Dear Family,
We are writing this letter to provide a platform for families with perpetual questions or emotional stressors that might be surfacing and yet not addressed during this journey. Our life’s calling and experience position us to understand the struggles that some families go through, and we want to use the means of penning these words of encouragement to be a help in a time of need.
The topic for this month is moving forward. When someone passes, people go through many changes, and those changes can be shaped by how you dealt with the passing of your loved one. Moving forward is sometimes a hard thing to do. The first thing we have to do is realize how much they meant to us. People leave an imprint on us — a connection that can be hard to hold, but one that was fruitful. Some connections carry unresolved anger or absence that can trouble the heart. It helps to look at the full scope of death. Christianity says, “absent from the body, present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). If we believe our loved ones are at peace, we need to find peace ourselves.
No one in heaven is struggling about life in heaven — so why are we struggling down here? Often it is because of unresolved issues, or moments of sadness we haven’t let ourselves cope with or yield to. There are many stages of life we go through, but life does not always feel fair. We must open our hearts to forgiveness, or refocus on the bigger picture: we need to move forward.
Forgiveness cleanses the soul. It frees the emotions and turmoil of moments that didn’t go the way we wanted, and it brings hope to the rest of a person’s life. Consider the bigger picture: if your loved one were healthy and sitting next to you, in their right mind, would they want you to be happy and successful? Yes, they would. We must move forward and embrace this new stage of life — because if we don’t, we aren’t moving, and that leads to being stagnant.
Moving forward means carrying all the moments of love, tears, laughter, and good memories into the future. We need to open our hearts and change, because they loved us, and we loved them. All is right, because they are no longer suffering and are at peace. Please look into your heart and ask yourself: how happy and successful do they want you to be? Then move forward.