As a mom my heart is absolutely broken for her. I have addressed suicide before in this blog, and so won't do that again here. I was blessed to be able to lead prayer before a meeting today, and I wrote this with her in mind. I thought I would share it here for those who may be suffering from crushing grief in their own lives right now.
PRAYER FOR A TIME OF GRIEF
The Footprints Prayer- author unknown
One night I had a dream…
I dreamt I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; One belonged to me, and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of my life flashed before us, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in my life. This really bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow You, You would walk with me all the way; But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why in times when I needed you the most, you should leave me."
The Lord replied,
“My precious, precious child. I love you, and I would never, never leave you during your times of trial and suffering. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”--Merciful God, you hear the cries of our grief, and you know the anguish of our hearts. Sometimes the sorrows of this life are beyond our understanding and more than we can bear, but through the pain you are our strength and our redeemer. We know you will not leave us in this life nor abandon us in death.
Hear our prayer for those in despair. Renew in them your sustaining strength for we believe that there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord, and no trial imaginable requires us to walk alone. Send the spirit of hope and peace to our friend and her family today. We trust you to fulfill your promise to walk with her through the valley of the shadow of death today and in the days to come.
Amen.
