Insightful Help For A Grieving Friend

"I would go to the deep a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit.
It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary."
~Charles H. Spurgeon

There are some things that I cannot yet understand about people and events. In the past year, I have had a few dear friends and sisters in the Lord experience a miscarriage, a word that I have come to define as, "A pregnancy that the Lord chose not to bring to fruition."

As I am still unmarried, I don't yet understand that loss or grief. But watching these families go through this has made me hope and pray that if God should see fit to bring me through something like, I would still rejoice through the pain and say with the author of Lamentations,

"But this I call to mind,and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness..."

Lamentations 3

Have you ever thought about that before?
In light of this, here is a wonderful and helpful post by Molly Piper on the subject.
It helped me have an alternative to the "helpless" feeling I had when thinking of comforting my grieving friends. And to quote:

But what if we said, “Wow, I have no idea what they’re going through. Here’s a book about it. That’ll help me understand them better, hopefully.” You can equip yourselves to love hurting people! This will give you mileage in communicating and relating with the brokenhearted if you can join them in their brokenheartedness. It’ll help you cry a few more tears for the one who hasn’t stopped crying.

Recent blog find...

A few weeks ago I started reading the blog of Abraham and Molly Piper; it's mostly Molly who writes on the blog but it is about the entire family:)
I've said before that I really enjoy reading John Piper's books and blog; now I am also enjoying his son's family blog. Each post is interesting and I really like the way she writes.

One of the main reasons I think I enjoy it is because I am a highly emotional person.
Yes, I know it's not all about me, however, I think highly emotional people tend to fall into periods of being slightly depressed and are somewhat easily grieved over something/someone.
They also tend to write encouraging things and give good, practical advice to people who are hurting; because they know what it's like.

Molly Piper knows what it is to truly grieve, and as a result has a very realistic yet encouraging outlook on this blog.
Please don't think that every post is dripping with dramatic agony and sorrow; that would be called a depressing blog.
What each post has is honesty and the willingness to put your thoughts and ideas on a public place for everyone to see.
I hope that you will see that it has a beauty that can only come from the Lord and the courage to persevere through various trials.

Which is especially helpful for someone like me.