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In this episode, Ashley addresses one of the most common and vulnerable aspects of grief and faith: doubt. In Chapter 4 of Cradled in Hope, “A Firm Foundation: When You Wrestle with Doubts,” she shares why it’s vital to know what you believe about Jesus and why. With honesty and conviction, Ashley lays out the case for Christ’s identity as the risen Savior and explains why our hope of seeing our babies again rests entirely on the truth of the Gospel.

This chapter provides a gentle introduction to apologetics and helps grieving moms wrestle through the hard questions of faith, especially when it feels like God is distant or unseen. Ashley walks through biblical evidence, historical testimony, and personal reflection, making a compelling case for why Jesus is not a lunatic or liar—but truly the Lord. When the ground beneath us feels shaky, this chapter offers a firm place to stand: Christ alone.

In this episode, Ashley shared:

• Why it’s essential to know why you believe what you believe, especially when grieving
• A raw moment of doubt: wishing to see Heaven and Bridget face-to-face for comfort and assurance
• The struggle of believing in a God we cannot see, and Paul’s encouragement to live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:6–7)
• The example of “Doubting Thomas” and why even the apostles wrestled with belief after the resurrection
• A breakdown of C.S. Lewis’ famous apologetics argument: Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord
• Why the testimony of the disciples—who were tortured and martyred for proclaiming Jesus—matters so deeply
• The power of eyewitness accounts and how the resurrection is central to our eternal hope
• Bridget’s name meaning (“Strongest Faith”) and the significance of naming your baby
• Why our core beliefs about life, death, and eternity shape how we grieve and heal

Ashley invites listeners to reflect on their own faith journey and ask honest questions. She reminds us that faith doesn’t mean we never wrestle, but it means we keep leaning in, trusting that Jesus truly is who He said He is: the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Journaling Prompt
Are you struggling with doubts? Where are you in your faith journey right now? Identify any areas of disbelief or fear, and surrender them to the Lord. Remember—it’s better to bring your questions to Jesus than to turn away from Him.

Healing Step
Dive deeper into your faith by reading a Christian apologetics book (The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel is a great start), listening to testimonies from believers, or spending more time in Scripture. The more you know about who Jesus is, the stronger your foundation of hope will be.

Full transcript below.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Opliger: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Cradled in Hope Podcast Book Club. I’m your host, Ashley Opliger—grieving mom, author of Cradled in Hope, and founder of Bridget’s Cradles. I’m so honored to walk with you through my book, one chapter at a time, as we navigate the heartbreak of losing a baby together.

After my daughter Bridget went to Heaven at 24 weeks, I wrestled with deep sadness and complex questions about God’s goodness. But through that grief, Jesus showed me that He not only cradles our babies in Heaven, He also holds our broken hearts here on earth.

Whether you’re reading along or simply listening in, this is a safe space for your sorrow—a place where your tears, questions, and raw emotions are welcome. Each episode, we’ll reflect on a chapter of Cradled in Hope and gently walk together from heartbreak to healing, and from pain to purpose.

My prayer is that this podcast will remind you that you are not alone in your grief and, most importantly, that it will point you to Jesus, the only One who can truly heal your heart. Through faith in Him, there is hope to see your baby again, and He will be with you every step from here to Heaven.

So wherever you are in your journey, I invite you to join me—and together, we will grieve with hope.

Let’s begin.

Ashley Opliger: [00:01:22] Hi friends. Welcome back. Today, we are diving into Chapter Four, A Firm Foundation: When You Wrestle With Doubts. This chapter is focused on proving that Jesus is who He said He is. 

Now, I understand that’s a pretty high order for an author. And obviously I did not have enough time or space in this book to do a full apologetics course, which, apologetics is defending the faith and defending that Jesus is who He said He is.

[00:01:50] I was not able to go as in-depth as I would’ve liked. But due to the scope of this book, I did want to give just a very brief explanation as to why I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, because the rest of my book is focused on the hope that we have to see our babies again, and that comes through faith in Jesus.

[00:02:08] And so if Jesus isn’t who He said He is, that He was the Son of God and the promised Savior of the world, then everything else I’m saying would not be true. And so I really felt like it was important for my readers at the very beginning for me to establish a firm foundation. 

And so this is the foundation that I want to lay, is that Jesus is our hope. He’s our only hope with the loss of our baby, and He’s the only one that can fix the problem of death. 

