Pastor Rick Warren 6 Stages of Grief

Parade Magazine, December 1, 2013 Interview with Pastor Rick Warren "The Purpose Driven Diet"


PARADE;  This will be your first Christmas without (son who killed himself) Matthew.  How are you and your wife approaching the holidays?

PASTOR WARREN:  Every holiday when you've lost a loved one is going to be painful, particularly the first year--the first Thanksgiving, first birthday, first Christmas.  But we have the Lord; we have our church family; we have each other.  The other thing is, we're not hiding our grief.  We're walking through it.  You can't get over grief; you get through it.  I have cried every day since Matthew died.  That's not a bad thing.  Tears are a sign of love, not weakness.

(At parade.com/warren, you'll find our video of the pastor speaking about his six stages of grief, plus an excerpt and advice from his book, "The Daniel Plan.")