Dealing with Grief

My heart and prayers go out to you.  It is so difficult to go on with our day to day lives after we have lost someone we love. 

I do not believe there is a "right" way to say grace.  In our family, we do say the same blessing at each meal, but any words that ask God to bless the food and give Him thanks for nourishing our bodies with the food would be fine. 

I am sure the pain you feel is very uncomfortable, but I want to reassure you, it is pain that you want to feel, need to feel and do not want to avoid of cover up.  It is normal grief.  If you do not feel it now and go on to healing, you may develop problems with complicated grief which can lead to other mental health issues.

In our country, we are taught to avoid pain.  We need to learn to tolerate pain and turn to God to heal our pain.

I lost my Dad six years ago and nearly daily I pray for the repose of his soul (this is a Catholic belief that the soul goes through purgation- cleansing before it will enter into heaven).  I will pray this daily until I die (except when I don't because I am not perfect in my prayer life).  I have found this simple prayer, along with seeing my Dad in my mind's eye (he will vary in what age he is or how he appears when I visual him) has helped me to accept his death, feel I can do something even now to assist him in being with God in heaven and allowed me to feel my pain, a little at a time, so I can heal. 

You are early in the grieving process.  It will be a while before you can breath deeply.  I think it would be very appropriate to pray the prayer your husband always said and add, for my beloved husband, may he rest in heaven with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Do not be afraid of pain.  Embrace it.  It is God's loving hand carving you into the woman He created you to be.