Okay, so let’s start by focusing on a passage from the chapter, and this part is talking about how sometimes it’s so hard to have faith in God and Jesus because we have not seen God. And so having faith in someone that we cannot see can be very hard.

[00:03:27] And so I mention, this is on page 80, that, 

“Personally speaking, I wish God would split the sky for a second so I could see the glory of Heaven with my own two eyes. If I could see Bridget there, happy in Paradise, it would change my perspective for the rest of my life. I’d have peace about her being there, and it’d be easier to focus the rest of my days on my journey to my Heavenly home.

I also wish I could meet Jesus face-to-face and talk to Him right now. Then I’d know that He is real and that my beliefs are true. Oh, wouldn’t it be so much easier to follow Christ if we could actually see Him? Have you had similar thoughts?” 

[00:03:14] And so I go on to talk about, as I mentioned before, that we cannot see God. We have not met Jesus. We have not been to Heaven. And so believing in their existence requires us to have faith. And Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:6-7, he said, “Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.”

[00:03:49] And doesn’t that just sum everything up, that we have to live by faith, not by sight? We are believing in a God we cannot see, and sometimes that’s really hard. 

And so in this chapter, I’m just acknowledging that whether you’ve believed in Jesus your whole life or you’re just curious about Him and you’re picking up this book and wanting to know more about who Jesus is, it can be really hard to believe in Him because we are taught that seeing is believing.

[00:04:15] So in this chapter, I talk about how it’s okay to have doubts because even Doubting Thomas, which, doubting Thomas is a nickname that he was given. And so Thomas, one of Jesus’ apostles, he doubted, even when he saw Jesus after His resurrection. He said, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe,” John 20:25.

[00:04:43] And so even someone who had spent time with Jesus before He was crucified on the cross. he had spent time with Jesus and then he saw Him again, risen after being dead in the tomb for three days, he still had doubts. He struggled to believe that this really was true. 

And think about it from our perspective. We are over 2,000 years from Jesus having been on this earth in the flesh, and so how much harder is it going to be for us to believe in Jesus when we have not seen Him, we have just been told about Him, obviously through the Bible. 

But some people could argue, “Well, how do I know the Bible is true, and how can I really believe that this is the Word of God?” I wish I would’ve had more time to explain why I believe that the Bible is the infallible and inspired Word of God, but in this chapter, I really focus on Jesus and why I believe in Him. 

There’s a section called Lunatic, Liar, or Lord, and this is a quote from CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, but he’s saying that Jesus must have been a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord to make such a claim.

[00:05:48] So what claim am I saying? It’s, well, Jesus claimed to be the promised Savior who would save the Jews and the world from their sins. He publicly proclaimed Himself to be the long-awaited Messiah during His time on earth. And so if Jesus was saying that and it wasn’t true, then He must have been crazy or He must have been a liar.

[00:06:09] Or the third option is that He was really telling the truth, and so He really is who He said He was. And this is really important for us to decide which of those three was Jesus. Because most people, including atheists, would not debate the fact that Jesus existed and that Jesus’ life happened as it was explained, that He was crucified on a cross for claiming to be God. 

The difference is whether or not people believe in the Resurrection. And the Resurrection really changes everything because He is the only man that was dead and then came alive again. 

And so for me, believing in Jesus really boils down to: Did the Resurrection really happen? And if it did, then what He said about Himself was true, and He’s the Son of God. 

So how can we believe in a Resurrection if we weren’t there? We didn’t see it happen for ourselves. We didn’t stand there on Friday and watch Him die on a cross, and then we didn’t see Him after His resurrection; for 40 days He gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. This is Acts 1:3.

[00:07:14] So many people, not only His closest friends, but many followers, including 500 people, saw Him alive after His death. We weren’t one of those people. And so we need to make a decision. How are we going to believe that that’s true without having been there? 

And so the next best thing to seeing something for yourself is eyewitness accounts. Were there other people that saw Him dead and then alive? And as I just explained, yes, there were over 500 people, including His friends, that saw Him. 

We have these people who claim to have seen Him. But not only did they claim to have seen Him, these people, His disciples, they were willing to be persecuted, tortured, and killed over the fact that they were preaching and proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God. 

