USA Today Artice, 9/11, and a turning point in faith

I've been blessed to talk to many widows and widowers since I started my website and this blog. One such widow, Jennifer Sands, was one of many women who lost her husband on September 11, 2001 in the attacks on the World Trade Center. I interviewed her when she wrote her first book, "A Tempered Faith: Rediscovering Hope in the Ashes of Loss" and she has since gone on to write, "A Teachable Faith: Learning from God in Everyday Life.

In her books, Jennifer explains how this lost tested her faith and how she got it back again. My faith was also tested when I lost Jeff and even though I'm still providing religious education for my children through their church, I have heard them say (only occasionally) "I don't understand how God took daddy away," "I'm mad at God today," or "I don't want to go to church because God took daddy away so why should I go." Well you know, sometimes I felt the same way. I worked my way back too and when I read Jennifer's book I realized it's not that hard to do. What is my belief about what happened to Jeff? Agree or disagree if you'd like, but this is how I thought about it and what I taught my children -- God didn't take Jeff away. Cancer did. God gave him a place to be peaceful when the cancer took over his body and the doctor's couldn't fix it anymore.

Of course this doesn't explain everything to my children, but it helps. We also believe -- here's a fun one for you -- that Jeff's job in heaven is to paint the sky. He was a fabulous artist and when we see an amazing sunset or interested cloud pattern, we say "that's daddy doing his job." Now my kids are older and two are even teenagers and they understand science and what the sky is all about, but when it's just us on a drive or a walk -- well, we like our explanation better.

Anyway, Jennifer and other widows from the September 11th tragedy have been interviewed in a USA Today article. Click here and check it out.

Until next time, you may be young, but you're not alone.
Lisa