Someone you know receives dreaded news. A diagnosis. A divorce. Unemployment. A major loss.
You may feel ill prepared and unequipped to enter into someone’s crisis. You tell yourself you don’t know the person that well. You count up the months and years since you lost touch. It feels strange, even foreign, to reach out now. You may even second-guess if it’s appropriate. Someone else will take care of it. What will the person or their family think?
The reasons to remain silent pile high until you reach the ultimate:
“I don’t know what to say.”
Saying nothing seems better than saying the wrong thing. Or is it?
Just as silence is one of the worst things you can give to someone facing hardship, your presence is one of the most meaningful, powerful things you can offer.
How do you break the silence in such a way that brings life and hope and encouragement?
This is one of the crucial reasons that I wrote the Fight Back With Joy book and Bible study.
I’ve spent more than a year on the receiving end of many comments, though well-meaning, that were so unhelpful and hurtful. Worse, I realized just how many times I’d said those same things myself.
That’s why I spend so much time equipping you with exactly what to say and do in the book. And I was blown away that my friends at Lifeway were so supportive in allowing one of the DVD teaching sessions to be centered around how we can best serve those going through difficult circumstances.
Because we all know someone in crisis. And we all want to know exactly what to say and do to break the silence.
You see, one of the best ways to receive joy is to give it away.
And one of the best ways to fight back with joy is to help others fight back with joy.
The countdown is on.
The book and Bible study release January 6. I can’t wait to hear what you think. And the stories of how you’re reaching out to those who need you most.
Want to escape fear and regret? Margaret’s new book and Bible study, Fight Back With Joy: Regret Less. Celebrate More. Stare Down Your Greatest Fears. will help you apply biblical strategies to whatever challenge you’re facing. Click here to purchase your copy.
An old “recovery” saying that I’ve heard many times through my husband who has been sober for 20 years is: You’ve got to give it away to keep it. I’ve often thought that pretty much applies to most areas of our life. Anything gripped so tightly we can share it, will eventually have the life strangled out of it. Love you Margaret! Tara
Love that, Tara. Huge hug.
“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.”
― Mark Twain