When Dads Grieve: A Conversation on Faith, Family, and Holding On

I heard something recently that struck a deep chord in me: God does not call us to the outcome. He calls us to faithfulness.

That truth, shared by Dave in their conversation, set the tone for a heartfelt and honest dialogue between two grieving fathers, (Matt and Dave) who both know the pain of losing a child. They came from different circumstances: one a military loss, one after a long-term illness. But the emotions, the questions, and the faith they wrestled with were profoundly similar.

Different Losses, Shared Pain

Dave reflected on the unexpected loss of his daughter, Becca, who had a long-term illness. “Even though she was sick, her death still shocked us. Nothing really prepares you for that moment.” Matt, who lost his son, Eric, in the military, noted that while there’s always a lingering awareness of the risk in military families, “When it happens, it’s still shattering. And then the media… they show up within an hour, looking for a story, not fully grasping the gravity of your grief.”

Yet, as Matt shared, “God gave us a grace in that moment—just what we needed to get through it.”

Don’t Let This Pain Be Wasted

One of the most poignant moments came when Dave recalled a prayer he whispered early in his grief: “God, don’t let this pain be wasted.” It became a turning point—a plea for purpose in the middle of anguish.

Grief experts say that the early stages of grief can last five years or more. “If you’re only a few months, or a couple of years in,” Dave said, “you’re still an early griever. Give yourself grace.”

The Role of Church and Family

Matt shared how grief gave him a renewed appreciation for church and family. “When someone lacks both—a church community and strong family ties—it’s even harder. The enemy tries to isolate us. My prayer is that people reinvest in those relationships.”

Dave agreed, adding that many grieving parents, especially Christians, struggle with returning to church. “Churches often rally in the beginning, but as time goes on, some don’t understand why you haven’t ‘moved on.’ But God’s timeline for healing is not the world’s timeline.”

What’s essential, they both emphasized, is pressing into God. “Let Him use your pain to deepen your relationship with Him,” said Dave. “Through Becca’s death, I gained a deeper understanding of God the Father’s love. If my love for her was so great, how much greater was His love in giving His own Son?”

Matt echoed that revelation: “I thought I’d pull away from God. But instead, it pulled me closer. Once you realize what God gave up for us, it compels you to stay the course.”

Father’s Day: Still Tender, Still Sacred

Both Matt and Dave spoke candidly about Father’s Day. For Dave, the first one after Becca passed was devastating. “It does ease a bit over the years, but that ache never fully leaves.”

Matt shared how his family honors his son, Eric, every year on June 5, the anniversary of his passing, leading up to Father’s Day. “We put out flags. We have a metal cutout of a kneeling soldier. Our neighbors know—it’s part of how we remember. And our other sons have honored me through their own growth and strength.”

For both men, Father’s Day became less something to avoid and more a way to remember—with reverence, with love, and with the joy of God’s healing.

A Call to Stay in the Game

Matt left us with a powerful reflection: “Fathers have many chances to pull away when life gets hard. But when you hang in there—when you stay available, stay committed—it matters. On Father’s Day, when you’ve poured into your family, they pour back into you. That’s a miracle all its own.”

He continued, “To the dads out there: stay in the game. Push through the pain. Because that’s when God begins His most miraculous work.”

A Final Prayer

They closed their conversation in prayer—thanking God for families, for His strength, for His faithfulness.

“Lord, bless each father reading this today. Let them feel Your presence in their deepest places of grief. Help them press into You. Strengthen their families. And may their faith rise as they commit their ways to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Don’t Let the Pain Be Wasted

There’s no guidebook for grieving as a father. But in their conversation, Matt and Dave reminded us of something powerful: healing doesn’t mean forgetting. It means honoring. And above all, it means being faithful—even when the outcome is not what we prayed for.

As Dave said so well: “Don’t let this pain be wasted.”

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NOTE: This was partially taken from the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast episode 300. Click here to listen to the full discussion, or look for the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast on your favorite listening app.

If you would like to join thousands of other bereaved parents receiving a weekly word of hope delivered to your inbox, let us know below.

AWARD WINNING AUTHOR, LAURA DIEHL, has written several impactful books that provide comfort and guidance to those navigating the painful journey of child loss, after the death of her own daughter in 2011. Her most acclaimed work, When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing After the Death of Your Child, has received multiple accolades, including the 2017 Gold Medal Centauri Christian Book Award for Non-Fiction and a Silver Medal in the 2018 Illumination Awards. Several of her other books have won awards as well.

