About the Book

Book: A Precious Loss

Author:Sharon Fox

Genre: RELIGION / Christian Living / Death, Grief, Bereavement

Release Date: July 8, 2016

Front cover A Precious Loss_EN

Losing a child is the worst tragedy a parent can experience. And yet it happens to many from various causes, including Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), death from illness, stillborn birth, or miscarriage. A Precious Loss offers those who have experienced such a death a window into the grief process. It presents the biblical grief model and the emotions to expect after a loss, and it includes the steps to move forward toward peace and contentment.

While each parent’s experience is unique, this book is written with deep insight and strong compassion. It provides grieving parents with:

· Concrete steps to coping and recovery, including how to care for your health and your relationships and how to cope with emotions and behaviors you can expect to experience

· Biblical support for finding comfort and hope in your darkest hours

Recognition of the hard questions you may have, such as these:

· Why me?

· Was this my fault?

· Is someone to blame?

· Is this some sort of punishment for things I did or did not do?

· Is there a purpose for my child’s death?

· Can I trust God?

If you or a loved one is grappling with the devastating loss of a child, this book will provide hope and encouragement to press on, knowing that God will sustain you through this painful experience.

Click here to get your copy.

About the Author

SSP_3738 (2)

Sharon Fox is a wife, author, speaker and co-founder of Brave Penny (non-profit). Her heart for those who mourn and struggle with loss has led her to write and teach about God’s model of grieving the death of his son, Jesus.

A Precious Loss, was written for families who have experienced miscarriage, SIDS, infant death and stillbirths. (Spanish – Una Perdida Preciosa)

Sharon published Reframing Adoption, (also in Spanish) and a children’s Christmas book, The Stone Carver’s Son.

She has led a grief recovery ministry for over twenty years. Sharon is a certified grief facilitator and has been a speaker at the National Conference on Adoption and the Anglicans For Life Summit.

More from Sharon

Precious Loss (Una Perdida Preciosa– Spanish) was written to present a Christian perspective on the survival of families when a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death (SIDS) have occurred. A miscarriage or infant death is strikingly harsh and so many times unknown by others, which leaves the mother and family without support or understanding. The statistics tell the story. One in four conceptions end in miscarriage. Seventy Five Percent of the marriages end in divorce when a child under three dies.

How do families survive the death of a child, a miscarriage, or tragic illness or accident that is such a sacred, personal and bewildering lossevent? A Precious Loss is packed with sage advice, coping skills, presentation of God’s Model of Grieving, the Gospel, helpful, authentic recognition of the emotional overload of loss. The book presents the blueprint from chaos, sadness, upheaval, questioning, new and strong emotions to contentment. It presents the pathway to the reach contentment and live abundantly again.

Mindy Houng’s Q&A with Sharon Fox

What does success as an author look like to you?

As a lay person in ministry, the “numbers” of those I reach is always a tempting measure of success. But over and over Jesus witnessed individually to people in a very personal way. Yes, he spoke to crowds – tens of thousands actually. I have had the opportunity to share about God’s Model to thousands over the twenty years I have spent in this role of grief minister. I would love to sell millions of copies of the books, but the real measure is when I speak personally to the individuals who are hurting. If I can’t personally speak directly or respond to those who grieve via social media the book is the all-encompassing method to minister to them. It is by way of its existence, a voice of compassion to those who are experiencing a very personal and deep loss. I long for it to be in the hands of everyone who is searching for help. A Precious Loss can offer information or a “takeaway” on biblical assurance of God’s compassion. “sage” advice, in the form of activities. God and I through the book have done a “solid,” as a friend of mine says, to embrace those who grieve.

I wrote the book A Precious Loss. God does the rest of the heavy lifting of the burden of loss. He puts into the comfort of His love into the heart and soul of those who mourn the life of a child. If a mother or family can find help to get through the day without drugs or relying on poor coping activities which cause a deeper depression, then that is a win for the kingdom.

2. Is there a specific person or experience in your life that prompted you to begin writing? Describe it.

In 1996 my sister Penny Scaggs, was murdered by her husband of thirty-five years. There were four TV programs produced and a book written about her death by Clint Richmond. What could have been a very private matter for me, and my family, became a highly visible topic to be seen by millions over the course of ten years. (One of the TV programs was rerun for over ten years.)