And so honestly, that is the most convincing proof that I have that Jesus is who He said He is, because who would be willing to be persecuted, tortured, and even killed for a lie? It’s hard for us to really imagine it in today’s world, but if there was something that you knew wasn’t true, you wouldn’t be willing to do everything, including giving your own life, for that lie.

[00:08:30] But if you knew something was true and you would want to stand by that. And so His friends really were such great witnesses to the truth of who He is, in my opinion. 

And so I have an appendix in the back of the book that talks about all the different miracles and things that the disciples had seen during their time on earth with Jesus. And then I talk about who was present at the crucifixion, who saw Him afterwards, and I just explain how, in my opinion, this is one of the most convincing proofs that Jesus really did resurrect from the grave and then ascend into Heaven, because people also saw Him ascend into Heaven.

And so this is an incredible testimony. And these people, the disciples, were willing to die a martyr’s death. And these were incredibly gruesome deaths. In fact, I had intended to put a chart in there about how these men died, but then I thought that might be a little too graphic for this book. 

[00:09:27] But if you go and look it up online, you will see that these men went through horrendous torture and deaths because they were adamant that their friend Jesus was the Messiah, and they were willing to do whatever it took to tell the truth. 

And so we can talk about Paul. You know the story about him, how he came to know Christ on the road to Damascus, but he was beheaded because of his faith in Jesus. 

[00:09:55] Peter, who was the one that denied Jesus three times, he was crucified in Rome. And according to tradition and extrabiblical accounts, Peter requested to be crucified upside down on an inverted cross because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus. All of the disciples, except for John, they died as martyrs. 

[00:10:15] And so I say in my book, 

“Why would they risk their lives for a lie or a hoax? They were willing to be persecuted, tortured, and even killed for what they believed to be true. Their friend was the Son of God. the uncompromising loyalty of the men who knew Jesus on earth and saw Him alive after His death is one of the greatest reasons I believe in Jesus today. I pray their testimony and willingness to endure trials for the sake of the risen Christ would strengthen your faith too.”

[00:10:42] And so I know that seems pretty heavy for a book about pregnancy loss. But as I mentioned before, I felt that this was critical because if I am proclaiming in my book, which I am, that you can see your baby again, that you will hold your baby again in Heaven, and I am telling you that that is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ, which is true, the Gospel is the only way. Jesus is the only way to Heaven. If I am claiming those things, I need you to know why I believe those things to be true. 

Because without that firm foundation, we’re just grasping at straws. We don’t have a firm hope to cling to. And it’s so important when we are grieving, and we are proclaiming, “I’m going to see my baby again,” we have an answer to defend our faith and say, “This is why I believe in Him.”

Now, there are so many other apologetics and reasons why to believe in the existence of God and His Creation and to believe in Heaven, but I really chose to focus on Jesus and His Resurrection, because the Resurrection really changed everything, and the disciples and their radical willingness to follow Jesus at any cost. 

[00:11:57] And that is so encouraging to me, and so I just wanted to share that with you because it gives me great hope that there really was a man named Jesus that lived on this earth, overcame the grave and has resurrection power to bring our babies out of their graves, bring their ashes up into a glorified body and to give us the hope of an eternity in Heaven with them and with Jesus. And there is no greater hope. 

And so I talk in my book about how Matt and I named Bridget Bridget Faith, and her middle name was chosen because of this very thing that I’m talking about, just having faith and knowing that our faith is so important. And the name Bridget means strength, and so if you put it together, Bridget Faith is strongest faith. 

And so I have a section in my book about “Strongest Faith” and how really it does require so much faith, as you are walking this journey, to really trust in Him. And I know it can be so hard to trust, and there are so many reasons to doubt that all of this is true. Right?

[00:13:01] We live in this physical world, and we can see God’s Creation all around us, and we can see the things that He made, and we can see that the human body is miraculous and that our babies were fearfully and wonderfully made. We can see all of that, but we haven’t seen God yet, and so we have to really have faith to believe this is all true.

Ashley Opliger: [00:13:21] We hope you’re finding encouragement in this episode so far. We want to take a moment to share some resources our ministry offers to support grieving moms like you.

On our website, bridgetscradles.com, you’ll learn more about our nonprofit and find many hope-filled resources, including free e-books to help you plan a memorial or funeral service for your baby, meaningful ways to honor your baby in your heart and home, and gentle guidance for navigating difficult days like due dates, Heaven Days, and holidays.

