The message I kept hearing from many different places for the first two years after my daughter leaving this earth was: Don’t do, just be. I believe it is a message we all need at some point when working our way through the darkness and back into the light.

The death of our child is a trauma, and we have some major healing that needs to occur in every part of us. We need lots of rest physically, emotionally, and spiritually for that to happen, which can be very difficult in our deep grief.

It is a process to learn how to rest in God, learning how to “just be” instead of feeling like we need to be “doing” something (or feeling guilty for not doing more than we are) which is what I talk about in today’s episode.

 

Links Mentioned in this episode:

July Book Special (Purchase When Tragedy Strikes and get another book of your choice for only $5)

More information on the Rebuilding Your Life After Child Loss guidance courses (based on the book When Tragedy Strikes).

Information on joining Laura and GPS Hope on The Grief Cruise.

 

Click here to become a monthly partner, giving hope to other parents, or to give a special gift to keep this podcast going, along with providing  other needed resources to bereaved parents.

(GPS Hope is a 501c3 nonprofit and runs on the financial support of those who believe in passing along the hope they have received to others.)

 

Birthdays:

Andres Martinez was born on July 7 and is forever 21.

Jessica Lynn Szerlong  was born on July 9 and is forever 30.

Stephanie Waters was born on July 10 and is forever 21.

Ethan Barclay-Weberpal was born on July 10 and is forever 18.

Charlie Rhodes was born on July 10 and is forever 9.

Everardo Martinez was born on July 11 and is forever 19.

Clifford Patrick Keenan Jr. was born on July 11 and is forever 24.

Norma Gomez was born on July 11 and is forever 12.

Eric Breslau was born on July 11 and is forever 25.

Hagan Jones was born on July 12 and is forever 20.

 

If you would like your child mentioned on the podcast the week of his or her birthday, click here to fill out the short form with the needed information.

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!

www.gpshope.org

 

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.

 

Our thoughts about spending time with God can be all over the place after the death of our child, and it may be the last thing we want to do if we are angry with him. Some of us used to feel close to Him before our loss, and now He feels very distant, as if He either cannot hear us or doesn’t care.

Just like there is no right or wrong way to grieve after the death of our child, there is no right or wrong way to spend time with God in our place of darkness. In this episode, my heart is to break off any preconceived ideas you have about the “right way” to have a quiet time with God, and to open the door to still sit with Him in the fullness of all your raw and real emotions.

Today’s episode was sponsored in memory of Dominic Cardenas.

 

Links Mentioned in this episode:

More information on how to sponsor a podcast episode.

July Book Special (Purchase When Tragedy Strikes and get another book of your choice for only $5)

 

Click here to become a monthly partner, giving hope to other parents, or to give a special gift to keep this podcast going, along with providing  other needed resources to bereaved parents.

(GPS Hope is a 501c3 nonprofit and runs on the financial support of those who believe in passing along the hope they have received to others.)

 

Birthdays:

Antonio Moir Catania was born on July 3 and is forever 29.

 

If you would like your child mentioned on the podcast the week of his or her birthday, click here to fill out the short form with the needed information.

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!

www.gpshope.org

 

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.

 

Last week we talked about how to answer the question, “How many children do you have?” This week we will discuss the question, “How are you?”

This is an area we are good at putting on a mask with those who have not lost a child, but we will take it off very quickly when around those who have. In this episode, I share some thoughts from fellow pareavors about this question, including how several of them answer the dreaded question, “How are you?”

 

Links Mentioned in this episode:

More information on Hope for the Heart on July 17.

Receive Laura’s Weekly Word of Hope.

More information on the book Come Grieve Through Our Eyes.  (Scroll to the bottom to see what pareavors have to say about the book.)

 

Click here to become a monthly partner, giving hope to other parents, or to give a special gift to keep this podcast going, along with providing  other needed resources to bereaved parents.

(GPS Hope is a 501c3 nonprofit and runs on the financial support of those who believe in passing along the hope they have received to others.)

 

Birthdays:

Lukas Christofferson was born on June 28 and is forever 19.

Dominic Cardenas was born on June 28 and is forever 24.

 

If you would like your child mentioned on the podcast the week of his or her birthday, click here to fill out the short form with the needed information.

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!

www.gpshope.org

 

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.

 

As a bereaved parent, getting asked what used to be a normal, simple question can cause confusion, guilt, anger or even bring us to tears. One of those questions is, “How many children do you have?”

In this episode, I share a recently received email on this topic along with my thoughts and experiences with this very common question that we no longer want to be asked, but find ourselves needing to answer.

 

Links Mentioned in this episode:

More information on Hope for the Heart on July 17.

Receive Laura’s Weekly Word of Hope.

Email Laura a question: laura@gpshope.org

 

Click here to become a monthly partner, giving hope to other parents, or to give a special gift to keep this podcast going, along with providing  other needed resources to bereaved parents.

(GPS Hope is a 501c3 nonprofit and runs on the financial support of those who believe in passing along the hope they have received to others.)

 

Birthdays:

Calvin Joseph Kendricks Jr. was born on June 17 and is forever 28.

Joe Luzzo was born on June 18 and is forever 17.

Tony Posatiere was born on June 18 and is forever 38.

Alyssa Tyner was born on June 19 and is forever 2 ½ years old.

Kari-Lee Venning (Birrell) was born on June 19 and is forever 25.

 

If you would like your child mentioned on the podcast the week of his or her birthday, click here to fill out the short form with the needed information.

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!

www.gpshope.org

 

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.

 

 

One of the struggles I hear from pareavors is the question: Why bother praying if God is just going to do whatever He wants to do and did not keep my child from dying?

This is something that bothered me as well for quite some time. In this podcast episode I talk about this area of prayer in our lives, along with sharing something the Holy Spirit showed me about why it is still important to pray.

 

Links Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about the book When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing after the Death of Your Child

Send me an email to let me know you left a review for this podcast: laura@gpshope.org

Click here to become a monthly partner, giving hope to other parents, or to give a special gift to keep this podcast going, along with providing  other needed resources to bereaved parents.

(GPS Hope is a 501c3 nonprofit and runs on the financial support of those who believe in passing along the hope they have received to others.)

 

Birthdays:

Shaun Klein was born on June 1 and is forever 33.

Riley Whitehead was born on June 3 and is forever 19.

Aaron Paige was born on June 6 and is forever 21.

Beth Simmons Marsh was born on June 12 and is forever 58.

 

If you would like your child mentioned on the podcast the week of his or her birthday, click here to fill out the short form with the needed information.

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!

www.gpshope.org

 

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.