This is a guest post by Darlene Schacht
I see a six-year-old child so damaged by the effects of radiation that she’s barely recognizable, while the words “Inoperable Cancer” pierce our ears. I see children starving in a world where we eat and drink without thought. I see young girls working on the streets, sold for the price of drugs, while adults abuse them in ways that one can only imagine. And I see three young boys crying out from the depths of a broken heart because their father has passed on too soon.
In this world where sin, death, poverty, perversion and pain are a vivid reality, we are tossed to and fro by the winds of “Why?”
Why did I have to lose five babies to miscarriage? Why is my dad living with fifteen inoperable brain tumors? And why are Amy’s children facing life without Mark? It’s too soon, Lord. We grieve without understanding. 
The winds of “why” are strong. They have the potential to pull one into the deepest pit of depression and another into the abyss of despair. What we believe about God and what we teach during these moments of pain and confusion determine how we set our sail in the storm.
High winds will definitely change our course in life, but the choices we make during these times of darkness are the pivotal points that determine where we will finally dock.
As parents we have a responsibility to guide children through times of trouble and to catch them when they fall. They don’t understand how to grieve anymore than we do, and so they look to us for those cues that will lead them through pain toward peace.
When I see the responsibility that Amy’s been given to lead these boys, I’m praying that God will grant her with wisdom.
How can we explain pain to our children when we don’t have the answers ourselves? We start by honestly saying, “I really don’t know.” Man doesn’t have to understand the ways and the “whys” of God. His wisdom exceeds ours, and while we wish we had the answer to the question why? We don’t.
What we do know and what we can offer our children is hope. Time does heal our pain, yes, but God holds the power to start that healing today. Doubt has the ability to drag us into a pit, but faith has the power to lift us out of that pit and keep us from falling back in. We don’t weather these storms alone, anymore than the disciples did when Jesus was sleeping on the boat through the storm. Upon waking him, they quickly learned that our God is ever present and always in control.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. ~ Psalm 46:1-3, NIV
About the author: Darlene Schacht is a mom to four children, help-meet to her husband Michael, and co-author of Candace Cameron Bure’s new book, Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness. You can find her sketching and scribbling over at www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com If you would like to have Darlene Schacht as a guest writer on your site, please contact her at: darlene[at]darleneschacht[dot]net
Very tender and at times few words are best written when my heart is so full and such I will just say thank you for sharing this Darlene. I prayed as I read and Amy, you know you and your family are in my prayers.
Thank you Darlene for speaking from the heart…
Praying….
Blessings and love.
Thank you for the reminder that our God is forever faithful, forever sovreign, forever in control…always loving, always giving, always our shelter in the storm, our refuge in time of trouble, our Abba Father, and the wiper of all of our tears.
I am here via Rebekah’s page –I read Scott’s post and wanted to share that I too have been praying for their family for years. It breaks my heart each day as I receive updates from Scott regarding his loving wife, Frances. I can’t imagine, nor can I begin to understand why…but I know that I know that I know that God is holding Frances in the palm of His hand.
Thank you for the letter….and may God bless you.
Darlene – your post is full of wisdom. It is a question I hear often as a counselor. I’m praying for Amy and her boys, and I am saddened for all of them. I am currently seeing a family with a very similar situation as Amy’s and it is so painful to watch them grieve. But you are right – God does heal the pain and gives us the strength and courage to go on. I continue to pray for Scott and Frances and the girls – that little family has been through so much the past 5 years. I had the honor and privelege of meeting Rebekah and her family a few years ago when they were visiting Scott’s family in Ohio. What a special little girl she is – and she has very special parents, too.
I made a mistake. Her mom has ALS, which is a horrible disease. My cousins husband just died of ALS.
Amy,
Scott Adams saw this post. His daughter is the one I spoke about in the first line. She suffered so terribly in 2005 with cancer and the horrific results of radiation. Now I found out that Scott’s 41-year-old wife Francis is dying of cancer. We need to pray. Back in 2005 I really didn’t think that Rebekah would make the year. If you look back in the archives of the images your heart would be broken as mine was and still is. But God is able to heal. He is not asleep in the storm. Here is her link if anyone wants to read it:
http://rebekahspage.blogspot.com
Hi Darlene and Amy,
What a wonderful post Darlene. Amy you are in my prayers. May the Lord keep you safely in his arms. Here is a short verse from Revelations that I would like to share with you. “He will wipe every tear from your eyes. There won’t be any more death. There won’t be any grief, crying, or pain, because the first things have disappeared”. (Revelation 21:4)
Peace to you and your family,
Cheryl
Thank you for this. I questioned why? yesterday. Our family is going through some really hard times right now and the light at the end of the tunnel becomes dimmer. But I hold on to the rock and am speaking those things that are not as though they were. Because faith for the best is what I am trusting God for!!!!