Feeling hurt does not have to be so frightening. We do not have to work so hard to avoid it. While hurt feelings aren't as much fun as feeling happy, they are, still, just feelings.

Healthy are those who mourn," writes Donald L. Anderson, a minister and psychologist, in Better Than Blessed. "Only very recently have we begun to realize that to deny grief is to deny a natural human function and that such denial sometimes produces dire consequences," he continues.

Sometimes all you could do for the suffering was to make sure they knew someone was suffering right there with them. Someone who had also felt stricken, and smitten, and afflicted.

If we offer what we've experienced to Him, in all its horror and ugliness, and receive His offer to redeem all that occurred, He will bring fruit from it. This has been the single most healing aspect of my recovery from childhood victimization. This is my prayer for that precious little girl. And my prayer for you, too, if you've experienced something similar.

How like Jesus to start stitching a heart back together even as the knife was tearing it apart.

In fact, the absence of appropriate grief after loss may be an indicator of another kind of serious stronghold.

Beloved, can you accept that Christ takes very personally the unfair things that happen to you?

In all their suffering, He suffered, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. Isaiah 63:9

The downside of human closeness is that, to the degree you have loved their presence, you grieve their loss. Amanda

If a brokenhearted mother could sing, I could not remain silent.

Some pain is simply the normal grief of human existence. That is pain that I try to make room for. I honor my grief.

Lord, I pour out my heart before You regarding the things in my life that cause me grief. I lift my hands to You because I know You are my hope and Your compassion for me never fails. Heal me of all emotional pain, and use the sorrow I have suffered for good. I pray that in Your presence I will find total restoration.