When a child has died, friends and relatives often have no idea how to provide support to the family during the stressful holiday season.
Following are 10 ways The Compassionate Friends, the world's largest self-help support organization for bereaved families, suggests for you to help families that are going through the natural grieving process after the death of a child.
Expect the unexpected. The family has no road map of how to survive the holidays when they are living the nightmare of losing a child. Show patience and understanding.
Take up a collection to give the family. The unexpected expenses involved with the death of a child may stretch the family budget to the limit during the holidays.
The family has no doubt had its share of casseroles. Why not offer to provide them a holiday dinner with all the trimmings? You may cook it with love yourself or you can order and then pick one up at many grocery stores for as little as $50.
If their home is where everyone would have gathered to celebrate the holidays, ask them if they would mind if you host the get together.
If there are surviving children, the parents may feel the need to decorate the home as they've done in the past. Offer to help them with this task. If there are no plans to decorate, you may offer them a battery powered or electric candle and suggest that they place it in their window, in memory of the child who died.
Make a donation in memory of the child to a non- profit organization that has special meaning to the family.
Offer to assist with holiday shopping.
Make the family aware of special remembrance services where they might want to participate such as The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting the second Sunday in December.
Even if several years have passed since the child died, send the family a card and mention the child by name. If you have it in your possession, enclose a picture or videotape of the child the family may not have seen or possess. This will mean more to the family than you can possibly imagine.
Don't try to talk the family into doing something they simply don't want to do. Be there with understanding and compassion.With your help, the holidays may be a little gentler for the family grieving the death of a child.
The Compassionate Friends has more than 600 chapters in the United States with locations in all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico. At least 30 countries around the world have a Compassionate Friends presence. The organization annually sponsors The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting the second Sunday in December and more than 500 services open to the public blanket the country.
For more information on helping bereaved families or on the Worldwide Candle Lighting, visit www.compassionatefriends.org
Christian Web News - In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a Christian shopkeeper was gunned down Wednesday while he was heading to work, according to a local official.
Christian Web News - First, a San Diego pastor was told that he could not have home Bible studies without a Major Use Permit. Then, a church in Gilbert, Arizona was told that they were violating zoning codes by meeting in a home. Now a third church is being told they cannot have home meetings.
Christian Web News - Chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team were on the ground in Port-au-Prince less than 24 hours after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook the country of Haiti on Jan. 12.
Christian Web News - So many people across our nation, young people especially, are Biblically illiterate. Confusion and intimidation of the Bible's length and complexity causes many people to give up on reading the Bible altogether.
Christian Web News - According to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF), within the next 24 hours, officials in southern Laos plan to burn temporary shelters built by expelled Christians unless they deny their faith.
Christian Web News - Fortunately, the nation's first “hate speech” bill has been killed by the Massachusetts Senate. The Joint Education Committee's Martha Walz and Robert O'Leary added the provision to an anti-bullying bill. Had it passed, it would have punished any criticism of homosexuality with a term in jail or a fine.
Christian Web News - On Wednesday, Republican senators said that House members who vote for the Senate-passed health care bill would “own it,” and that nothing would be changed through reconciliation. Which includes prohibiting federal (taxpayer) funds from being used to pay for abortions.
Christian Web News - On Sunday, on the streets of multiple cities in Spain, tens of thousands of people protested a new law that would allow abortion on demand.
Christian Web News - On Tuesday, a European court ordered Turkey to remove the religious affiliation section from citizens’ identification cards, calling the practice a violation of human rights.
Christian Web News - SBC International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin is making a strong case for change within his denomination as he gets ready to walk away from the command of its missions arm following 17 years of service.
Christian Web News - Parents are being urged by a national coalition of organizations committed to preserving parental rights in public education, restoring academic integrity to public education, and removing partisan political protests from the classroom to call their children out of school on the Day of Silence if their school is permitting students to refuse to speak in class.
Christian Web News - A new survey found that not even half of churchgoers in America plan on inviting non-churchgoers to Easter worship service this year.
Rev 13:16-18 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Christian Web News - At a time when greed and corruption seem to run rampant and morals seem nonexistent, many people wonder where to look for role models.
For the millions of junior high, high school and college students heading back to school, the idea of returning to the classroom may be met with mixed emotions.
Christian Web News - Jesus has a way of getting right to the point, doesn't He? There was certainly no mincing of words, He came right out and said, "why are you fearful?" and then went on to say, "O you of little faith." You don't have to read between the lines to see what He was saying, they had little faith.
Christian Web News - Galatians 3:13-14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree''), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Christian Web News - SBC International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin is making a strong case for change within his denomination as he gets ready to walk away from the command of its missions arm following 17 years of service.
Christian Web News - Parents are being urged by a national coalition of organizations committed to preserving parental rights in public education, restoring academic integrity to public education, and removing partisan political protests from the classroom to call their children out of school on the Day of Silence if their school is permitting students to refuse to speak in class.
Christian Web News - A new survey found that not even half of churchgoers in America plan on inviting non-churchgoers to Easter worship service this year.
Rev 13:16-18 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 
