Greetings!
I know you might be wondering what is apropos? It’s pronounced aprəˈpō. Well, I was looking for a title for my About section and found the word apropos as a unique and appropriate option. My daughter also agrees!
I am Janelle Banks; wife, mother of five, born in the beautiful U.S. Virgin Islands and creator of this blog. Furthermore, I’m so glad that you have found your way to this website and want to find out more about grief, loss, trials, and suffering. These are all a part of life that we all experience at various points and at varying degrees/types, however, what makes the difference is our response. In this blog, I will be approaching grief, loss, trials, and suffering from a biblical standpoint. So, will you respond like Galatians 5:22-23 or not?
All of my personal life events as well as the life events of those in the media, those around me, and those near and dear to my heart have all been impacted by grief, loss, trials, and suffering. Jesus even grieved (John 11 read it all, read it slow, and take notes) and because of that we can be comforted in knowing that it is OK for us to grieve too. And in our grief, Jesus’ grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) to provide us the comfort that we need.
After the loss of my con-joined twin sons, Josiah and Josias in 2015, I decided that I should share my story, my experience, my grief, my suffering, my journey, His story/my joy with Christ in hopes that someone else would benefit! On January 21, 2017, I taught my first Women’s Saturday Morning Quarterly (SMQ) Bible study class at my church, titled Finding Joy: There is hope and rejoicing in times of sorrow by seeking and going to the Wonderful Counselor. All these things have shaped me into who I am, including my passion and my purpose for life and for this website. This is how Finding Abundant Joy, specifically, came about this year (2017).
