Sorry for the LONG silence

When my dad passed away back in May, it kind of threw me off balance for a time. I needed to mourn and to recall the good times I have had with my dad over the years, but his death coming so suddenly and soon after my return to Mexico was very difficult. I had some strange ideas about how I as a Christian should react to a death of a beloved parent.

Over the years I have witnessed friends, family and pastors during their time of mourning and really admired the strength of many of them. I believed that if my faith were strong enough I should be able to say good-bye to my dad without shedding many tears and without a long period of grieving. 

I became very disillusioned with myself; I felt pain, loss, frustration and anger after dad's death and unfortunately there were days when the tears won out.

A week ago one of my students called me after having gone to wake her grandfather and found that he has passed away in the night. This student had shared with me in August that her grandfather had cancer of the aggressive sort anbd from that day I began to minister to her and her family for their coming loss. 

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 says: Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

One of the things God has clearly shown me and spoken into my heart is that EVERYONE mourns differently! The mourning is difficult enough without us applying pressure to ourselves and trying to model mourning correctly for others.