Grieving: Real Life 101

When I began the subject of grieving it was months ago and only in the chaos of my own head.  It was all bouncing around in there, with no direction, and with no order.  

Eventually I decided to write it out in some semblance of order, but not all at once or I think I would never have finished it because of the emotional toll of looking at all of it at once in my own life.  Dividing it into pieces has helped me, and perhaps those of you who have read the posts. 

Here I am all "written out".  I know I did not completely write all there is on the subject of grief.  You may be grieving in ways in which I did not even touch, and I completely understand this.  Grieving is very real and completely surprising.  It is like "this" for me, and it is like "that" for you.  

*But grieving is real, it is part of our every day lives in this extremely fallen world.  We should not run from it, but acknowledge it.  We should take time to express it in healthy ways.  Sometimes it should be expressed often, other times daily, and then, perhaps once in a while. When we bottle it up, when we squelch it, then sometime it will come out, and maybe not in appropriate ways.

Appropriate ways to handle our ongoing grieving:  This could mean talking about your sadness, or it could mean crying.  If the pain is too deep where you can not cry, then you can know the LORD is understanding your groans. 

Our pain in our grief is not lost to the LORD.  

He knows and He understands our agonies.

Grieving in our fallen world is like a class called "Real Life 101", but the curriculum is as varied as our sufferings.  Pain is pain, though, and although grieving can "look like" many things in each of us, we can know the LORD holds on to those who trust in Him completely.

My encouragement to you, sisters, is to -continue-.  

Life goes on and usually we can not just "stop" and grieve.  

So continue to live and do it for Him and for His glory. 

Do not be hard on yourself, but show compassion to yourself as you would to anyone who is grieving. Give yourself time, cry out to God, and then move on even if it still hurts.  Life will hurt until glory - that is part of life on planet earth.  

We have the ONE and ONLY who can give us strength to carry on, and to carry on in our agonies with His joy in our hearts.

*One huge caution is not to allow yourself to venture in to "Victimhood" where you are always saying to yourself and others, "poor, poor me".  When we venture into "Victimhood" we are sinning, because we are not trusting the LORD in all things.  Nobody's life is without troubles, it is the human condition.  The LORD can truly lift your head out of "Victimhood" if you are caught in it.  

2 Chronicles 16:a
"For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth 
that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."

Grieving posts:

#1 Why did I begin all this? 

#2 Pain is Pain 

#3 The only thing we need is Jesus!

#4 I do not want to be shipwrecked! 

#5 Rejoice in the LORD always 

#6  A living death

#7  Living one day at a time

#8 Agonies which haunt you