{{item.title | uppercase}}

{{item.authdes}}

So far, 2014 has the record for the worst year of my life. My husband and I kicked off that year with serious marital problems. I had strep throat six times before I had to have my tonsils removed in the spring. And in the fall, I lost my husband to an unexpected death.

But throughout that entire year, I never felt closer to my Savior. I had plenty of loving family and friends who had all the answers to my problems. But I made my decisions based on the direction that God provided me. Everything outside of my relationship with God was noise and chaos. With God, I felt safe. With God, I knew I could overcome 2014 and so could my three- and five-year-old sons.

God Will Step In

After my husband passed, my Christian counselor kept reminding me of God’s love and His promises to His children. Those promises included that He would step in as the husband I didn’t have, and He would step in as the father my children had lost. And He did.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
Psalms 68:5 (NIV)

God Will Provide

My counselor also encouraged me to ask God for everything I needed and to be specific. I wrote down all my needs, from great to small, and prayed about them. I asked Him to provide the help we needed. And He did.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-11 (NIV)

Sometimes Jesus was so sweet with me that He would give me clear solutions immediately. Should I sell my house and leave the school my kindergartener had just started? A meeting at the social security office gave me the answer – we could afford to stay. Now both my sons are thriving in their school.

Other times, He revealed Himself through others’ loving acts of kindness. One of my best friends, Melissa, lived an hour away but came to my house every Monday for weeks to help me get through the mind-numbing “business of death.” From making spreadsheets to driving me around town while I was on the phone with AT&T for two hours, she was by my side, encouraging me to get my tasks done.

One of those tasks was changing the lightbulbs in my house. Overlooking that little chore was casting my family into a literal darkness to match the threatening darkness we were already experiencing. My friend and I made a detailed list of all the lightbulbs I needed, headed to the hardware store, and were able to replace each one. When the kids got home later that day, it was like Christmas. “We have lights! We have lights again!”

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:5 (NIV)

And He Did

My fellow widows, God promises we will never be alone. He keeps that promise by keeping His covenant with us. He also provides loving people to walk beside us and behind us, picking up all the pieces of our lives that we’re dropping in our grief.

2014 will always be the year that knocked me down flat and then sat on me so I couldn’t get up. But God could get me up. And He did.

Lord Jesus, thank You for always getting us back up and clinging to Your promises. So many life events hit us from every direction. And through these events we want to SHINE in the darkness. Give us strength today to SHINE. Amen