I recently read about a 3-year rule in grief. I think, while this rule can be helpful, it is too simplified. The rule is: Year 1, you are processing. Year 2, you are adjusting and Year 3 you are growing. While this can be true, it’s also a lie. Grief and anything that alters your…

This is a more recent photo of the pool of Bethesda. When we are suffering, it is hard to be joyous. Our focus is on ourselves or how to get out of the pain. We start to lose hope usually because we’ve taken our focus off God. However, there are also times when we pray…

In 2023, when I did this last time, my second post for joy was about pain being the opposite of joy. In some ways that is true but truly whatever robs you of joy is your opposite. Which means just about any emotion, experience or person could be the opposite of joy for you.  Let…

Welcome to week 3, Joy. When we look at joy, we need to first understand what joy really is. Many of us use the words joy and happiness interchangeably. First, what is happiness? Britannica.com defines happiness as “a state of emotional well-being that a person experiences.” In other words, it is an emotion that happens…

Another repost from 2023. While everything still holds true, I think some music has the ability to create multiple emotions, sometimes all at once. There are days that a song will cause me to fondly look back at a memory and smile, but the same song the next time I hear it could cause sadness.…

With the news full of shootings, wars, high cost of living and so much negativity, peace seems impossible. Good thing we follow a God who specializes in the impossible. All throughout the Bible, war is discussed and experienced. Every person in the Bible had multiple times of troubles. However, every time we see that God…

It’s odd how this 2nd Christmas without Chris has felt harder than the 1st. I would guess because the numbness that covered the 1st year has been loosening its grip on my head and heart. Don’t get me wrong, emotions and numbness are constants in grief and you never know which are going to be…

Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t post an Advent blog post yesterday. That was not intentional. I had planned to write something or at least repost something from 2023. Yet when I went to post something, I fell asleep. Actually I slept for several hours, woke up and thought about posting something…

I’ve been trying to come up with something to write for today, but I was getting nothing. I decided to just post one from 2023. When I opened up the post, I knew God was using my past self to teach/preach to my current self. I see the ignorance in my past self about grief,…

When most of us think of peace, it is a lack of conflict or disturbances. However, peace in the Bible has a deeper meaning. The Hebrew term Sar Shalom means Prince of Peace in English. Prince of Peace is one of God’s many names. So, when we look at Shalom or biblical peace, we see…