From Sorrow to Strength

Even though it has been a quite a while since my daughter Melanie ran ahead to Heaven, there are still moments when it feels both like yesterday and forever. Time does not erase the ache of losing a child—it only teaches us how to carry it differently. Yet even in the darkest seasons, I have seen how God begins to move a heart from sorrow to strength, gently leading us toward hope we never thought possible.

In the beginning, my heart wrestled with one question: Why? I asked it over and over, searching for an answer that never came. What I’ve learned is that God was not asking me to understand but to trust Him. Slowly, through prayer and surrender, He taught me to release the “why” and believe that His plan, though hidden, is greater than what I can see.

Isaiah 61:3 reminds us of His promise “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Those words are not just poetry—they are the miracle of what God does when we place our sorrow in His hands.

Along this journey, God has brought people into my life whose own scars speak hope. Through shared tears, testimonies, and prayers, we have become lifelines for one another. My grief has become both a wound and a witness, reminding me that love endures and that healing comes in community.

Choosing joy in grief does not mean forgetting. It means remembering the love more than the loss. When I think of Melanie’s smile, her laughter, and the way she made others feel seen, those memories become gifts I can unwrap again and again.

My faith has been the anchor holding me steady. The only way I’ve been able to stand was by first falling to my knees. It is in surrender that God’s light breaks through the shadows, carrying me once again from sorrow to strength.

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, When Scars Become Stories.