A mutual friend just lost her husband. I don't personally know her but it hit home again so hard. I won't say for me in a personal way but in a widows way. I felt so sick to my stomach and I could empathize deeply with what this woman would face without even knowing her. I realized after stepping away from my calling for a brief time I must go back there in my journey to help other widows. Please keep me in your prayers as I work to build this ministry to help those that God himself called spoke about. King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
James 1:27 - Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Deuteronomy 14:29 so that the Levites
(who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your
hands.
Job 31:16 "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
Job 31:17 if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless--
Psalm 146:9 The LORD watches over the
alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of
the wicked.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do right! Seek
justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the
case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not
defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before
them.
I wondered why it always refers back to widows and orphans and my pastor explained to me one time that in helping these two groups of people you are unselfishly helping those who truly cannot help themselves. People constantly do tit for tat. Whether to raise their self importance or to further themselves. When you help a disenfranchised being you are helping an individual who cannot return the favor. I see that now.
Widows sometimes cannot move forward or incapable financially, or brought down by the general day to day stuff that they can't focus or do much for a long period of time after the death of their husband. Oh they may look put together on the outside but believe me they are a mess on the inside with a host of thoughts and feelings all just below the surface bubbling. As if grief isn't hard enough, we now sit in judgment of our grief. We are given a timeline by those who have moved on whether family, friends or co-workers, each with a different length and we are to fall within that realm to make THEM feel better. If you know a widow stop impossing YOUR timeline on her, grief is as different as a snowflake for every person. Her rollercoaster ride is hard enough without others making her feel inadequate about where she is in her grief. As I've told the widows in my group..."here's your grief card and it has no expirations date". I do help them to try to find their path beyond their husbands walk and I feel deeply that it takes a widow to help heal a widow in a proper way.
Gob
James 1:27 - Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Deuteronomy 14:29 so that the Levites
(who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your
hands.
Job 31:16 "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
Job 31:17 if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless--
Psalm 146:9 The LORD watches over the
alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of
the wicked.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do right! Seek
justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the
case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not
defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before
them.
I wondered why it always refers back to widows and orphans and my pastor explained to me one time that in helping these two groups of people you are unselfishly helping those who truly cannot help themselves. People constantly do tit for tat. Whether to raise their self importance or to further themselves. When you help a disenfranchised being you are helping an individual who cannot return the favor. I see that now.
Widows sometimes cannot move forward or incapable financially, or brought down by the general day to day stuff that they can't focus or do much for a long period of time after the death of their husband. Oh they may look put together on the outside but believe me they are a mess on the inside with a host of thoughts and feelings all just below the surface bubbling. As if grief isn't hard enough, we now sit in judgment of our grief. We are given a timeline by those who have moved on whether family, friends or co-workers, each with a different length and we are to fall within that realm to make THEM feel better. If you know a widow stop impossing YOUR timeline on her, grief is as different as a snowflake for every person. Her rollercoaster ride is hard enough without others making her feel inadequate about where she is in her grief. As I've told the widows in my group..."here's your grief card and it has no expirations date". I do help them to try to find their path beyond their husbands walk and I feel deeply that it takes a widow to help heal a widow in a proper way.
Gob