Sons of the Shepherd

  Healing Is Your #1 Job After Losing Your Spouse Rachel Powell If you’re a widow or widower who feels stuck, like you’re surviving, or even "maintaining" and "functional" (but in a life you're not thrilled with) I want to give you encouragement that changed my widowed journey: Healing is your #1 job right now. Not optional. Not when things calm down. Not later. It is your primary work when you have lost your spouse. I know that can feel heavy or unfair—especially when you didn’t choose this loss, this pain, or this responsibility. But healing changes your entire experience of grief, and your future ahead. Why Your Brain Resists Making Healing the Priority When I was widowed, fear, lack and uncertainty came easy. I truly believed I didn’t have the resources to invest in myself after losing Andre. Everything felt uncertain and unstable. I didn't realize that my brain was trying to "protect me" from more harm... while actually keeping me trapped in ...

  Surely Goodness and Mercy       Moving.  Ugh.  It seems to be the bane of my existence.  A little over two years ago Tiffanie and I moved from the home that we loved in West Virginia to the camp house for ministry.  It was during that short time period when our lives were turned upside down.  Tiff would pass away less than a month after the move.  Eighteen months later the kids and I moved out of the camp house to my mom's home, and now we are planning yet another move from the United States to Canada.  Moving doesn't just require a lot of physical strength, but it also takes a lot of emotional capacity too.  You go through items that were seemingly long forgotten and upon finding them a flood of memories fills your soul....and maybe tears fill your eyes.  One day I stumbled across Tiff's picture box.  I sat on my bedroom floor 'criss cross applesauce' and started going through the pictures.  The pictures were ...

  A Table in the Presence of Grief       There are certain pieces of furniture in your home that could tell a lot of stories if they could talk.  One of those pieces of furniture in our home was our kitchen table.  If you knew my late wife Tiffanie you knew that SHE loved home decor.  It was her hobby.  Her pictures were even used on Target's website and a few other large department stores.  Pretty cool, huh?  She dreamed of a white kitchen table.  She was saved money for over one year to buy it.  Now, let me be honest, I didn't want her to buy a white kitchen table. We still had young kids at home and well, needless to say, three young children and a white table don't mix very well.  But we bought the table and within a week one of the kids already stained the table.  Tiff was devastated.  Then a few months later the paint started chipping.  To say she was disappointed would be an understatement.  I c...

  The Shepherd Who Meets Us in the Valley       Change.  That one simple word can cause a plethora of different responses from people.  Some of us embrace change, we almost look forward to it.  We might even treat it like a great adventure.  Others fear change, we dread it and it can cause such anxiety and unrest in our lives.  Change for those people can be the bain of their existence. Let's be honest, change can be a good thing.  I am personally grateful that we don't drive Model T Fords, we have air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and wifi versus dial up.  Those changes have advanced our world, but grieving people have an aversion to change.  The reason why we have an aversion to it is because grief, by definition it forces change on our life.  I call it forced change because we didn't vote for it.  We were asked if we wanted it. The death of our person demanded that we face a new, scary world that is filled with la...

When the Evenings Get Darker       My oldest son and I have been going on evening walks in the woods near our home.  These walks have become precious to me because not only am I building up my physical health, but I'm also building a healthier relationship with my teenage son.  I'm constantly amazed that he wants to spend time with his dad.  I know this probably won't last forever, but for the time being I'm going to treasure it.  We started our walk a little later last night then normal.  It didn't seem like a very big deal but after about a mile in I noticed that it was noticeably darker.  It wasn't because of cloud cover, it was simply because we are drawing closer to Fall.  We did finish our walk.  We did 2.25 miles, but the last half mile or so required us to be use a flashlight to navigate our path.  The evening getting shorter is a reminder that Autumn is coming.  My pumpkin spice loving friends are starting to buy ...