We invite you to join our community of grieving moms through our Christ-centered support groups, offered both in-person at our headquarters near Wichita, Kansas, and virtually through Hope Online. These gatherings provide a place to find comfort, connection, and biblical hope alongside other moms who understand your pain.

You can view upcoming dates and sign up on our website. While you’re there, we’d also be honored for you to share your baby’s story with us.

For ongoing support, we welcome you to join our private Cradled in Hope Facebook group—a safe space for grieving moms to find friendship and walk their healing journey together.

To stay connected with us and receive faith-filled encouragement, follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @bridgetscradles, @cradledinhope, and my personal page @ashleyopliger. 

Now, let’s get back to the episode.

Ashley Opliger: [00:14:41] And so I talk about more about her name and how we chose to keep her name Bridget Faith, even when we knew she might die, because there was a moment in time that I thought, “Well, if she doesn’t come home with us, do I want to give her this name that I’ve desired for my daughter since I was in eighth grade?”

[00:15:00] It felt like I was going to lose that name if I gave her the name. And the Lord just really spoke to me and said, “That’s her name and that’s her name for eternity. And regardless if she lives on earth or she goes to Heaven, I want you to name her Bridget Faith.” 

And so that really was an important part of my journey when I was pregnant with her and going through complications in my pregnancy, that I had the faith to say, “Okay, God, I’m going to surrender and I’m going to trust that that’s her name and I’m going to trust that You have a good plan for her life.”

[00:15:30] And I wrote in my book that, 

“I did not lose her name. In fact, her name has left my lips every single day since she was born. Because I lead a ministry in her memory, thousands of people know her name, but most importantly, her name lives on because she is an eternal being, just like your precious son or daughter. The name you chose for him or her will live on forever. And if you haven’t chosen a name for your baby, it’s never too late to decide on one. Even if it’s been years since they went to Heaven. It can be incredibly healing and validating to name your baby.” 

[00:16:10] I know from leading support groups at Bridget’s Cradles, I have met many women who have chosen to name their babies later on, and it has been such a healing moment in their lives. 

And even if you choose not to, if you want to have your baby’s name be Baby with your last name or some other little nickname, that’s okay too. The Lord knows their name, and that will be revealed to you in Heaven. 

But don’t have shame or guilt if you have not named your baby. I just wanted to include some gentle encouragement in my book that it’s never too late and that no matter how many weeks they were, even if they were four weeks, you just found out you took a pregnancy test and then shortly thereafter you miscarried, that is still your precious baby, and they are deserving of a name if you feel called and convicted to name them. 

[00:16:47] And so coming back to the meaning of Bridget’s name, I said I wanted “to close this chapter with what it means to have strongest faith in the midst of grief and loss.” And so I talk through why this is all so important to have faith. 

And there’s a chart in here, and I’m not going to go over it right now because it will make more sense for you to visualize it. At least that’s how I am when there are charts. It’s harder to understand just having the audio version.

But I basically explain that your faith is going to influence everything about you because your beliefs about life and death and how you view the world and how you perceive God and your circumstances, that’s going to change everything about how you live your life.

[00:17:33] It’s going to shape “the choices you make, the things you do, the words you say, the thoughts you think, the information you consume, the relationships you keep, the values you hold, and the outlook you have of the future.” It is so important to figure out what you believe because that is going to shape your grieving and healing journey.

[00:17:52] So for example, if you think about it, if I were to believe that there was no God and that there was no life after death, and that when Bridget died, she just went into blackness, she just lost consciousness and that was it, that was the end of her life, and there was no purpose for her life, basically she came from nothing, she’s going nowhere … 

And obviously I don’t believe that. That’s an atheist point of view. But let’s just say I believed that. That is going to heavily impact how I’m grieving because if I believe that she has ceased to exist and that there is no hope for me to ever see her, ever know her, that is going to be an incredibly depressing way to grieve.

And I’m not suggesting that we should only believe in Jesus just so that we can have a hope-filled way to grieve, because some people would say, “Well, that’s brainwashed thinking, and you’re just believing in that because you want to feel better about your situation or you want to convince yourself into thinking that something is real that really isn’t.”

