{"id":9947,"date":"2018-10-14T20:16:14","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T02:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=9947"},"modified":"2018-10-14T20:16:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T02:16:39","slug":"the-only-way-to-take-sorrow-out-of-death-is-to-take-love-out-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/the-only-way-to-take-sorrow-out-of-death-is-to-take-love-out-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Way To Take Sorrow Out Of Death Is To Take Love Out Of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.”<\/span>\u00a0 -Russell M. Nelson<\/p>\n

Eight years ago this week I received a phone call telling me that one of my very best friends in life, Steve Gasser, had passed away unexpectedly.\u00a0 I remember the pain in my chest and that feeling of having the air sucked from my lungs as I crumbled to the floor in tears at the news. It was a feeling of overwhelming and absolute grief.<\/p>\n

It took some time for the grief to feel bearable after losing my friend. Some days I had to remember to follow this advice:\u00a0 \u201cBe gentle with yourself. You\u2019re doing the best you can!\u201d – unknown<\/p>\n

I have missed Steve every day for the last eight years. I have thought about him a million times…his smile…his hugs…the way he could always cheer me up and make me feel capable of anything…the way he listened without judgement…the example that he set of Christlike service to others….I still miss my friend every single day.<\/p>\n

I am so grateful for my belief in life after death. I am grateful for my belief that I will see my friend Steve again in the next life and that he will be waiting to greet me when I someday pass to the other side with a huge smile and a hug. That belief helped more than anything else when it came to overcoming my grief.<\/p>\n

“We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits. However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were\u2014better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were…” –<\/span> Thomas S. Monson<\/p>\n

I believe that the best thing we can do when we lose a loved one is to commit to becoming the best person we can be ourselves so that when that day comes that we will have the chance to see our loved one again on the other side they will be proud of us for all the good we have done.<\/p>\n

\"\"

God be with you til we meet again my dear friend Steve Gasser (Amy Rees Anderson)<\/p><\/div>\n

~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.”\u00a0 -Russell M. Nelson Eight years ago this week I received a phone call telling me that one of my very best friends in life, Steve Gasser, had passed away unexpectedly.\u00a0 I remember the pain in my chest and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[395,19416,2372,19408,19409,1620,19414,19421,19417,3978,277,1792,4558,3527,19406,2833,19411,1163,19415,13847,1109,35,11841,19420,19407,16724,19422,11514,1662,19413,31,2838,19419,19412,19418,10369,19410,3894],"class_list":["post-9947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-be-gentle-with-yourself","tag-best-friend","tag-christlike-love","tag-christlike-service","tag-death","tag-death-is-not-final","tag-deep-sadness","tag-doing-the-best-you-can","tag-dont-give-up","tag-empathy","tag-encouragement","tag-funeral","tag-grief","tag-grieving","tag-hang-in-there","tag-heartbreaking-sorrow","tag-heaven","tag-life-after-death","tag-losing-a-loved-one","tag-loss","tag-love","tag-meaning-of-life","tag-missing-someone","tag-missing-steve","tag-mourning","tag-overwhelming-grief","tag-russell-m-nelson","tag-sadness","tag-see-our-loved-ones-again","tag-steve-gasser","tag-sympathy","tag-tenderness","tag-tested-to-the-limit","tag-the-only-way-to-take-sorrow-out-of-death-is-to-take-love-out-of-life","tag-the-other-side","tag-the-plan-of-salvation","tag-thomas-s-monson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9947"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9950,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions\/9950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}