Galatians 6:4,5 “Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”
When we are in our grief, it is sometimes hard to see beyond our own pain. A friend of mine just expressed that feeling to me. She expressed how guilty she felt because she felt the loss of her child was harder than anyone else’s struggle. I expressed to her not to feel guilty because where she was in her grief is exactly how she felt. When we are trying to come to terms with the loss of our child, our pain is all we can focus on. It is our child who is gone. It is our future that is forever changed. It is our arms who long to hold our child again. We cannot understand how anyone else can comprehend our loss.
In reality no one else can understand what we individually have lost. We are each different and our relationship with our child is also like no other. In that we have no reason to feel guilty for feeling our loss is the worst. What I have found as I have absorbed this grief and accepted it as part of my life, I can now see beyond my own suffering. I understand that each mom is not feeling my pain, but their own pain. It might be different than mine, but it is just as significant and life changing as mine has been. We have enough emotions to work through in this grief. I pray we can understand our pain is an outcome of the love we had for our child and the love they had for us.
Lord, this grief journey is as individual as we each are, but the universal feeling of loss is one that joins us together in understanding and compassion.
