Grief Counseling

No one wants to have to go through grief. Going through grief means something has happened to break our hearts. This most commonly means we have lost a loved one to death. None of us are immune to grief hitting us at some point in our lives.

One of the most difficult times to be going through grief can be during the holidays. Everyone wants us to be upbeat, and happy. They want us to be cheerful and celebrate the holidays. But if we are going through a tough time, we may not want to be cheerful and happy. We may want to be quiet, reserved, and somber. We may just want to be left alone.

People tend to avoid people who are negative during times of festivity. You may have done the same thing prior to experiencing grief for yourself. It is a common event. We want to be around people that seem happy and excited all the time. These are the people that are often described as having a magnetic personality that seems to draw people to them.

There are many firsts when we are grieving. The first holidays without a loved one can rock our world view. We see things from a different perspective when we are grieving. The holidays can be depressing even years after a loss. They may bring up memories of spending time with loved ones who are no longer around. Some people make a decision to simply not celebrate the holidays to avoid painful memories. Some people will choose to not even acknowledge the world is celebrating without them. I know people who seem to go into hibernation around Halloween time, and don’t come back out until after the New Year.

Some people have a lot of guilt associated with celebrating anything after a loved one has passed away. They seem to think that if they are happy, they are not respecting the memo...

... middle of paper ...

...us. John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.”

Of course we know the rest of the story of Lazarus, how Jesus raised him from the dead.

We know that Jesus wept over his friends, his enemies, and his own death. But we don’t ever read that Jesus was so overcome with grief that he “left the ministry”, or was no longer able to function. It seems he used his grief to motivate him on to do more good works.

We all need time for grieving when we have a major loss in our lives. It may take us a while to feel like our feet are back under us. But even as Jesus, we need to eventually move on and use the loss that we experience to compel or motivate us to doing good. When Jesus healed Lazarus there must have been a huge celebration in that household. We can’t bring someone back from the grave, but we can honor their memory and do something to bring joy and comfort to someone else.