In addition to her writing, Laura is an ordained minister and has an extensive background in international children’s ministry. She is a sought-after speaker and singer at grief conferences and churches, known for her compassionate approach and deep understanding of the grieving process, especially the unique loss of a child. Through her weekly award-winning podcast, her writings, and other resources provided by GPS Hope, Laura and her husband, Dave, continue to provide hope and healing to thousands of parents worldwide, helping them find light in the midst of profound loss and darkness.

For more information about Laura’s award-winning books go to gpshope.org/books.

To find out more about Laura Diehl and the ministry of Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) visit gpshope.org.

A Moment to Pause

As I was sitting outside to work on this in front of the Hope Mobile on our beautiful seasonal site, I had to close my laptop, set it aside, and enjoy the beauty all around me. I had to stop and allow God to do for me what I was writing about that He will do for others – for you.

Grandchild number nine was born this week. The day after being released from the hospital, the mom was taken by ambulance back to the hospital, looking like she had had a stroke. It had been several hours, and we had not heard anything else, and my mind was going in all kinds of directions, as you can imagine.

The Lord is my Shepherd. I have everything I need. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul – my favorite version says, “He restores my inner person.”

I sure needed that! All of it!

Before I go on, let me say it turned out to be a mini stroke with no lasting symptoms, thankfully, caused by high blood pressure which is being taken care of.

Green Pastures and Gentle Rest

Let’s look at the Shepherd making us lie down in green pastures. Some translations say “He gives me rest” or “lets me rest” in green pastures.
Obviously, lying down is a picture of rest. A sheep would not be safe lying down without the watchful eye of the shepherd.

To me, “green pastures” symbolize a place of rest, nourishment, and peace. When we allow it, God will lead us to places where we can have moments of hope and moments of strength. This is not our peace and our strength, but His peace and His strength that comes through to us in this place of suffocating darkness.

Having the shepherd encourage us to lie down in these green pastures also speaks to me that He is not expecting us to hurry up and get over it. He isn’t expecting it to be a quick fix, like some of our family and friends. The Shepherd’s pace is gentle and personal, and He plans to stay with us for however long it takes.

Still Waters and Silent Presence

Our Shepherd not only causes us to lie down in green pastures, but He leads us beside still waters.

Our grief often feels like drowning in a storm, with waves of sorrow crashing down on us unpredictably. Allowing the Shepherd to lead us to “still waters” offers relief. It is a place of having the opportunity to feel a bit of hope, which can feel refreshing, even if it is only for a few moments here and there.
Still waters are quiet. As grieving parents, we often find ourselves in places where words and well-meaning advice don’t help. Even Scripture can feel hollow. In those quiet, wordless places, God draws near. He doesn’t always speak loudly. Sometimes He just sits with you in the silence. Still waters are where His presence is felt, not explained.

The still waters come just before the verse, “He restores my soul.”

The Restoration of the Soul

We know that Jesus is the Shepherd. In Matthew 11:28 He said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

This place of rest is where He can restore our soul. Entering His rest isn’t a time and position, but sometimes that is where it starts. I learned very early how important it was to rest in God by just being with Him. I didn’t have to do anything but be loved on and comforted. This is the place I want you to find as well, as early as possible.

God kept pointing out to me that He wanted me to rest in Him and in the deep love He has for me during this dark time when I felt so devastated, lost and confused.

A Gentle Process

Learning how to live in that place of resting in God has been a process. The pain can still be pretty intense at times, making me feel like I am going backwards, losing that peace and the place of rest.
Sometimes, I will picture myself being led by the Good Shepherd, lying down in lush meadows and sitting beside quiet waters, as He restores my inner person. And on days like I talked about when starting this episode, I love actually being somewhere that has so much beautiful greenery, looking out over some water, with birds chirping and flying around, chipmunks chasing each other, squirrels running up and down the trees, and a rabbit hopping around in the distance.
I can feel like God created that beauty at that exact moment, just so He can use it to restore my inner person.

How Are You Resting?

So, let me ask you, how are you doing in the “resting in Him” department? Do you set aside time here and there, determined to let go of your anxious thoughts, your fears, your doubts and your anger, by allowing the presence of His peace to push it all away, even if it is just for a moment?

We have spent three weeks talking about Psalm 23:1–2. I know that grief does not disappear with a scripture verse. But when words fail, the picture of a loving Shepherd providing green pastures and still waters can be something a broken heart can lean into, as if God is saying directly to you,
“I see you. I’m with you, and I will not let go. I am staying with you for however long it takes, and I will lead you step-by-step back to a place where my goodness can be seen in your life once again.”

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NOTE: This was partially taken from the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast episode 299. Click here to listen to the full discussion, or look for the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast on your favorite listening app.

If you would like to join thousands of other bereaved parents receiving a weekly word of hope delivered to your inbox, let us know below.

