How to Comfort the Grieving

By Roxanne Gail Hodge

When someone you know has a death in the family, or when a family member experiences the death of someone close, do you know what to say or do? What is your first reaction? Send up a prayer on their behalf, perhaps, but you might ask yourself, "Is that enough?"

This booklet is the answer to the dilemma of what to do or say to help those who are grieving. More than that, it also advises us on what NOT to do or say. The practical steps laid out in this booklet are relatively easy to complete. Everyone can understand and adopt some of these suggestions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roxanne Gail Hodge
• Release date: Sep 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223886068

Roxanne Gail Hodge

ROXANNE GAIL HODGE - Author, Poet, Mother, and Grandmother writes inspirational books to inspire hope. Born in Kansas and raised as a military child, Roxanne Gail Hodge is a vintage soul with an honest abundance of empathy. She possesses wisdom based on vast experience. Her walk with the Lord has been her solace through many life-changing crises. She learned to thrive after surviving the worst of events. Roxanne has two daughters and four grandchildren who reside in Texas. Her passions are writing thrillers, poetry, short stories, reading, music, and painting. Roxanne published her much-awaited novel, THE LONG ROAD BACK, a thrill-seeking suspense novel in 2020. Roxanne has spent her entire life journaling both poetry and poetic words.  She accumulated some of her favorite life-altering poetry and created a one-of-a-kind systemic view of her own life in her own words. This poetry book reveals deep, heartwarming events throughout Roxanne's life to enlighten the truth that all things are possible through God.  THISTLES AND BLOSSOMS was released in the Fall of 2020. At the request of fans of THE LONG ROAD BACK, Roxanne Gail Hodge launched a sequel, BENEATH THE GLITTER Rescuing the Unseen, in June of 2022, a novel about human trafficking. Some of the beloved characters from the first novel are further developed in this sequel.  Ms. Hodge used her poetry and inspiration from God to create a 52-week devotional book, INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, which launched in March of 2023.

Book preview

How to Comfort the Grieving

A Practical Guide

CHAPTER 1 – BE THERE

Chapter 2 – Give Them Time and Space

Chapter 3 – Walk with Them

Chapter 4 – After the Funeral

Chapter 5 – Grief, a Place to Visit, Not Set Up Residency

Chapter 6 – Revisiting the Five Stages of Grief

Chapter 7 – Connect on a Spiritual Level

Chapter 8 – Children Grieve Too

Chapter 9 – Conclusion

Chapter 10 – Weep Not for Me

Preface

When someone you know has a death in the family, or when a family member experiences the death of someone close, do you know what to say or do? What is your first reaction? Send up a prayer on their behalf, perhaps, but you might ask yourself, Is that enough?

This booklet is the answer to the dilemma of what to do or say to help those who are grieving. More than that, it also advises us on what NOT to do or say. The practical steps laid out in this booklet are relatively easy to complete. Everyone can understand and adopt some of these suggestions.

Acknowledgment

Iwant to thank everyone who has helped me in my 60-year journey of living, loving, losing, and mourning. There have been many.

You might be saying to yourself, Oh, no – another book on grieving? I know, and I understand. That is what I thought, too, but the Holy Spirit was insistent. Maybe because I have had many losses during the years, starting when I was six. I stopped and listed the losses, which gives me the credibility to talk about grieving.

My first loss was my Great-Grandmother on my mother’s side. I don’t remember this loss well, but a couple of months later, my 2½-year-old baby brother died from an allergic reaction to a black widow spider bite and the negligence of the Air Force Doctor. I was six at the time, with vivid memories of the tragedy.

Tragedy touched our church when I was in high school. The choir was going on a trip from Wichita, Kansas, to Texas to visit Six Flags, and one of the cars in the carpool slid off the road into a ditch. The car flipped over and threw a