I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear a child crying, I need to turn my head to see if they are okay and if I can help. When I led Divorce Care for Kids and The Big D…Divorce Thru the Eyes of a Teen, there was a lot of crying in every single class, because these kids were devastated that their family had been shattered. It broke the heart of our leaders because there was nothing we could do to sew their families back up. We couldn’t bring joy or smiles into their homes.
What we could do was hold them while they cried, pray with them, listen to them a lot, and try to bring them toward the healing arms of Jesus. Teens were more angry and were very vocal about how mad they were at their parents for “ruining my life.” As I always say, “kids pay the highest price.” That is certainly true in a divorce. These kids were grieving and needed our help to process through that grief.
Another type of grief is when a child loses someone they like, such as a grandparent, parent, sibling or other family member they are close to. The grief of losing a pet is also overwhelming, many times. the depth of loss is unimaginable.
Adults in these kids’ lives don’t always know what to do and what to say to ease the devastation these kids feel, so they just “let them work it out,” especially if the adult is grieving at the same time. “What do I say? What do I do? I don’t have the answers, so maybe I should take them to a counselor.”
Many times, we see the behavior of a child change and they act angrier; lashing out at adults or siblings. They can also just withdraw into their own little world and sort of “check out.” Grief takes on many faces and there are specific ways to walk someone through it.
Next Tuesday, May 9, our guest on Chained No More Talk Radio will be Wayne Stocks, the Founder and Executive Director of a ministry called “Hope 4 Hurting Kids.” His topic will be “Kids in Grief – How Can We Help?” He will discuss the different steps of grief, the different levels of grief, what to say and what not to say and so much more. If you work with kids or have kids in your life, this interview will be extremely informative for you, so don’t miss it.
Here is the info: Tues., May 9 at 2pm ET at www.toginet.com
“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” Psalm 56:8