Grace to Grieve

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    “A dream of mine had just checked into hospice, and Randy was sensitive enough to know I needed some margin to think.”
                                                                    – Bob Goff, Love Does

    We all grieve and need to grieve. Some of us have lost a dream; some of us have lost a relationship, an identity or a position. We all have had losses, are grieving a loss and will have losses to come. All of these things are a part of life along with the good things too.

    When we experience loss we also experience grief and for some reason we have expectations tied to our grief. We expect it to look a certain way, last a particular period of time. We put pressure on ourselves when we are there “again” and thought we had already gotten over it.

    Why can we not give ourselves the grace to grieve?

    I love the line above from a book I have only looked at in a bookstore. As Goff describes the death of a dream, he talks about his friend who gave him the space and grace to grieve.

   Is a dream of yours dying? How will you give yourself grace? How can you give another grace as they watch a dream die?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Mommy Identities

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

Many have us have worked so hard forming our identities. Career identities, marital identities, individual identities. Our identities are constantly forming. Many times our identities form most solidly when we feel like we're in a pressure cooker. These are the times when God is forging who we are. These times of forging are painful, frustrating and sometimes not all that pretty. Transitioning from being a full time working mom to being a full time stay at home mom has been a bit rocky. This transition has been my pressure cooker of identity formation. God uses various times to form us not just in our identities as Moms but as His daughters. He ultimately is forming our identities to become more like Christ's. May God grant you peace, patience and trust during these trying yet crucial times of identity formation.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**