WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS OF FAITH Community Group
A place where people of faith may freely discuss issues of grief from a faith based perspective.
In the grief journey Puprose and Acceptance were 2 concepts that I truly wrestled with. After losing my spouse I felt half of me had died and in my despair I saw no purpose or reason to keep going. It hurt so much I just wanted to give up. Ever so gradually I reached out to various church communities, tried volunteer work, became more engaged with family, and tried to build new friendships. Some of my efforts were not successful or a good fit for me. By trial and error I gradually began to build a new life and each person I met had unique needs in which I could make a positive difference in their lives. Sometimes it was as simple as visiting a elderly lady with no family or quietly walking with someone while they dealt with a personal crisis. The weird thing was the more I gave of myself the more I received in return. Some of these people inspired me, some taught me and some simply loved me. Over time what I came to realize is really there is only one main purpose in life regardless whether you have a spouse or not. Live as God would want you to live. A dear friend told me ask yourself in every situation what does God want me to learn from this. The simple answer to purpose is Love. Take every opportunity you have to love those in your life and the world will look alot different. Open your heart to receive and give love. Love is just as important as oxygen to our existance on this earth. If you want to encourage others in their faith you dont have to preach to them or drag them to church. You can inspire them by the life you lead asking what does God really want me to do?
The second concept I wrestled with was acceptance. How I hated that word. I thought in my heart I will never accept losing my dear wife. What I didnt realize was acceptance was alot more than that. It involved:
-acceptance, trust and surrender to Gods will. This took me a long time to come to terms with
-Moving forward in your life with integrity and dignity but still carrying them right next to your heart
-Being at peace that they are in heaven with our loving Jesus and not wanting to deny them that expereince. Sometime
the greatest act of love is letting go.
-Giving over to God the things you cant control
-Realizing some things were arent meant to understand in this lifetime. The million WHY questions we ask ourselves.
Ultimately I dont believe we have to accept our spouses death but rather the realization that God loves us and our spouses unconditionally. It took me a very long time in the grief journey to be at peace with purpose and acceptance. I wish everyone here the same kind of peace. God bless. Gerry
I am failing at walking with Purpose, in the wake of such great amputation of my husband from my life. There is a difference between understanding these Truths, and implementing the steps of Walking in it.
This feels impossible, unless the Lord touches me with the same power which He spoke Creation into existence and imparted spiritual birth to me.
I feel a death of my will & fortitude.
I keep asking Jesus to plant new sense of Purpose inside my heart and speak LIfe into me there. That is how destitute I feel about my capabilities.
I am not sure if this indicates a lack of Acceptance.
I request ongoing prayer for for this.
May the Lord bless you, my brother.
Barb.