"Blessed are they that mourn."—Matthew 5:4

"Blessed are they that mourn."—Matthew 5:4
Crushing burdens and tragic losses can nearly overwhelm people at times. To show Christlike compassion, we should comfort those who mourn, helping to lift their heavy hearts.
Ways you can comfort someone in need
Do you know someone who’s recently lost a loved one?
Offer to provide comfort and a listening ear.

Do you have a friend who is out of work?
Help the person polish his or her résumé, and connect the person with others you know could use his or her skills.

How can you help someone who is in physical or emotional pain?
Nothing says “get well soon” like homemade soup, warm bread, and a good book.
"Blessed are they that mourn."

—Matthew 5:4

Crushing burdens and tragic losses can nearly overwhelm people at times. To show Christlike compassion, we should comfort those who mourn, helping to lift their heavy hearts.

Ways you can comfort someone in need

Do you know someone who’s recently lost a loved one?

Offer to provide comfort and a listening ear. 

Do you have a friend who is out of work?

Help the person polish his or her résumé and connect the person with others you know could use his or her skills.

How can you help someone who is in physical or emotional pain?

Nothing says “get well soon” like homemade soup, warm bread, and a good book.

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are they that mourn.

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As principal in a mining community I had many fathers who were killed in the mine. It was either rocks that fell in or the lift had fallen as these people worked many kilometres beneath the ground.

Sometime as much as four times a year I had to go to the homes of children who had lost their fathers in one of these accidents.

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In the beginning it was very difficult for me, but as time went on it got better and I knew more how to help and handle the situation.

I found that you could sympathise but it was more important to listen to the mother and the children when talking about the father that they had lost.

I always said if there is anything I could do please just ask.  In some cases I had to do a lot and help organise the funeral, as some of them did not have family who could help or they lived very far.

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I always told the children when you come back to school please if you feel sad, come to my office and talk to me so that I can see if I can help.  There were many of these children who did that and I just listened to them.

I often found that the community always helped the first two or three months.  After that people start going back to their own way of living.

Here in the fourth month I use to go back, when the help from the community had lessened.  This was the time when I could really help. 

They were still all mourning as this is the way we are put together when you lose a loved one.

I saw when my word were not helping anymore I used to go to the pastor or minister or reverend from their church.  The one who also helped a lot was my fried the psychologist.

After all these people’s help it usually went better with the family, as they knew what to do to make them accept and feel better.

Unfortunately the gold price sometimes came down, and then there were people who had to be retrenched from work. 

The mine was never unreasonable and let them stay in the mine house for some time and gave them a reasonable package deal to try and get them over the loss of a job.

I then helped many of these people to make a good résumé and we sent them off to all gold mines in South Africa and Africa. Many of them got work somewhere else and they were very thankful therefore, others found work at places that they did not really want to work, but they took the jobs just to get food on the table.  It was not perfect but work is work and they had to just make the best of it.

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With the death of any parent there was always physical and emotion pain. I myself went through that and could empathise with them. This made it easier for me to help both parents and children. 

With the help of other parents from various churches and organisations it was easy to arrange meals for the families.

I found that, with the help of motivational videos I had acquired through time that the families learnt to cope faster.

All these fathers that died did not do anything to me as badly as when I had to go to parents who lost a child.

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For some reason the parent’s always wanted me to be a pall bearer at the funeral. There is nothing worse than watching the small white coffin lowering into the ground.

I don’t know who cried the most, the parents or me.

May God bless you all.

Have a wonderful day here from the Wild Coast.