Does it feel like hope is a betrayal?
Like if you start to look forward to tomorrow or the next day, or maybe even
a vacation that you're somehow leaving your child behind in yesterday, friend,
that is the guilt of grief and it's a lie.
And that lie can keep you paralyzed in the dark.
But today we're gonna break that chain.
We're giving you permission to hope.
Again, not because your heart doesn't hurt, not because your love has somehow
disappeared, but because your anchor is fixed in a place that cannot be shaken.
Stay with me friend.
Welcome back to the final episode of our Permission to Practice series.
I'm Theresa Davis, your host, and today we're talking about the one thing that
the enemy wants to steal from you the most, more than anything else, and
that friend is your hope, the very thing that we need to face tomorrow.
We've rested, we've said no.
We've quieted the noise.
Now, today it's time to drop the anchor.
Most of us look at hope from a whimsical place, right?
Like a wish we say things like, I hope I feel better soon, or,
I hope the holidays aren't hard.
I hope it doesn't rain today.
But friend, that's not Kingdom Hope.
Today we're talking about Kingdom Hope and it is not a, maybe as these other
terms imply, no friend, it is a certainty.
Hebrews six 19.
I love this so very much.
It's one of the places that the Holy Spirit took me early in my grief journey
to help me understand that I was being held, even though I didn't feel it.
And this is what it says, this hope.
His hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.
You see, when we are grieving moms and dads, we need something different
than surface level hope, don't we?
No, we, we need something that's gonna anchor our soul,
the very essence of who we are.
It leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary.
Oh friend, that bless my heart so much.
I never thought of God's arms like an inner sanctuary.
Think about that for a minute.
Your hope isn't anchored in your bank account or your health, or the car you
drive, or the house that you live in.
It's anchored.
Behind the curtain, it's tethered to the very place where Jesus
is and where your child is.
Friend.
Don't, don't let that get lost on you.
Hope isn't moving away from your child.
Hope is reaching forward into the eternity that is already yours.
The place where your child is already at the place that you
are moving toward, not behind.
So how do we practice hope when our hearts are still breaking?
I wanna give you some tools today to be able to do that because if
you're very early in your grief journey, it is very challenging to
see anything that looks like hope because our hearts are so broken.
But I wanna teach you how to look for glimmers.
That's what we're gonna call 'em today, friends.
Okay?
We're gonna call them Glimmers of Hope, a tiny micro evidence.
That God is still in your story and that he has not forgotten you.
This is a look at it like this.
It's the opposite of a trigger.
You know, a trigger takes us down that path and we gotta, we've
gotta do something to stop it.
There has to be a catalyst that stops us, that helps us recover from that trigger.
It's the opposite of that.
Today we're gonna look at things that are tiny micro evidence, those little
glimmers that if we blink, we might miss.
But I wanna get your heart and your mind and your soul tuned
into looking for those today.
So how do we do that?
The first step is being aware.
Stop and notice one thing today that you were able to do that you
weren't able to do a week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago.
Look at nature.
Listen, God created the Garden of Eden, A paradise for his people to live in.
Being outside.
Is being in God's creation.
I want you to look at something, whatever that is for you.
Sometimes it's, it's a bird.
Sometimes it's just seeing the natural habitat of being in the woods,
seeing the natural growth of trees.
For those of you that have read my devotional, you know that I
spent some time in there talking about a burl, not look it up.
It's fascinating.
Those are the kinds of things that we find when we're in nature.
The very.
Beauty of a sunrise and a sunset that loses its, I wanna
say, value to us because.
In our grief journeys, every time the sun comes up, it's a reminder, right?
Another day without our child.
Every time the sun sets, it's a reminder that we spent a day without our child.
But this is where I want you to see a change here.
Instead of looking at it like that, I want you to look at it like this.
Every time that sun rise.
You are closer to spending eternity with your child.
Every time that sun sets you are one day closer to your reunion.
When we start looking at it like , that friend, there is a transition that takes
place in our heart and minds, and it may not feel natural to you at first.
