Positive Grieving… Is A Choice

Theme: Hurting Hearts Beat, Still Love and Live

Positive Grieving is choosing to continue living while telling the truth about hurting.

Sometimes the choice is simply:

Get through this hour. Eat something. Answer the phone—or don't. Cry. Pray when you can. Let somebody else pray when you can't. Tell the truth: “This hurts.” Allow a HeartSmile without feeling guilty for having it. Wake up tomorrow and choose again.

That's still living.

That's still Positive Grieving.

And “Is A Choice” does not mean every grieving person will have the emotional capacity to make that choice every day. Some days grief makes choices for us. Some days the accomplishment is simply surviving the day without demanding that it become meaningful.

Positive Grieving Ain't Easy…

Hurting Hearts Beat. Hurting Hearts Still Love. Hurting Hearts Still Live.

The choice isn't whether the HeartAche comes. The choice is what we allow the HeartAche to become in our lives.

Sometimes, Positive Grieving sounds like this:

“Lord, I don't like this. I don't understand this. This hurts. This isn't what I prayed for. I have questions. I may have anger, guilt, resentment, disappointment or fear mixed into my grief. AND I'm still here. AND I still love. AND my hurting heart is still beating. AND I'm still trusting You—even here.”

Confident Expectations of Good doesn't require pretending this doesn't hurt.

Confident Expectations of Good doesn't require pretending the outcome never disappoints.

Confident Expectations of Good sometimes precedes Disappointment + Uncomfortable Conversations.

Confident Expectations of Good is still how We Stand On Faith.

There was a whole LIFE before there was a loss.

I can acknowledge that my heart hurts without deciding that hurting is all my heart is allowed to do.

The heart is still functioning. The capacity to love remains. And life—changed, sometimes painfully… Only Different—continues.

From my heart to yours, Dianne Lawson 💞