Content provided by Good Samaritan Society.
When someone you love dies, the grief can feel overwhelming. But there are ways you can cope — while both honoring the loss you feel and finding hope for your future.
Here, leaders from the Good Samaritan Society’s mission integration team offer five ways to find comfort, strength and peace through your mourning.
1. Host A Remembrance Service
A memorial or remembrance service can provide opportunities for healing and strength after a loved one dies.
Ideas for memorial service components include:
- Meaningful music to both sing and listen to
- Time to name losses people have experienced or are experiencing
- Opportunities for people to share favorite memories of your loved one
- Scripture or other readings that focus on hope and peace
- A symbolic act, such as lighting candles, holding and placing stones, writing out losses, ringing bells, or hanging ornaments on a tree
2. Acknowledge Your Feelings
Everyone will experience grief differently. Whether you feel angry, numb, hopeless, lonely, guilty, sorrowful, depressed or any other range of emotions, it’s important to acknowledge how you feel. This can help you better understand the loss, while also diminishing its power to weigh you down.
3. Take Care of Yourself
Being emotionally exhausted can take a serious toll on your health.
Try to remember to:
- Get plenty of rest — it’s OK to turn off your phone and computer to take a break
- Eat healthy meals, even if you don’t have an appetite
- Drink lots of water — dehydration can cause headaches, joint and muscle pain, and fatigue
- Get out of the house once in a while, even if it’s as simple as walking around the mall or having a cup of coffee in the park
4. Turn to Scripture
God’s greatest gift to us — through Jesus’ death and resurrection — is the promise of life eternal. Remind yourself of this promise by reading Bible verses that bring you hope and peace.
5. Find Small Moments to Be Grateful For
Even in the depths of your grief, there will be moments that can fill you with gratitude — the warmth of a fresh cup of tea, the comfort of a friend who calls to say hello, the coziness of a favorite chair and blanket.
Take a second to acknowledge these small comforts, and give thanks for their presence in your life today. Remembering all the good you have in your life can help you move on from the pain of your loss.
Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting the loss. Rather, it means choosing to focus on what is left. With time, you can begin to remember what or who was lost with gratitude, too.
Let’s Pray:
Loving and gracious God, thank you for the love we experience from the people and things you place in our lives.
We pray that your love brings hope and healing to those who are grieving.
Please fill their hearts with your peace that surpasses all understanding.
Help us remember your joyful promise of everlasting life with you in heaven.
We ask all these things in the blessed name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
