Praise when I'm grieving

One would hope that one wouldn't need to write a post on grieving, but I guess in some ways I realise I have been experiencing some grief .  The biggest thing has been - grieving the ageing of a parent and the fact this parent has chosen to be 'away' from his family for a year now.

Now that I've written it - they seem like two significant but mutually exclusive challenges to deal with.

I don't really want to write in too much detail about it, but I'm learning to have to really look for the 'good' in the situations.  In the past I have been able to seek what God wants me to learn or how He wants me to grow in situations.  But I've found this particularly hard this time around.

I am thankful though for:

• God's faithfulness to be, despite feeling far away from Him...distant.
• Friend's honesty in not knowing what to say, but just being there.
• Simple things - it's often through challenges that I find I appreciate the simpler things in life more.  Nothing puts a smile more on my face these days than a dog!  Any dog....as long as it's not barking!

I think one of the hardest things about grieving is letting go and trusting God - knowing what to let go of without too much logic.  The more logic I bring into it the harder it is to let go....if that makes sense.

I know God can work miracles.  I need to trust and hope in that.