The Lost and Found: Finding Your Joy After a Loss

By Kevin N. Steward

The Lost and Found was derived from the lessons that I have learned from the experiences that I have had from lifes ups and downs. Due to losses, many of us see our lives as an endless journey of peaks and valleys, but I submit to the reader that life can be viewed from a different perspective. Life can be lived from joy to joy, no matter what has been lost. Joy can be found on many different levels. In this book, I will take you through the process of finding that joy and how to make life a continual joyful experience for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 12, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462821815

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Copyright © 2009 by Kevin N. Steward.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Points to Remember Concerning the Lost and Found

Foreword

Hello Dear Reader,

My good friend Evangelist Kevin Steward wrote this book to you from God. Therefore as you move through these pages, consider it an appointment with Holy Spirit.

As you read and meditate on the points set forth, it is my prayer that your heart, mind and spirit will embrace the truth given by insight herein and allow it to build your confidence for a better life.

You have the right to live free and in peace with the possibilities that tomorrow holds for you. I say tomorrow because for you tomorrow is a new day! Face it with hope and expectation from the lessons learned from these pages.

You have now in your hands powerful tools that you can use to finally find the love in God that will help you settle the hurts from your past. Joy will be yours! Strength will replace weakness and fear! Confidence will come because of knowledge!

Read on, Holy Spirit is waiting to fill your life with good and clear meaning. AMEN!

Love never gives up,

The Rev Dr Stanley L. Scott

Salvation Temple Church

www.SalvationTchurch.org

Preface

This book is written for those who are dealing with the loss of someone or something in their life.

Dealing with loss, along with the hurt, heartache, pain and frustration that accompanies it, is a subject that has given many misleading answers. Many are still looking for ways to deal with these issues in life. This book will give you some solid answers on how to deal with the issue of loss.

As you read you will come to understand that there is a reason why things are loss, and how to react to your feelings about that loss. Also, you will learn what you truly have lost, how to find it, and then keep it for all eternity. Additionally, you will realize that sharing what you have learned with others is a vital part of finding and keeping what you have lost.

When you start to understand the process of resolving the things in life that have brought you hurt and pain, your entire life will be wonderfully and miraculously changed. I pray that this book will be a blessing to your heart, spirit and soul.

Acknowledgements

My life has been deeply blessed by those who have helped me and supported my endeavors. My wife Angela has continually inspired me to reach for the highest goals that I can and without her love and support with this God inspired work, the long hours of editing and proof-reading, I could not say how long this work would have taken to bring to print. I thank my mentor and friend, Rev. Dr. Stanley L. Scott, who has freely given me the added skills to write and express myself in this book. Thank you Mom for loving and supporting me through the years. Thanks to those of you (you know who you are) who also helped me along the way with additional assistance and comments for this book. To my family, friends and students, thank you for your support and belief in me. And to those of you whom I am just meeting, may this book help you find your way to joy.

Chapter 1

Lost and Found

What is the Lost and Found?

What is the lost and found? The lost and found is related to all things in life: how to deal with the loss of someone or something and the hurt, pain, and the discomfort it brings us; then how to find the joy, peace and comfort that we once had in our lives. We all have come face-to-face with the disappointments and pains of life when something we once had is lost, and there is no way in our own eyes, for us to find it again. Many people have obtained things in life such as: loved ones, jobs, houses, cars and money. And since nothing is lost and everything is in place, life is good, right?

Then the hurt and pain suddenly comes when:

• A love one dies

• A pet dies

• You get a divorce

• You lose your job

• That favorite car is wrecked

• Someone cheats you out of some money in a business deal

We all will have some feelings about losing these things, and we each will have some pain associated with that which was lost; some more than others. In this book I will identify what was really lost concerning these things, and will teach you how to handle these events. What happens when you come face-to-face with similar problems in your own life? It’s easy to say to someone that everything is going to be okay when it does not affect you directly. But what about when it comes home to rest in your own front yard, or even in your own bed: whether it’s through the lost of a spouse, friend, someone or something? It does not necessarily have to be the death of someone, to make us feel that we have lost something in our life. A divorce or separation can bring the same feelings that you may experience when someone dies. This is a subject that I can relate to, and therefore, will discuss some of the events of my life, later in this book.

Our identification with the things that we possess will make it hard for us to release those things. But, there is a difference between losing a loved one, as it is compared to losing a thing, we once loved. You must understand that it is not as severe as you may feel when you have plain answers to deal with those feelings. Yet, the loss is still something that we have to contend with. For example, no one wants to lose his or her identity. If your identity was based on something you had, or on someone, and it, or that someone helped determined who you are today, it would make it just that much harder to deal with that lost.

Now let’s get a little more practical with the real issues that are facing us. The lost and found will bring you to a correct way of identifying with everything in life. You may ask how that is possible. As you go on further in this book, you will see how it is possible. We will establish some key points in life that helps to bring this to past. The best part of this book will be dealing with how to find what has been lost. As I have stated, there is a process to finding what has been lost. Because this chapter is an introduction to this book, I am just establishing the key points to making this idea a reality, to those who are looking for answers to this age-old subject. There may be some books that deal with this subject. Other books may offer a lot of theory and presumption on which they base their opinions. It is important that these opinions are put in their proper place with respect to relationships with people and things in this life. We need to realize that without faith (belief) in something, we have no foundation for life itself.

We must believe that the principles for life are based on things that we can’t see; and yet without believing that all things are controlled by the unseen world, there is nothing in life that we can find, even after it has been lost. Is that simple enough? If not, I will break it down farther. Scenario #1: What if you had a thousand dollars that was given to you by someone who told you that if you handled this money well, they would give you a million dollars? The thousand dollars you received becomes very important to you, not just because of the thousand dollars, but because of the million dollars you could have, if you would handle the thousand properly.

Personal Attachments

The attachment that you have placed on something’s is what has made it harder for you to let them go. You must learn how to place your relationship with things, in their proper prospective. The proper prospective has to do with what you have in your possession and what you can really take ownership of. Now that was an example that most people can relate to. Let’s really evaluate what happens in the scenario above, if the thousand dollars was lost. The real issue was not the money itself; and I know some may be saying, That’s what you think. But when dealing with things that are lost and how to find them again, you might think that the only way to find those things, are to replace them immediately. For example, upon losing the money, simply get more money.

I am writing to tell you that, that is not the case. You can be given a thousand dollars again, and may never find the same joy in that money, as you did with the thousand dollars, you were attached to, prior to that. Why? The answer is simple: it does not hold the same value, as the money that had the million dollars associated with it. What you attached to that money was your own self-worth, stewardship, faithfulness and reward. There is not enough money that anyone can give us, to replace these character traits, especially when these traits are attached to something that was