Grief & Healing Archives - True and Faithful

Truth in Your Unexpected Chapter 2

03.22.2018 By Lisa Appelo 4 Comments

I don’t know if you’re seeing it around you, but I’m seeing it around me in spades: life can dish up the unexpected. And not only that, life can dish up the unwanted.

It’s like someone has ripped whole chapters out of the book for our life we wrote. Instead, we’re staring at pages we never saw coming.

How are you going to do this, Lord? Are we going to be okay? Our anxious thoughts start to spin at the unknown and unwanted that lies ahead.

I’ve been living in a chapter I never saw coming either. And we certainly didn’t want it. But six years in, I’m at a place where it’s no longer a moment-by-moment battle against the anxious. There’s still a lot of unknown, but there’s also so much Known.

When we find ourselves in the unknown and unwanted, we need to hyper-focus on the truth over our feelings.

Today, I’m sharing at Risen Motherhood. I’d love you to join me to see God’s truth in your unexpected Chapter 2.

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Welcome if you’re joining from Risen Motherhood! You can read more about our story here. I’d love to send you my free 100 Days with Christ Bible study and journal for subscribing here.

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Live Where You Are; Love Where You Are

02.10.2018 By Lisa Appelo 46 Comments

I had something I was writing to you yesterday. It was nearly written and I just needed to edit and put some finishing touches on it before I hit publish.

But laying on my pillow last night, I realized I had something altogether different I really want to say. So here I am, laptop back open, typing away at the keys with words that won’t let me sleep until I write them down.

It’s a simple message. Nothing really dressed up with a bunch of flourishes because it’s a place I’m still working through.

Some days I think I’ve nailed it. But other days — many days — I find myself struggling to win this.

I want to live fully where I am. And I want to love where I am.

But it’s so hard. Because I loved the life I had.

[Read more…]

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How Do You Prepare Broken Hearts for Christmas?

12.08.2017 By Lisa Appelo 8 Comments

Six years ago, we faced a smile-less Christmas.

Only a few months before, the rhythmic ordinary that was our family life had been forever lost and I began shepherding eight stunned and broken hearts through the pain and questions and agony of missing.

Those next months? It took every ounce of hope just to put feet on the floor each morning and every bit of mental space and physical stamina not only to process my own grief, but to handle the paperwork, finances, household, parenting, taxiing, decisions and all that had once been shouldered by two.

And now, Christmas was coming.

As much as I longed for a good Christmas for my kids, I couldn’t imagine pulling together any kind of real celebration.

Our life seemed so far removed, so out of step from the shopping and parties, baking and merrymaking that engaged the rest of the world.

Even our own Christmas traditions felt too tender this year. I knew we’d come back to them, but this first year we just needed something else altogether.

And yet, I wanted to be present with my kids. I needed to be present with my kids. I had toddlers and school-aged kids and teens and we needed to do more than just survive Christmas.

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Making Peace with an Imperfect Home

11.29.2017 By Lisa Appelo Leave a Comment

If you’re visiting from (in)courage, welcome! I’d love to share a few of my favorite things with you. First, you can download the first two chapters of my family advent devotional Countdown to Christmas here. And for encouragement sent right to your inbox, subscribe here and I’d love to send my free 100 Days with Christ Bible study and journal. Blessings to you and yours as we prepare our hearts for Jesus this advent. You can read more about our family here.

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“If you need to evacuate, you’re welcome here.”

What had I just done? Even as I extended the invitation, I was horrified I’d done it.

The largest hurricane on record in the Atlantic was bearing down on Florida and the entire state was on high alert. New data showed a sudden change of course and the Category 4 storm was now headed straight toward my sister’s house.

She had already taken in her in-laws. Now they all needed a place to evacuate and every hotel room within 700 miles was booked from those fleeing this mega-storm.

“I’ll call you right back and let you know,” my sister replied. As we ended our call, I silently hoped they might go north as they’d originally planned. But a few minutes later, I got a text: “We’re on our way. Don’t worry about dinner. We have supplies packed.”

Um, dinner was the last thing on my mind. What worried me was the state of my house.

[Read more…]

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Awake O Sleeper

11.16.2017 By Lisa Appelo 17 Comments

Awake O Sleeper
God bids you come
and meet with Him this morn,
Pour out your heart
give Him the struggles
the missing that you mourn.
He knows you grieve
for what’s been lost,
the dreams cut short and shorn,
but new life greets,
new dreams await
whole chapters yet unborn.

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