Our Hope
“Hope confronts. It does not ignore pain, agony, or injustice. It is not a saccharine optimism that refuses to see, face, or grapple with the wretchedness of reality. You can't have hope without despair, because hope is a response. Hope is the active conviction that despair will never have the last word.”
A message from
Heather & Dustin
(Haley’s Mom & Dad)
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 says:
“13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." (ESV)
Losing a child is one of the worst things a parent can experience. A comment we always hear is "how can you even go on...?" There is only one way to go on...by placing our faith in Jesus Christ and knowing that one day EVERY thing will be made perfect. By doing this we can grieve with HOPE. This doesn't make losing Haley any easier or make the daily pain of her loss go away, but it gives us HOPE. Hope that we know we will see her again! Even though we may spend years and years of our life without her, we can grieve her physical absence by knowing we will be reunited with her in Heaven one day and what a reunion that will be!
There are many places through out the Bible where grieving is mentioned, even saying Jesus himself wept when his friend died. Grief is a very real emotion and faith in Jesus Christ doesn't mean you won't experience grief. But what it does mean is that your perspective can be changed. You can grieve a persons physical absence, the future you'd thought they would have, your emptiness without them, but you can also redeem these circumstance and use them for good.
Romans 8:28 says:
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good…."
We don’t claim to say that we feel Haley’s death “was good,” we miss her immensely and want her with us. But, we are able to redeem our loss and use it for good, by continuing Haley’s legacy and giving back. So many people showed us so much love and support during our journey, it is the least we can do to take our circumstances and the lessons we have learned and share them with others.
If you would like to learn more about Jesus or have questions, we would love for you to check out our home church, Houston Northwest Church.
You can watch past sermons on their Facebook page and catch live sermons on Sundays at 9:00 am and 10:30 am CST.
A message from
our Senior Pastor.
Dr. Steve Bezner, Houston Northwest Church
Haley’s Hope
Haley loved listening to worship music. It calmed her down after hard procedures and gave us peace in times where we had no words, just tears.
This video is of one of Haley's favorite songs. She would ask me "Mommy play
my music..." when she wanted to hear it and this entire album was on repeat for us during her 2nd Relapse. When it came time to choose songs for her funeral service, this one was a no brainer. The lyrics are emotional to hear but also uplifting and continue with the message of HOPE that we hope you all hear.
Here are some more links to Haley’s favorite. We wanted to share with anyone that might be comforted by them
Leave the 99 - We listened to this every time we drove the hour commute to the hospital
Oceans +
You Make Me Brave
by Caleb & Kelsey Grimm