Overcoming With God: Melissa K. Norris

Overcoming Tough Times

How God Used My Miscarriage to Turn Me Back to Him

By Melissa K. Norris

I used to dread when the phone would ring late at night. When I was child, we received word via the telephone my beloved grandmother had passed away. Even without my mother saying the words out loud, I knew. And when she walked towards me, I backed away, hands up, trying to ward off the awful news.

As a young woman in my early twenties, I got the call that the test results on my pregnancy had come back low and they suspected an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy.

Both times a cloud of denial shrouded me. If no one touches me, if no one speaks, then this will go away. And then a voice would shatter my denial and sobs clawed their way up my throat.

My heart cried, “Why, God? Why did You do this?”

When I could no longer shoulder the anger, brokenly, I turned to Him. When I was too weary to cry or speak, my bruised heart uttered this silent plea, Help me, Lord.

I sat in our rocking recliner, my hands clutched my Bible. My eyes burned, feeling as if any minute they’d swell shut, but I pried open the pages.

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10

The truth of this verse rocked me. It was only in this time of exhaustion that I truly leaned on God.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17

Every good and perfect is from God. Anything else is not.

God hadn’t done this to me. He hadn’t taken my grandmother or ripped my unborn child from my womb. God doesn’t cause hardships.

But He does use them. When we are weak, we allow Him to work. We realize we can’t do things on our own. We give Him the opportunity to show us His strength.

Why I don’t look forward to hardships, I no longer fear the ringing of the phone. Because I know that God is by my side. I know that if I chose to let Him, He can find good in any situation. I’d rather my suffering not be in vain.

So when trying times threaten to paralyze me, I turn to my Father. I ask Him to lift me up in His arms. And He does.

He used my miscarriage to turn my writing career to Him. I was touched by this story of one women’s loss and her words, And God took all of our ashes and made something BEAUTIFUL out of them. You can read more from her story here.