Good morning…
My oldest daughter chose to give up social media for Lent. “Welcome to my world,” I said, “it’s peacefully wonderful.” I don’t twitter or tweeter, “snap a chat,” “inst a gram” or “face a book,” but I do love when friends send me nourishing nuggets. That’s what happened on February 28th, 2021. The image above came to me with this letter below.
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Letter from Mary Waite, February 28th, 2021
Hello Family and Friends,
After a yearlong journey editing my manuscript, As The Raven Cries: Choosing the Light of Hope Amid the Storm, we are very close to finally publishing! As you can imagine, it has been an incredibly emotional journey having to re-live Dalton’s death over and over through my journal, but God has given me the strength and comfort to embrace it all. Dalton has been so very present in the process, and John and Ansley have been incredibly supportive and encouraging. This has been a true labor of love to create a legacy piece in Dalton’s honor, to keep his spirit alive through our family’s journey. Ultimately, it has been a big step in my healing process, and I hope and pray it will be for many others as well. It is not just a story about grief, but one about the power of love and hope, through faith and community!
I have a big favor to ask you! The actual book will not be available until late April, but I will begin posting on social media, and through emails, on Monday, March 1st…the 5 year anniversary of Dalton’s death. I would love for you to be a part of my book launch team, which just means sharing my posts, starting on Monday, through your own social media accounts, as well as with your family, friends, spouses, churches, therapists, ministry groups, non-profits, and anyone else you think might find my journey to be helpful. We will be “selling” the book through Dalton’s Vision (daltonsvision.org), because every penny will be used to continue our mission to let our neighbors know, “we see them and we care.”
Thank you for loving our family and helping to spread the word about this upcoming book — it’s God’s message (my journal was His vehicle).
On Facebook: marywaite & daltonsvision
On Instagram: @marybwaite & @daltonsvision
If you’d rather not be included, just say so, and I’ll be happy to take you off these emails.
With Love and Gratitude for each and every one of you for walking alongside us through the darkness and into the light!
Mary
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Many of you longtime subscribers will remember Mary, a woman from Charolette, N.C. who I have still not yet met. Every so often I have asked Mary’s permission to share with our written word community the life-giving insights she has privately emailed to me as God leads her through the process of grieving the loss of her young adult son (see Gratitude Holds Hands With Grief for an example of her captivating writing style).
Just yesterday I received another announcement from Mary’s Facebook feed.
“Grateful for friends like Sue Allen,” she posted on Facebook, “who came into my life after Dalton died, and offered her support by holding space for my grief, and occasionally publishing my words on her daily blog (suetoyou.com). She has graciously invited me to Atlanta in the near future for a book signing at Northside Church.”
As we share mutual gratitude to God for our intimate friendship, I have asked Mary to pray about being our Women’s Lenten Communion speaker for 2022. Please tentatively save the date of Tuesday, March 1st for a special evening at Northside Church exploring the art of grieving well with God, Choosing the Light of Hope Amid the Storm. As I type this right now, I realize that night will mark the sixth anniversary of Dalton’s warm welcome into heaven.
As we find our way through this final week of Lent 2021, these Scripture verses fill full my heart before overflowing to you, to Mary, to every person throughout the entire expanse of earth and heaven. May we each choose the light of hope amid all of life’s storms.
I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him.
I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling[c]—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones!
I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm! (Ephesians 1:17-20, TPT).
…Sue…
