These past few days, it seems I am feeling more the absence of my honey.  Perhaps God is removing more of the layers from my heart and the reality of my new normal is delving deeper into my consciousness.  I do believe that tears are good and healing.  I just am not usually a crier.  Yet, when I am focusing upon my loss, the tears do come, and I wonder how much do I really need to allow myself to do this. It seems so selfish to focus upon my loss.  I know I need to sometimes, but when does it become maudlin self-pity?  I don’t want to live self-focused.  

I know in the past that even in the midst of deep sorrow, when I set my mind on things above rather than on my circumstance, God has given me joy even while the tears ran down my cheeks.  Then His praise had flowed from my lips and His strength has been enough for me to walk through the valley of tears.  Even now I want to be more surely focused upon Christ and His goodness to me and care for my future than I am upon my grief and loss.  

Hannah Whitehall Smith writes:  “The soul who looks away from self and examines the Lord instead, finds his mouth filled with God’s name, His praises, and His glorious power…. By keeping our eyes ever toward the Lord, our feet are to be plucked out of the net.”  Old Testament Types and Teachings, 295-296, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1878.

“Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:1-2