Comfort for the Day

How to Use This Book

You are hurting right now. The pain is unlike anything you have experienced before. Words like “arrangements,” “process,” “stages,” and “grief” may cause you to recoil and insist this is all a bad dream. I understand that even reading can seem to be an insurmountable task at this moment. For that reason you will find this grief recovery guide is designed to come to the reader in small doses.

Accept your Individuality

Because your loss is unique and your pain is understood only by you, this book has been prepared to comfort you through your individual seasons of grief. Each “Comfort for the Day” was written to stimulate your mind, encourage facing your reality, and most importantly to provide a cushion for your pain. Grief recovery is different for everyone. Male, female, parent, child, grandparent, and friend will face the loss differently. All need to heal from the loss in their own way. All need comfort and support; all need encouragement and understanding, all need to become aware of their own response and reactions to their individual pain.

Emotional & Physical Side Effects of Grieving

The following section in this book entitled, “Comfort for Your Emotional and Physical Grief,” will be most helpful by enlightening your grief awareness. The fear of the unknown is an added stress that you do not need. Becoming acquainted with the physiology of grief and the emotional aspects will help lower your level of fear and provide a more relaxed state of mind which promotes recovery.

Begin Anywhere

This book is not a “start to finish” book. It is a book you can open and read in any section to find comfort. It is a book to use. Write in it, draw in it, jot down notes, poetry, quotes, and favorite memories. Skim through the pages and find a title or section that resonates with your need at that moment. These pages will become your personalized grief recovery book. I believe we never get over the loss, but rather, we recover and our recovery progresses lasts throughout the seasons of our lives. Therefore, this book has the potential for being useful for as long as you continue to heal and discover the importance of writing to express your process.

Write-on

So you may not consider yourself to be a writer. Yet you have thoughts and feelings. Journaling is just putting those thoughts and feelings on paper. You need no order, structure, or rules. Just write. The lined journal pages which follow each “Comfort for the Day” provide the second purpose of this book, which is to allow for your individual expressions of grief and recovery. Writing about your feelings positively impacts the grief process and helps speed your recover. Using this book as a tool is your opportunity to begin your recovery, a healing process that will help comfort the pain of the moment and assist you to face the reality of your emotions one day at a time ~ one season at a time.

Built-up grief is like poison in your system that needs to be released. Express that grief and your mind and body can begin to heal. As you respond in writing, do not feel that you must fill the entire page. However, once you begin writing you may surprise yourself. Your jumbled thoughts scratched out on paper will help the tension subside. Dating your entries may help you as you return to any of the “Comforts” many weeks or months later to record additional thoughts. If you prefer to sketch your thoughts and feelings, by all means use that talent to release your emotions. Once the pain has subsided, this personal journal will continue to provide you with “healing memories” throughout your lifetime.

The Comfort of Scripture

The last section of this book has additional scripture verses for further reading. On those days when you need extra support and comfort, turn to this section of the book and you will quickly find a text from Scripture to be just what is needed for the moment. Because our God is the “God of all comfort” (II Corinthians 1:3), His word is filled with the comfort you need right now. These can help you find solace and comfort throughout the stressful seasons of your emotional and physical grief recovery.

My Prayer

I encourage you to put your trust in God. He loves you and wants to be intimately involved in your recovery. My prayer is that Comfort for the Day will become a welcome companion as you live through your seasons of grief. I pray that you will find the comfort you need today and that the thoughts and emotions penned in this special journal will contribute to your personal journey toward healing.

Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. II Corinthians 12:9 NLT

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Ephesians 4:7 NKJV

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The paralyzing effect of loss leaves us feeling helpless, hopeless, and even incapable of performing daily duties. At times the pain is so intense we feel as if we can’t make it through another day. It is at these times that our friend, Jesus, comes to us saying, “I know all about your weakness and pain. In fact, in your greatest point of pain, my strength is limitlessly available to you. My grace is my ability to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Do you trust me to meet your need?”

Grace is a word often used in Christian conversation, but sometimes misunderstood or applied. We are helpless to control the path of grief. Yet with God’s grace to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves, we can be strengthened with assurance that the power of Christ is at work through our weaknesses. His gift comes from the riches of eternity. We have all we need when we trust our weakness with Him.

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From Heart to Hand

o In what areas of my grieving do I need God’s grace?

o What is my understanding of grace?

o How do these scriptures comfort me today?