Words of Encouragement in a Season of Grief

So many precious friends have been sending me words of encouragement during this season of the loss of my Mom- some in the form of emails and some in the form of sympathy cards...today I received a card from Harry & Debbie Hooks and another from Carolyn Turner...both of these cards ministered to my sad heart.....additionally my sweet long-distance friend, Kim Tucker shared some words of counsel recently that have really helped me.

For anyone else out their grieving over the loss of someone very important to you, I pray these words soothe your aching soul like a salve on a wound....

"God's Gift of Time"

"We all need a time to grieve-
a quiet time for reflection
to sift through precious memories
and come to grips
with what has happened.
We all need a time to let the tears flow,
not for the ones we lost,
who are at peace in heaven, (hallelujah!)
but for ourselves as we realize
that things will be different now.
We all need a time to just 'be,'
when we can open ourselves to God
and let the reassurance
of His everlasting love
start to heal our broken hearts."

"Imagine
stepping onto a shore and finding it heaven
Imagine
taking hold of a hand and finding it God's hand
Imagine
breathing new air and finding it celestial air
Imagine
feeling invigorated and finding it immortality
Imagine
passing from storm & tempest to an unknown calm
Imagine
waking and finding it home -"

Wow! One card ministered to me about ME. And the other ministered to me about MOM. Both are precious! Thank you Harry & Debbie and Carolyn!

Kim shared the following words about her observations when her sweet husband lost his Dad. She said,

"Grief came in waves at unexpected moments for him as well as the moments you would expect it to...Grief will have its way with you one way or another...I can only speak from that experience, but it seems best to just not expect too much of yourself or your dad and just let it have its way. No apologies to anyone!! "

Thank you Kim for giving me permission to continue grieving. You have ALWAYS been a blessing to me, and I'll never forget the wonderful memories we made together at HGBC many years ago!

Not surprisingly, God's word speaks so accurately about the use of words....

"...how delightful is a timely word." Proverbs 15:23b

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb,

sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24

Those verses remind me of Mom becasuse she was truly a Proverbs 31 woman who, "opened her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness was on her tongue." Countless friends have shared with me and others in my family how much Mom encouraged them with her words and especially through her teaching.

Now that she's gone "home to heaven", how precious of my God to send others my way in her stead to share words of encouragement. Oh Lord, help me to be this kind of woman, EVEN AS I GRIEVE!