Precious Memories

Recently as I was working on another project the old gospel song, “Precious Memories” came to mind. God made us so that we could have memories and memories can be wonderful blessings. They also can be painful. Often our memories are a combination of the two types.

When we grieve the loss of a loved one the memories that come in the early period of grief most likely are ones that cause us pain. These memories may cause us to miss our loved one more even as we may have happy memories but realize we can never have those happy times with our loved one again. So, even though the memory may initially be a pleasant one we usually don't want to dwell on the memory too long because it quickly turns to a painful experience.

What do we do about this? Put away the picture albums, or the things that remind us of our loved one?  No, I have found that as time goes by I can hold those memories longer, even though they may still bring tears and sadness,if we are fortunate to be able to share some of them with family and friends they can bring more comfort then pain.

This is where support groups can be a valuable help in our journey of grief. Writing stories of our daughter and sharing them with others has helped the healing process in my journey of grief. I don't know who may be reading this blog, but if you are a grieving parent I would wish we could share sometime together. I could tell you some of my “precious memories” of our daughter and I would love to hear the “precious memories of your loved one..

Jesus shared with His disciples that, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 3:15. I think Jesus was talking about more than putting our physical life on the line for someone but that true love causes us to give of ourselves to others, to be there for another hurting person, to listen to their “precious memories”.

If you and I may not be able to meet and share those “precious memories” of our loved ones, I pray that you might find someone this week you can listen to and also have them listen to you. God bless!