Day 340 - Practical Help

365 daily emails to help you through the grieving process Grief support groups: Click here to find a GriefShare group near you. If you would like to find a group for a friend or relative, try our Search Page. Want to read ahead or resend a previous daily email? Click Here Practical Help Day 340 Don't underestimate the value of giving practical help. But be observant. The kind of help needed will vary from one person to another. Barbara Johnson shares, "I wished people would have just come and told me they loved me and that God loved me, and then helped me feed the dog, take care of the house, dump the garbage, do some things like that. Doing practical things for me would have been good because so many things they said were causing turmoil for me rather than comfort. So I learned that the words should be few and that it is better to do practical things to help the family. Bring some casseroles; feed the children; do the laundry." If you could use practical help, ask for it. People want to help and usually find it easier to help with a specific task or responsibility. "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12). Receive help with open arms and an appreciative outlook. Offer help with the same caring attitude. Lord God, even when I'm not sure how another person will respond to my overtures, give me the courage to find a practical way to help and to just do it! Amen. Grieving with Hope This GriefShare-based book contains short, topical chapters addressing issues that grieving people face but are often hesitant to mention to others; it gently guides people to determine whether they're grieving in a way that leads to hope and ultimate healing. Look for Grieving with Hope by Samuel Hodges and Kathy Leonard at a local or online bookstore or at griefshare.org/hope. If you would like to recommend these daily emails to a friend, please click here and choose one of the options under Share. For more information about GriefShare, including how to sign up for these daily emails, please click here. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2003-2013 by The Church Initiative, Inc., All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from Church Initiative. You subscribed to this daily email through www.griefshare.org. We value your privacy! We will never give, sell, rent, or otherwise share your email or personal information with any other organization — EVER. To remove this email address from further mailings Click Here while connected to the internet. If you have any problems or concerns, please contact dailyemailsupport@griefshare.org. GriefShare 250 S. Allen Rd. Wake Forest, NC 27587 (800) 395-5755