This is why we're going to practice this whole series is called Permission
to Practice because we can hear and absorb information all day long, but
until we put it into practice, it will not make a difference in our life.
Now, let me preface that by saying those of you that are in.
A month from doing life with your kid or six months from doing life with your kid.
All of this sounds foreign and impossible.
That's okay.
You still need to listen because I want you to hear it because I
want you to feel that, hear that, see that Holy Spirit drawing you
toward what I'm talking about today.
So I want you to start noticing those glimmers.
Maybe it's a kind act that someone did for you today.
Maybe it was a smile, maybe it was a text.
Hey, I'm thinking about you today.
Start to notice those and then friend, don't just notice it.
I want you to speak it out loud.
I want you to see it as a gift.
I want you to thank God for it.
One of the biggest changes came in my grief journey after the Holy
Spirit convinced me that I needed to be thankful for the things that
I still had my life in my life.
Now, I resisted that if you know my whole story.
I did it kicking and screaming with my heels dug in because I was
like a little toddler stomping my feet that I wanted my son back.
I am just being honest and very transparent with you here, friend,
because that is exactly how I felt.
But when I was able to turn that corner and start recognizing things in my life to
be thankful for, the bitterness left me.
So I'm encouraging you, friend, when you see this glimmer of hope.
That's the first step.
Notice the second step is to acknowledge.
I want you to say it out loud, Lord.
Thank you for this beautiful, whatever it is, sunset, sunrise for this beautiful,
um, bird that I'm watching right now.
Lord, thank you for this text that I received from this friend.
Thank you Lord for prompting them to send that to me today.
Thank you Lord for this card that I got in the mail that simply said, I'm here.
I'm thinking of you start to shift your mind to allow yourself to be thankful.
First step is that you're going to notice or be aware.
Second step is acknowledged.
Now, this third step is so very important.
I'm gonna call it the anchor step, where you're gonna tie number
one and number two together.
Okay?
Number one is where you notice number two is where you acknowledge.
Number three is where you're gonna tie these two, two together in an anchor.
Psalms 27 13 says this friend, I remain confident of this, that
I will see the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living.
I'm gonna say it again.
I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the
Lord and the land of the living.
When we shift our focus and our hearts toward finding
something to be thankful for.
I don't care how small it is, how short the glimmer is.
I want you to start training your eyes to see that because God
is still in your story, friend.
He is right there with you in the messy middle of all of this.
So this is your permission to practice to find glimmers of hope in your story.
If you're listening to me right now and you feel so completely lost that
this feels impossible to you, that you feel like that you are moving
closer and closer to despair, friend, I don't want you to stay there.
Please don't stay there.
This is why I do what I do.
I wanna help you get your footing on the solid rock.
Now friend, that doesn't happen without intention.
That's what this whole series has been about.
Permission to practice.
We must, have intention in order to be able to find a way to live.
Again, I would be honored if you would consider allowing me to
speak into your grief journey.
You can book a grief mentor session with me at the link in my show notes
or on my website@thegriefmentor.com.
Let's sit together.
Let's figure this out together.
Let me help you see things that you cannot see that are hiding from
you because of the noise of grief.
Okay?
You don't have to find your way back to hope all by yourself.
You have permission to hope.
You have permission to look toward a future, not because you have moved
away from the life with your child.
Quite the opposite, because you know the one who holds your future, right?
Your anchor is behind the veil.
It's firm, it is secure, it is trustworthy.
It is full of hope and friend.
That's where your child is.
Just on the other side of the veil, when we can allow ourselves to consider that
there's so much more life to be lived.
Can't kill a Christian friend.
You know, when we wear the blood of Jesus Christ, when we wear the
breastplate of righteousness, we are in a position where we are in Him.
When we are in him.
We are in right standing with God.
I could say so much more about that for him because it is so much a part
of my grief journey and what he's taught me to be where I am right now.
I would love to help you be able to do that if that's something you feel
like would benefit you, I would be honored to walk this journey with you.
God bless your friend, and that's all I have for you today.
So until next time, take care.