About six months after my sister died, I attended a class on grief offered at my church. It was one of those “Sharon came to class and she never went home” experiences. I knew grief recovery was going to be a ministry for me. I joined the American Academy of Bereavement and became a Certified Grief Facilitator. The certification program was focused on secular research which was valuable but was missing the comfort of biblical scripture. I found in Matthew, God’s Model of grieving the death of his son, Jesus. It matched the secular data by way of descriptions but presented it as a pathway to comfort and understanding of God’s compassion.

I compiled a program titled Shadowlands to teach at my church in Plano, Texas. I have led the program for over twenty years. From Shadowlands, I created a second program call Precious Losses, which, like the book, A Precious Loss, is focused on families who have experienced the death of a child. Churches across the U.S. are using both programs to offer grief recovery ministry to their members. I wrote a Leaders Guide for each of the programs to enable leadership to offer a complete turn-key program on grief recovery to those who are grieving any type of loss. The book presents God’s Model and healthy coping tips.

I was not prompted to write the actual book which we are promoting, until several years after the program was developed. A pregnancy center in Frisco, Texas, asked if I would write something for them to hand to families who had had miscarriages. The only material they had was a trifold pamphlet written from a secular perspective.

3. Who do you believe your audience it?

The audience for A Precious Loss is very specific. Mothers and families (spouse, grandparents, and perhaps siblings of the child who died) who have experienced the death of a child through miscarriage, SIDS, illness, injury or stillborn. Attracting the reader has been a challenge. So often the loss is so private that for the parent or friend who knows about the loss, the search for a book does not occur to them because they simply don’t want to draw more attention to the loss. Yet, one in four conceptions end in a miscarriage. When I realized the size of the audience, and upon the request from the pregnancy center, I took up the challenge to write a Christian based and relevant book for those who grieve a precious loss of a child in their life.

4. Do you have a file of book ideas that you refer back to when you want to write a new book?

I don’t actually have a paper or PC file of ideas for new books. However, there are titles that I think about in my head pretty often. God has not yet prompted me to write. He has gotten me up at three in the morning several times saying – “Sharon, today we are writing an article or another chapter in the book.” You see, He dictates, and I record at the keyboard.

Both of my grief recovery books have “come to me”, not from research, nor a list of ideas, but from a very conscious knowledge that God had something to say – and I, apparently, was the one to write it. I have written one other book, Reframing Adoption. It was, like A Precious Loss, requested by someone who represented a “need” and represented an audience who needed Christian based grief recovery information. (Reframing Adoption was written for birthmothers who had chosen adoption for their child.) Not only presenting God’s Model, the book reframes the terminology from “giving up” a child to “gifting” a child. It includes terminology such as Shadow Grief and Empty Arms Syndrome which are common, yet unknown to those who grieve the choice of adoption.

A good example of writing a book which was “dictated to me by God”, was a children’s book, “the Stone Carver’s Son” published by Redemptions Press. It is about the shepherds and how they understood what the angels were talking about when they announced the birth of the baby Jesus. The story answers the question of why these men were willing to leave their flocks and go to see the baby who was proclaimed by the angels as the Savior of the world. It was James, the stone carver’s son who had told them of the prophesy of a Messiah. I had no conscious plan to write such a book. One day while walking for exercise at a shopping mall, God dictated the entire book to me. I came home, sat at the keyboard and out it poured. The book is virtually word for word as I heard God speaking it to me.

5. Why do you choose to write nonfiction instead of novels?

A Precious Loss is not a non-fiction nor fiction book. It is not a testimonial nor a self-help book. It was written to fill a need from a Christian based perspective, on how to cope with a very specific type of grief event. Miscarriage, SIDS, stillbirth and infant death, all group into losses which are personal, often very private and of such significant emotional impact that those who experience these losses feel hopelessness. They are usually without any prior knowledge of how to begin to survive a tragic loss of a loved one. Seventy-five percent of the families who have a live birth but lose a child under the age of three years, end in divorce. If a couple doesn’t know the statistics – their marriage may simply drift to the point, that they determine divorce is the next step. If they do know that, they can be intentional to learn ways to cope, and how to handle strong emotions without hurting others and themselves. Often there are outside pressures which create new and very strong emotions, which need to be managed as well. The parents can achieve contentment both personally and as a couple when they know how to take care of themselves and choose to use good coping skills.

I published A Precious Loss in Spanish, Una Perdida PRECIOSA, because miscarriage and infant death crosses all types of culture, ethnic and geographic boundaries.