Finding
the Good in Grief is a potent resource on guiding readers
through the different stages of grief and rediscovering your sense of purpose
and joy. The different stages of grief are, “trust God and rely on others,
choose reality instead of illusion, resist the temptation to get stuck, recognize
moments of grace, and discover new meaning and purpose. Many times we didn’t
see the sickness and death knocking on our loved ones doors until they were
gone. Our cold hard fears came upon us when we least expected them to. At least
some part of us gets stuck asking God why we had to lose someone that we loved
dearly. Like many people struggling with grief, healing and still living your
life can seem impossible after going through a difficult tragic loss, this book
will reveal to you how to do just that.
Dr. John F. Baggett writes this book from personal experience
and the terrible pain he had to endure through the hardships of life. His lost
occurred when an un-expecting event changed his son, Mark’s life. Mark was
always a loving teenager who had incredible dreams to make a difference in
people’s lives. He truly cared about others and wanted to go into a profession
that he could have an impact in their lives for good. But at the age of
seventeen, everything dramatically changed. Mark began to act abnormally and
was talking in his room loudly and ramblingly frequently. He also told John
that his friend was using mental telepathy to give him a heart attack. He also
started to punch holes in the walls and he broke things for no reason.
Eventually, the doctors diagnosed Mark as having schizophrenia and in that
moment his life was never the same again. John Baggett went through the stages
of grief and the losing of his son that he knew for seventeen years. This book
was written to help others going through grief.
The book contained many stories that John Baggett wrote
in order to discuss the different stages of grief. Some of the stories included
a loved one being diagnosed with cancer and they end up losing the fight, a
child being diagnosed with mental retardation and the hopes and dreams for the
future are gone in an instant, overspending and then losing a job and escaping the
pain and hurt through alcohol and one night stands, a young boy seeing his
parents get a divorce and questioning why God didn’t answer his prayers, the
effects of drunk driving, a person committing suicide, a person getting rape,
and many more heartbreaking stories.
One of my stories that stuck out to me was, the story
about Nancy and how she used her lost for a new calling and purpose. Nancy and her
husband, Carl put their young daughter to bed and was about to watch TV when someone
rang the doorbell. Two men dressed in dark clothes pushed her backwards and she
screamed and her husband came running and they pointed a gun at him. They tied
him up and raped his wife and forced him to watch the brutal crime. They found
some wine bottles and began to devour them. When Nancy tried to untie her
husband, one of the men seized a knife and began to attack her. She felt
unconscious and next, they stabbed her husband and killed him. Then they took valuables
and jewelry and they discovered the three year old little girl and they took
her. The neighbor spotted them taking the daughter and called the police and
gave them their license plate number. They ultimately found out that the car
belonged to a felon who had been already been convicted of rape and armed
robbery. The man was left out of jail six week earlier because the prosecutor was
found guilty of prosecutorial misconduct on a different case and the system
freed eight people pending retrials. The police tracked down the two criminals
and arrested them. They entered a plea deal with the second attacker and stated
that he wouldn’t get the death penalty, if he told them where the daughter’s
remains were located. The police uncovered the remains of the daughter and they
both were sentenced. The first attacker was sentenced death by lethal injection.
Nancy was outraged and bitter like anyone would understanding be. She went
through the different stages of grief and finally found a way to help others
going through suffering events. She watched the news and reached out to others
who were victims of crimes and she founded support groups and internet chat
groups to assist hurting victims. Like many people, this story disturbs me and
upsets me of how evil spreads and gets it’s time in the spotlight and scars
many people. This story deeply moved me and reinstated that when bad things
happen, there is still some good that can come from it.
I would recommend this excellent book to everyone because
no one gets through life without losing someone they love or grieving a
terrible occurrence. I exceedingly recommend this book to anyone who is currently
dealing with grief right now and they are stuck and don’t know how to move
forward and how to continue living their life. This book will serve as a catalyst
for readers to read to recover from a horrible lost. Like most people, I have
experienced losing a loved one, for example, I have lost an aunt to cancer. I
also lost a grandpa and I can still remember hearing the phone ring at 3:00 am
and receiving the news that my grandpa dropped dead in the kitchen table from a
heart attack. I remember rushing over there and they had him lying on the
floor. It’s an image that you can’t ease from your memory. I wish that this
book would have been released when I was going through the grieving process. I immensely
loved the many diverse stories that John Baggett wrote about in order to portray
how these different stages of grief presented themselves in people’s lives. I
loved how John didn’t just focus all of his stories on just sickness and death.
He pointed out that grief can occur through many different situations like a
divorce, losing your job, death, and other losses. The book had a number of
encouraging scriptures to assist readers in their grief. I liked how each
chapter had multiple questions to lead readers into digging deeper in their
feelings and emotions. If readers are persistent in learning about the
different stages of grief, when they are having to endure grief, this book will
inspire them and help them.
"I received this book free from the
publisher from Kregel Publications book review bloggers program."
If you would like to purchase a copy of Finding the Good in Grief, then check it out on Amazon.com:
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