17 results for tag: Meg

His Faithful Nearness

There are a few parts of God’s character that I have grown to love more deeply since losing two babies back to back in the same year. We lost our oldest son, Jacob, seven hours after he was born. Ten months later, we said goodbye to another baby who we never got to meet face to face. I was in the bottom of the trenches, and I was so lonely.  Grief does that, doesn’t it? So, I was lonely, but I was also fearful. What would our future look like? After all, life wasn’t supposed to end up this way, but mine did. I was so fearful that I’d never leave the trenches of grief. It was hard to imagine that life would ever change. So, I was fearful, I ...

Welcome Grief

Paul reminds us in his letter to the church in Thessalonica that we do "not grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thess. 4:13). But what exactly does that mean? In this series, we explore what it looks like to honor God in our grief and examine the ways we can choose to grieve with hope. Within a few months of losing our son Jacob just seven hours after he was born, I was walking to the car with my husband and I looked at him saying, “I cannot do this anymore.” Actually, that wasn’t the only time I said that either. I was exhausted. Not only had I carried him to term after a prenatal diagnosis, but now I was learning to live without him. ...

In the Word: The All-Sufficient One

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be looking at different names of God found in Scripture, and how these different aspects of who He is offer us hope in the midst of our grief.  As we study together, we encourage 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 study these names of God along with us! “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my ...

Strength in the Sorrow: 2 Corinthians 12:9

God's Word is sufficient for our every need, even those that follow the heartbreaking loss of a child. In this series, Hope Moms share about the way God, through His life-giving Word, has provided them with the strength, comfort, encouragement, and hope they needed as they walk through the valley of loss and grief. "My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to Your word!" Psalm 119:28 Apparently, I like to have my life in order. At least, that’s what I’ve discovered has been true of me since my journey of grief and motherhood began. In order to protect myself from future heartache and be “done” with the hard parts of ...

In the Word: The All-Sufficient One

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be looking at different names of God found in Scripture, and how these different aspects of who He is offer us hope in the midst of our grief.  As we study together, we encourage 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 study these names of God along with us!  “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my ...

Motivated By Love

I was eight and a half months pregnant that first Christmas in my grief. Just four months before, we had received a diagnosis for our unborn son that left us knowing that, barring a miracle from God, we’d be saying goodbye to him way sooner than we ever imagined. There was something so significant that year about being pregnant at Christmastime. I had low energy, both physically and emotionally, and so in some ways Christmas became a little bit simpler. But, honestly, it became a little bit more meaningful too. I would go about my days, obviously with child, and I would think about what we were about to celebrate: Christmas. The birth of Jesus. ...

Discussions in Grief: Misunderstood

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.  “I got back in my car and cried.” It was a text I received from a friend who had recently lost her baby far too soon. I knew exactly what she meant. She had just been at a baby shower for another friend, and had left a little early. When she got back in her car and shut the door, the tears ...

We Have Been Shown Grace

It’s easy, when you’ve suffered, to think that you are now the expert in grief. You know what it means to be painfully hurt and hopeless—what hurts, and what helps. But if I’m honest, before I lost my son, I had no idea what it was like to grieve so much. I had experienced some loss, and am naturally empathetic, but I am positive that I’ve said, done, and forgotten things that caused others additional heartache. To be completely transparent, even since my losses, I continue to say, do, and forget things for others who are suffering, and have likely caused them pain. I have had to apologize to my own husband many times for not caring for him ...

An Extension of God’s Grace

A few weeks after we received a fatal diagnosis for our son, we received one of my favorite emails yet. A friend, who had been walking through deep waters of grief for many years, wrote that she and her husband were praying for us to have grace for our community. I smiled. She knew exactly what it meant to be in the position we were in. At this point we had received several emails, cards, and comments from people who wanted to care for us well. At times, though, the things that they felt might comfort us weren’t exactly encouraging. In fact, many things people said stung—I still remember some of them nearly three years later. I remember ...

God Will Dwell With Us

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be studying the book of Ecclesiastes together, which centers on the truth that life apart from Christ is empty and vain. In its pages, we discover how to view our lives with an eternal perspective, enabling us to press into the Lord regardless of our circumstances. In this series, we seek to explore the wise principles presented to us by "the Teacher" in order to better understand what it looks like to walk in the fear and joy of the Lord even in the midst of our grief. "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the ...