About the Book
65 interactive reflections guide widows to move from loss toward hope.
Hope for Widows is a valuable source of encouragement and comfort as you adjust to your new normal and reimagine an active life with purpose in your future. With personal reflections, questions, and expressions of gratitude, join Marilyn Nutter in recognizing God's faithful presence in details and unusual places.
Having lost her husband of 42 years, Marilyn offers 65 brief readings that cover widows' universal experiences with empathy and poignant honesty. She applies Scripture to grief and mourning and looks with transparency at how widowhood dramatically changes a woman's life. Amid the readings are opportunities to journal treasured memories, reflect on the additional losses that accompany the death of a spouse, and appreciate unexpected gifts.
This book presents the truth of Scripture to combat lies you may be prone to believe in your newly single life, shares quotes related to loss, offers prayers from the Bible, and provides exercises to build trust by looking at the character of God from A to Z. Read this book on your own or find topics helpful for discussion in women's ministries or grief support groups.
Though nothing can fix this irreversible loss, Hope for Widows offers connections in your grief, guiding you to see hope, grace, and camaraderie on an unfamiliar path.
About the Author :
Marilyn Nutter is acquainted with life-altering circumstances, most profoundly the unexpected death of her husband of forty-two years while traveling during the Christmas holidays. She writes, not as a professional counselor or through research about grief, but as one who walks that unwelcomed path and continues to find God faithful in every step. God's personally handcrafted mercies and faithfulness promised in Lamentations 3:2223 have provided security and helped her sort through uncertainty, new decision making, and the need for support. As a facilitator for Grief Support for Spouses at her church and a member of the Greenville chapter of Modern Widows Club, she has found friendship and insights from other widows. She offers her experiences of God-sent encouragement found in the empty space left by her husband, as mourning treasures and hope to other widows. In 2021, Marilyn, with April White, released Destination Hope: A Travel Companion When Life Falls Apart Through her contributions to print, online sites, compilations, as well as her personal blog, Marilyn guides readers to weave hope and purpose into their life stories Marilyn resides in Greer, South Carolina. Her family includes eight grandchildren, scattered across three states. Conversations and splashing in the waves with grands, the simplicity of spreading mulch-along with expressing gratitude at bedtime for five things each day-draw her to hopeful living and gratitude. Connect with Marilyn at http:/marilynnutter.com
Review :
Marilyn Nutter has captured the heart of widows. Many of the situations she mentions are those I heard as a grief counselor. Hope for Widows is a great companion for those who now find themselves living alone.
Marilyn Nutter has walked the difficult, often lonely path of widowhood for more than ten years. Along the way, she has learned profound lessons. In Hope for Widows she shares some of them with us. God never wastes our grief. If we’re willing to listen to His quiet, loving voice as He walks with us, we will learn to trust Him and lean on His grace, and we will begin to discover the treasures He has hidden along the path. Hope for Widows leads readers to discover their personal treasures and is a wonderful guidebook for the journey.
Marilyn Nutter invites the reader into one of the most raw and intimate paths of her own journey—the days following the loss of her beloved husband. With the transparency of the broken, the strength of her character, the eloquence of her giftedness, and the foundation of her faith, she leads her readers down a road of understanding on how to regain equilibrium after a devastating loss and how one might minister to those who are still in that process.
Marilyn Nutter is a gifted teacher and wise mentor who offers invaluable spiritual insight. This season of widowhood has served to make her testimony richer and deeper as, out of her pain, God has confirmed the truth of 2 Corinthians 1:3–4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
Marilyn Nutter has walked a path none of us ever wants to walk. Although her husband’s death caught her unaware, she allowed her grief and loss to push her into the strong arms of Jesus. There she found peace, comfort, and perspective. Not content to keep these treasures to herself, she’s compiled them into a volume of wisdom to share with other grieving widows and those who love them. Transparent, honest, and sometimes raw, these short inspirational chapters provide hope-filled, God-centered messages to comfort the hurting and offer ways friends can come alongside widows to lighten their load.
There are two threads intertwined throughout the pages of Hope for Widows: the harsh reality of grief and the treasures God reveals as we walk through those dark days. Marilyn Nutter doesn’t avoid the sorrow that comes with the loss of her husband but points to the hope that walks hand-in-hand with that sorrow. She doesn’t paint a false smile on grief but encourages the reader to look for the treasures that give meaning and help to times of mourning. This book is honest and practical. It offers help both to the one who grieves and the friend who walks alongside. It is an important book to read and to share.
Hope for Widows will touch the hearts of all who read it. . . . You’ll either want it because it applies directly to you, or you’ll want to be able to use it to comfort those who are widows.
Finding hope in the midst of grief is a way through the sorrow toward the blessing of restoration. Hope for Widows guides you along the steps toward your unique pathway forward.
For those who are grieving, Marilyn’s words whisper: You are not alone. Hope for Widows invites readers to grieve the earthly loss of their loved ones, grieve the loss of dreams, and grieve future shared experiences. But, through this grief, Marilyn shows how widows can begin to live again.
More than just a hug, a flower arrangement, or a casserole, Hope for Widows offers meaningful encouragement to hurting hearts. Faith can be tricky when life doesn’t turn out as we expect it to. This Scripture-based book will help clear away doubt, facilitate healthy processing, and bolster the faith of widows in and through their time of grieving.
Marilyn takes us on a journey as she unfolds God’s infinite grace found in the ebb and flow of her grief. From minute life circumstances to big events, Marilyn shows how God met her with grace and His all-sufficient love. Her words of wisdom penetrate the heart as a healing balm to those grieving and as insight for the ones who love them.
When a person writes their heart on a page, wise people pay attention and learn from their experiences. As a widow myself, I understand the pain and heartache Marilyn worked through toward her recovery. You too will come to treasure the solid, commonsense advice offered in this encouraging book.
