I hope you’ll join me today, 3-5pm EST for my virtual grief recovery class!
You’ll leave with tools to shift the way you go through grief, move forward (without leaving your loved one behind) and feel better! You’ll also gain skills to better help others who are grieving.
Join me for this value-packed live virtual class TODAY!
I’ll be sharing the tips that helped me most in a time of loss, along with things I wish I’d known then!
SAVE MY SPOT FOR CONNIE’S CLASS
When you lose a loved one, you may hear friends say something like, “If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.” They want to express their love, but are unsure of what to do. They don’t want to overstep, but they want you to know they’re there.
Here’s a tip to help both you and your friends:
Let them know! They’ll be relieved to know of a specific way they can be of help. When they ask, have a list ready. Here are a few to get you started.
Practical ways:
Let them know what helps in emotional ways. Consider letting them know the following, if this is how you feel:
This Sunday, (3-5pm EST) I’ll be sharing (in a live, virtual setting) strategies that significantly helped me in a time of grief, and also tips I’ve learned along the way that I wish I’d known then. You’ll gain practical tips to get unstuck, move forward (without leaving your loved one behind), and feel better! You’ll also learn how to be a better friend to others who are experiencing grief.
Don’t miss out on this value-packed class. Questions? Contact me at ConnieCarey.Com. And if you know of someone who could use this “down-to-earth” help, please be a friend and pass along!
Sending you love!
Connie
It’s easy to give God glory when things go my way. How about you? The challenge is when the heartfelt dream dies, the healing doesn’t come, the job you interviewed for goes to someone else, the marriage fails despite earnest prayer and work.
But our times of disappointment can be turned into extraordinary direction if we’ll let God do His work. Sorrow is an extraordinary opportunity in which to shine. To give God glory. To point to a higher way.
Such is the case with my cousin’s granddaughter and my friend’s daughter Maddie.
A star soccer player entering her senior year, Maddie unexpectedly lost the sight in one eye due to a fireworks accident and her beloved game of soccer came to an end. Or did it?
Turns out she’s used this massive set back as a set UP…for a new way to enjoy soccer and to pour into others as well. Maddie reminds me that it’s not so much what happens to us as it is how we respond to our circumstances.
A few things rise to the top as I listen to Maddie.
Maybe you need this today? If so, Friend, I pray you find comfort and conviction to move ahead with joy that comes from God’s perspective.
See her story here.
It’s February and my backyard is a desolate, bleak mess. Front yard too, for that matter.
I’ve seen the Southern Living pictures of beautiful yards in winter. Mine? Nothing but brown.
So why am I excited?
Because 15 winters with this yard have taught me to look closer this time of year. It’s taught me to look expectantly for what’s just around the corner. While everything seems brown at first glance, a closer look shows me this:
Glorious green peeping out from underneath those dead leaves!
See, I know that soon, this…
will be this.
This tiny sprout…
will soon be a flourishing bank of Black Eyed Susans. You just can’t tell it yet!
The view here…
will soon be this…
And this depressing “dead” stump on the corner…
will again take over the house, crowding everything else out of it’s way!
The cycle of life, death and life again in nature beautifully echoes God’s timeless truth: “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24).
Do you have a loved one who is no longer here? Are you missing them? Sometimes the daily-ness of loss is so bleak, cold and lonely…like a gray, winter day.
But we know that there’s another principle at work. Those departed loved ones who trusted in Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation? Either when Christ returns or takes us home, we will see those precious family members and friends again. Not in the way they died….whether by a wasting disease, tragedy or old age…but fully healed and whole in every way! And we’ll pick right up where we left off… only without tears, regrets, misunderstandings, sickness or any other thing that steals our joy.
“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NIV)
Are you missing a loved one? Please don’t hear me saying not to grieve. In fact, cry your eyes out. But healthy grief keeps the full picture in mind. Just as winter sleep is part of the cycle of nature, death is part of life. And as real as your sorrow is, so is the coming rejoicing over a glorious, joyful, hoot’n, hollerin’ reunion with loved ones! With every minute you spend crying, spend another one reflecting on the glorious joy that waits for you.
If you’re missing someone and loss feels like a cold, gray day, remember that for the believer, this is not the end of the story! Spring is coming!
Do you know someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one and could use encouragement? Pass this along, as well as my book “Falling Up, Lessons Learned on the Way Down”, which offers hope and healing for times of loss. You can get your copy here: “Falling Up”.
Have you ever needed help, but didn’t know it?
I had a close call recently that taught me a few lessons I hope may be of help to you next time you wonder about God’s interest and activity in your life.
The Thursday evening before Memorial Day, I was slicing an avocado. After several unsuccessful tries of removing the stubborn pit, I unwisely (but with great enthusiasm!) stabbed the pit with a steak knife while holding the avocado half in my left hand. (Did I mention I’m a pianist who happens to be left handed?) The pit split and the knife went into my hand at the base of my ring finger. Please, no judgement. Believe me, I know better than anyone else how foolish my actions were!
Off John and I went to the emergency room. Some 17 stitches later, we were done.
I have colorful pics, but will spare you the details. Instead, here is this cool avocado slicer I received as a consolation prize.
I limped through the Sunday music at the keyboard and on Monday was playing a Memorial Day concert. I mentioned to my friend that my finger was numb and that I wondered how long it would be before the feeling came back.
What happened next was nothing but divine intervention.
He said, “You need to see a hand surgeon. My son works for a hand surgeon and he will call you within the hour.”
A hand surgeon? I just needed a few stitches, I thought. Besides, the ER didn’t mention any need for follow up.
After talking with me, his son said he thought I may have severed the nerve. He got an appointment for me and by Wednesday, the surgeon confirmed it and I underwent surgery the same day to have it sewn back together. Who knew that was even possible?
I learned there is a window of time before the nerve begins to retract, making the surgery more complicated, involving nerve grafts from the back of the leg or even from a cadaver, if necessary.
Why am I telling you this story? Because there are times in our lives that God takes over for us when we don’t even know to ask Him. Maybe you need to know that today.
Three things I want to share with you:
Then I graduated to a smaller cast for another couple of weeks. 
When I got out of the cast, I could hardly move my left hand due to atrophy and swelling. A few weeks and several therapy sessions later, I was playing the piano for an event. I began to play the song “Give Thanks” and suddenly the song I’d played a million times was fresh with new meaning. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to praise God through making music. The result of my avocado debacle has been a fresh infusion of joy over the miracle of surgery and the body’s ability to heal, the beauty of music and the privilege of making it. What close call have you had when you didn’t even know to ask God for help? Ask Him to show you his involvement and activity in your life…and let it fill you with gratitude.
By the way, National Avocado Day was yesterday!
To celebrate, I think I’ll go slice up a juicy one…
carefully…
and with my new childproof safety avocado slicer.
Connie Carey 