AWARD WINNING AUTHOR, LAURA DIEHL, has written several impactful books that provide comfort and guidance to those navigating the painful journey of child loss, after the death of her own daughter in 2011. Her most acclaimed work, When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing After the Death of Your Child, has received multiple accolades, including the 2017 Gold Medal Centauri Christian Book Award for Non-Fiction and a Silver Medal in the 2018 Illumination Awards. Several of her other books have won awards as well.

In addition to her writing, Laura is an ordained minister and has an extensive background in international children’s ministry. She is a sought-after speaker and singer at grief conferences and churches, known for her compassionate approach and deep understanding of the grieving process, especially the unique loss of a child. Through her weekly award-winning podcast, her writings, and other resources provided by GPS Hope, Laura and her husband, Dave, continue to provide hope and healing to thousands of parents worldwide, helping them find light in the midst of profound loss and darkness.

For more information about Laura’s award-winning books go to gpshope.org/books.

To find out more about Laura Diehl and the ministry of Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) visit gpshope.org.

Psalm 23:1 states that because the Lord is our Shepherd, we have everything we need. As a bereaved parent, that can be difficult to believe, because we feel like we need our child back!

The Need for Gritty Grace

One thing we truly desperately need is grace. But we don’t just need grace. As my friend Kim Avery (who lost a daughter from this earth) says, what we need at a time like this is “gritty grace.”

We don’t know for sure what it was, but we do know that there was something that was causing a lot of suffering for Paul. We read in 2 Corinthians 12 that Paul asked God three times to take this thing away, and three times God said, “No.”. But He also told Paul that His grace was “sufficient” (or just enough) to get him through whatever it was, and that God’s power was being seen through Paul’s weakness.

When we first find ourselves in this horrible place of pain and suffocating darkness, His grace is just enough to get us through each day, each hour, each minute, or just the next breath. (That is what Kim calls gritty grace.) But His grace is more than just barely making it through. It is also deep at work in us for when we come out of our place of darkness. He not only gives us the strength to endure but also starts changing what we want.

Our Shepherd isn’t just helping us survive, He is shifting our desires, giving us the power to do what we could never do on our own. When I say He is shifting our desires, I don’t mean that we stop loving or missing our child, but He changes what we think we need, which shifts us into the place of peace that we so desperately want and need.

From Survival to New Purpose

God’s grace will not only get us past just surviving, but to where we even start feeling happiness and joy. We can and will have meaning and purpose once again in our lives because of His grace; because He has everything we truly need.

I know some of you may think that is impossible. But nothing is impossible when it comes to God. Do you agree that it would take a miracle for your life to get to that place? Guess what? God is in the miracle working business.

His power is at work in us, shaping us into something absolutely beautiful, so much more than we can imagine. As we lean on and depend on Him to help us through, we become someone we never thought or even imagined that we could be.

The Shepherd Who Has Everything We Need

God’s grace is changing our focus from what we think we need, to what we really need, which is Him, as our Shepherd. This isn’t a consolation prize, or second best for those of us who didn’t get the miracle for our child that we wanted. It is God’s deepest, most personal and intimate work.

He is making us whole, with a strength that comes through His grace that we would not have any other way. This is why David could say in Psalm 23 that God has (and is) everything we need. We really don’t fully know the power of God’s grace, until we experience it in a way like this.

The Lord truly is Your Shepherd and has everything you need to get through this. Keep leaning into Him until you see the truth of it for yourself.

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NOTE: This was partially taken from the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast episode 298. Click here to listen to the full discussion, or look for the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope podcast on your favorite listening app.

If you would like to join thousands of other bereaved parents receiving a weekly word of hope delivered to your inbox, let us know below.

AWARD WINNING AUTHOR, LAURA DIEHL, has written several impactful books that provide comfort and guidance to those navigating the painful journey of child loss, after the death of her own daughter in 2011. Her most acclaimed work, When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing After the Death of Your Child, has received multiple accolades, including the 2017 Gold Medal Centauri Christian Book Award for Non-Fiction and a Silver Medal in the 2018 Illumination Awards. Several of her other books have won awards as well.

In addition to her writing, Laura is an ordained minister and has an extensive background in international children’s ministry. She is a sought-after speaker and singer at grief conferences and churches, known for her compassionate approach and deep understanding of the grieving process, especially the unique loss of a child. Through her weekly award-winning podcast, her writings, and other resources provided by GPS Hope, Laura and her husband, Dave, continue to provide hope and healing to thousands of parents worldwide, helping them find light in the midst of profound loss and darkness.

For more information about Laura’s award-winning books go to gpshope.org/books.

To find out more about Laura Diehl and the ministry of Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) visit gpshope.org.