brewed coffee and breakfast in bed. A neatly wrapped gift of a new tie. A chubby hand print picture with “I love Daddy” in mommy’s handwriting rainbowed over it. All this followed by a lazy day at home with wife and kid meeting my every need, serving my every desire, and making me a steak dinner to round out a perfect day all about me. #1 Dad. in. the. world. Yeah, that did not happen. Father’s Day 2011 was eight months after Gwendolyn went home. The sting of death lingered but was dulled by the demands of directing a ...

Fathers of God’s Comfort

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Fathers, God’s mercy towards us is not merely given for our own comfort in affliction, but so that we might also display His mercy as we comfort others. I am not a very compassionate person by nature. My first reaction is typically truth before grace. While I am thankful for the ways God has allowed me to speak truth for His glory, I am called to give a ...

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 most certainly had not. What I didn’t realize was how differently two people ...

Into the Arms of a Strong Heavenly Father

This will be my fourth Father's Day as a father. My first Father's Day was exactly 2 months after our daughter was born into glory. I had always heard that becoming a father brings a whole new perspective to our Christian walk since it helps us to more fully appreciate what it means that God identifies Himself as our Father. However, as a father to a child in heaven, my perspective on what it means that God is our Heavenly Father has taken on an even deeper meaning. In the New Testament God is often referred to as our Father. One of those places is in Romans 8 where Paul has just finished explaining that there is now no condemnation for those who ...

Hope Dads: Shepherd Your Family

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.” -Psalm 128:1-4 Dads, this Psalm was directed at you and me.  Every time I read this passage, I want to say YES PLEASE!  This is the family life that we all want, a family that is flourishing! This is what we want for our family when we celebrate Fathers Day, when we go out in public, when we are on vacation… and this is what we want for our family ...

Hope Dads: Lead the Way {And a Giveaway!}

A Note From The Director: Questions have come up several times since Hope Mommies inception, “What about dads?” or “What help do you offer for dads?” Similar questions have also been posed like, “What do you offer for couples going through infant loss?” or “Do you have retreats for couples and families?” Worry not, we have a heart for the whole family and the Hope Mommies Board of Directors and Leadership Team considers these questions often. We do indeed desire to expand the ministry into these avenues one day. For now, however, Hope Mommies is focused on sustaining and excellently executing the aspects ...

Prayer

This has been on the forefront of my mind lately. Mostly because our Pastor/Teacher has been preaching an incredible series on Prayer the last several weeks but also because there has been a renewed push in Hope Mommies to build up our prayer team, recognizing its importance as more and more moms and families are finding us.   I have been Spirit-motivated more than ever to pray. There seems to be an increasing amount of circumstances all around me that can only come through if God makes it happen. Last month I transitioned from several years of camp ministry to become a pastor and immediately was called to walk with people suffering and ...