8 results for tag: Kelly

What does it mean to be ‘in Heaven’?

Our Easter service a few weeks ago included the song Death Was Arrested; the song’s bridge reads: Oh we’re free free forever we’re free Come join the song of all the redeemed Yes we’re free free forever amen When death was arrested and my life began As the song played, I immediately thought of my Hope Baby, William–he could have sung these words with me that very moment and meant every one of them! He is free, redeemed, and his life began the moment he woke up in Heaven.  Did you know the same is true for you and your Hope Babies? They are worshipping constantly; this means that whenever you worship, you and your babies are ...

What if my baby wouldn’t have chosen Him?

Every year at our Retreat we host a Q&A hour. This year we had more questions than time to answer them. The hope of our Leadership Team is that we can address some of them in this newsletter or on our podcast. One of those questions was, “How do I know my babies are in heaven? What if God knew they wouldn’t accept Him later, so they didn’t go to heaven when they died?” I think it’s likely she was asking, “If God knew my child wouldn’t choose Him later in life, is this why He chose to take them now?” What hard thoughts we Hope Moms wrestle with. Underneath these words are often much deeper fears. Fears that are both ...

Is My Baby in Heaven?

He is Risen.  Hope moms, Jesus Christ is God, put on human flesh, and died for our sins that keep us eternally separated from God. He rose from death, conquering its power over those who believe. While joy in this season may be hard to come by (and that’s ok!), let this truth bring even a small flicker of light to chase away the darkness.  In honor of the Easter season and the glorious future Jesus has won for us, this month we will be covering various ideas on the topic of Heaven.  The first two weeks, Kelly and Jennie will cover Biblical answers to common Hope Mom questions: “Is my baby in Heaven? What if my baby would not have ...

Mental Health Moment: Marking Grief with Memorial Practices, Part 2

Last week, I shared how God welcomes and even commands ritual, rhythm, and remembrance —especially in seasons of loss and transition. From the Exodus to stacked stones along the Jordan to bereavement practices, the Bible shows us a God who understands that some moments are too much for our human experience to hold inside without some form of expression. (Read Part 1 here.) Why does God incorporate these rhythms and practices into our lives? Why does it feel so helpful and cathartic to participate in these memorial activities? It’s because God designed us with many layers and each has a place in our grief. And he answered, “You ...

Mental Health Moment: Marking Grief with Memorial Practices, Part 1

As Hope Moms, a new year can bring big questions about our grief journey. We tend to ask about how best to remember our Hope Babies, who we are without them, and how we will manage our sorrow another day, another year. Loving our heavenly babies while still on earth can feel confusing, and working through our experience of loss is overwhelming.  The good news is God highly values our need to connect to our heavenly babies and work through the giant life change that is loss and grief. He recognizes our inability to contain all that our human experience entails. He knows we need outlets that meet us in life’s overwhelming burdens.  During ...

Prayer: Praying Scripture When You Get Stuck in Prayer

Most of us would agree that we need God in grief (no matter how we feel about Him). During dark nights of the soul, we come face to face with our humanness–our frailty & our inability to take another step (or another breath) without His divine intervention. If we need God so much, then that means we must talk with Him. Yet talking with Him–praying–can feel very very hard. Our minds wander, we say the same things over and over, and we feel bored or just plain lost.  This struggle is quite the conundrum! We need to pray–to offer up our pain, hurt, confusion, hope and gratitude–but it feels unattainable at times. What do we do?  ...

Gentle Ideas to Help Your Prayer Life in Grief

This month I cover various topics on prayer. Many of them were inspired by ideas found in a little-known book on prayer, Long Wandering Prayer by David Hansen. It has become a new favorite. Prayer can be a tricky and difficult thing for all of us even when we aren’t in a season of grief. A gifted British preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, once said, “everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.” Adding the loss of a baby can make prayer feel absolutely unreachable. For me, in the months after William went to Heaven, prayer was next to impossible: I wasn’t sure how I felt about God and didn’t really want to talk to Him, but ...

Confusion in Grief

There is nothing quite so jarring to our daily rhythms as loss. Whether it’s the news of a fatal diagnosis, an unexpected stillborn, or an out-of-the-blue miscarriage, our minds get stuck, shocked, and confused when they are asked to comprehend the death of our beloved babies. Even though we have lived in a fallen state our entire lives and expect a certain amount of death, when it actually strikes a loved one–our own flesh and blood–our minds and hearts are left disoriented. In the early weeks after William’s passing, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Literally.  My husband and I were displaced, living in my parent’s home. We ...