The holiday season can feel unbearably painful after the death of a child. While the world around us glitters with lights, gatherings, and celebrations, we grieving parents feel the weight of loss more intensely during this time of year. In this episode, Laura offers heartfelt guidance, practical support, and spiritual encouragement to help pareavors gently navigate the holidays with compassion for themselves.
Drawing from lived experience, this conversation explores meaningful “gifts” you can give your mind, body, and soul as you move through the weeks ahead, whether this is your first holiday season without your child or your twentieth.
Links Mentioned in this episode:
Join Laura live on YouTube at 8:00 PM Central as she shares Sunday’s reading and lights the red candle of love. Find out more and get your copy of Hope for the Future: An Advent Journey for Bereaved Parents here.
Reflections of Hope: Daily Readings for Bereaved Parents — a hardback devotional offering comfort throughout the year. Click here to learn more.
Click here to be sent a PDF of Ten Ways to Honor Your Child.
Special December Offer — a free Pareavor bracelet included with every paperback book order (excluding Reflections of Hope, which ships directly from the printer). Click here to claim yours in the GPS Hope webstore, where you will also find wearable hope on clothing merchandise.
Help us keep this podcast ad-free while receiving special encouragement and bonus content. Join the GPS Hope Community on Patreon
Birthdays:
We lovingly remember and celebrate the lives of:
Jeff-Free Hoke was born on December 17 and is forever 33.
Adelaide Rowell was born on December 20 and is forever 19.
Visit gpshope.org/birthdays to submit your child’s name and date so we can honor them, too.
The special song written for our children’s birthdays I Remember Well can be heard here.
Remember to Hold On Pain Eases; there is HOPE!
To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at office@gpshope.org.
Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.
It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.
The Bible repeatedly instructs us to “seek peace and pursue it.” Peace doesn’t simply appear in the middle of our turmoil, especially when we are grieving our child. Grief scrambles our ability to feel God’s nearness, much like a radio stuck between stations. We have to gently turn the dial until we can once again tune into His presence.
The biblical word for peace, 
One of the most comforting titles Jesus carries is 
Jesus once told a story about a shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep to go after the one. While we cannot go after our children, many of us resonate deeply with the weight of “the one” who is no longer here. That weight can make it hard to focus on those who still need us, such as our spouse, our other children, our friends, our family.
Our emotions may feel like the loudest truth in the room, but Scripture tells us that the real battle is fought in our minds. Isaiah 26:3 promises perfect peace to the one whose mind is steadfast. Romans 8 reminds us that a mind governed by the Spirit brings life and peace.
I
Tracy’s daughter, Krysta, entered the world early and fighting for her life. Born with a severely underdeveloped intestinal tract, she went through six major surgeries in the first three months of her life. Doctors worked tirelessly, using every medical option available at the time, including total parenteral nutrition and multiple procedures to give her a chance at survival. 
Even though Krysta died in the mid-1990s, Tracy’s grief was still close enough to bring tears as he shared. He emphasized something so many of us experience in life after losing a child: grief does not disappear. It changes, it softens, but it never fully leaves. 
Anger, Tracy said, was one of the defining emotions of his early grief. Anger at the hospital. Anger at the circumstances. Anger even at God. And that anger reached a peak after a pastor told him Krysta would not go to heaven; a statement that wounded him deeply. 
After Krysta died, Tracy feared he might slip back into his old addictions. Instead, he made a conscious choice that he would honor his daughter by living differently. He threw himself into personal development, eventually becoming a coach and mentor. He discovered that helping others became a bridge back to his own healing. 
Do the tears ever stop? No.
