When life forces us onto a grief journey we are faced with many choices. We can eventually choose to set goals and become active with others in our journey to find a new reality or we can endure the suffering of grief alone. We can choose to express our emotions in a healthy, meaningful way or we can choose to deny our emotions and turn to unhealthy destructive expressions of our grief. We can choose to be grateful for the gift of love that God is now allowing us to grieve or we can turn to anger and resentment and become stuck in our grief prolonging our hopes for a new reality.

Being grateful comes through making a conscious choice to be thankful. Even when our emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment, we can choose to be grateful. And, whenever we will choose to make the real effort to be grateful our hearts will begin to soften, and our minds will begin to open to the endless possibilities that God still has in store for us.

Do the hard work and choose gratitude. Make the effort to acknowledge that all I am and all that I have ever had has been given to me as a gift of love - a gift to be celebrated with joy and thanksgiving. “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” 1 Thess 5:18. Chaplain Helen Gill Creek Baptist Church Grief Ministry