[00:18:55] And that is exactly why this chapter exists, because I am wanting to disprove that way of thinking and saying, “No, Jesus is real. His Resurrection really did happen.” And so the hope that we’re claiming is not a brainwashed thinking. It’s not just hopeful thinking. It’s not thinking this way just so we can feel better about losing a baby.

[00:19:20] That is why I chose to focus on this topic in this chapter, because if someone were to argue with you about your faith, or maybe you’ve had these questions about what you really believe, and I’m hoping that the brief introduction in this chapter to apologetics is a helpful start for you to have a firm foundation and a definitive way to defend Christianity, and ultimately believing in Jesus, knowing that we have a way to Heaven through Him, and that we will be able to see our babies again because of Jesus and what He did on the cross, then everything about our grieving and healing process changes.

Because even though it still hurts, and even though we miss our babies so much, and please hear me say that, grieving with hope does not mean you are not grieving. The grieving part is still there, and sometimes it just feels just as heavy as someone who is grieving without hope.

[00:20:24] But let me tell you, the beauty of being a Christian and having the assurance of salvation is that we know there is an expiration date on our suffering, that we will one day get out of the darkness of this tunnel and there will be light, and we will be in Heaven for eternity in a place with no more sin, no more death, no more crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

[00:20:46] This is so important for us to remember, that Jesus is alive and He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, and He is our steadfast hope and our firm foundation.

As David proclaimed in Psalm 18:2, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

[00:21:13] So friends, today my prayer is that your faith and your hope would be “built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” And yes, that is a line from the hymn, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, which I do quote in my book. 

But as I close, I would love for you to listen to that song and just reflect on how we have such a firm foundation in Jesus. He is the rock that we can stand on. He is the hope that we can just cling to with all of our might. He is everything. And I’m just so grateful for Him. 

And so I want to now share a journal prompt and a healing action. My question for the journal prompt is: “Are you struggling with doubts? Where are you in your faith journey right now? Identify any areas of disbelief and surrender them to the Lord.”

[00:22:06] And friend, let me say this: It’s okay if you’re wrestling and you’re struggling and you have questions about God and Jesus and Christianity. It’s okay if that’s where you’re at right now. It’s better to take those questions to Him and to wrestle than it is to just turn your back and say, “I don’t know. I’m going to turn away because this is too painful and I don’t want to believe in a good God who would allow babies to die.”

Pressing in and going into those harder theological questions, which I’ve addressed throughout multiple chapters in my book, the question of: Why should we believe in a good God that allows babies to die?

But I think it’s really important to reflect on where you might be doubting or where you might have questions because those are opportunities for you to lean in and to seek. And if you seek, you will find. And so that is the journal prompt for this chapter. 

[00:23:02] And the Healing Step, this one is specifically for those who want to have more proof in believing in Jesus. I’m recommending that you read a Christian apologetics book, listen to believers’ testimonies on podcasts, or spend time diving into the Word. Those are my suggestions on if you are struggling with doubt, some ideas on ways to connect and really learn more about Jesus.

[00:23:26] As I mentioned, there are so many great apologetics books that have more in-depth arguments and explanations about Jesus and who He is. One of my favorites, The Case for Christ, written by Lee Strobel. 

He was an atheist that went out to disprove Jesus, and as he was looking for evidence and investigated, he ended up believing in Jesus. And it’s a beautiful book about how he came to know Christ and why he believes that Jesus is who He said He is. So that’s a suggestion on a Christian apologetics book. 

[00:24:01] And now I would love to close us in a word of prayer. 

Jesus, thank You so much for being our firm foundation, our steady rock on which we can stand.

Lord, in the midst of grief, everything feels so shaky and unsure. It feels like the ground beneath us is giving way. And honestly, sometimes it’s hard to know what we believe and why we believe it, and it’s hard to have hope in the midst of such pain and sadness. We miss our babies so much, we long to see them again.

[00:24:31] Lord, I pray that You would give us peace and assurance and confidence in who You are, that You are the Lord. You are not a lunatic. You are not a liar. You are the Lord, the promised and awaited Messiah that came to save us from our sins. And You are the way, the truth, and the life. You are the only way to the Father. 

And I thank You that You have made a way for us to be with You for eternity, that You have saved our precious babies, and that we have a hope-filled future together in Heaven with them. 

And so, Lord, I just pray that this chapter would bless any moms who are struggling with doubts, Lord, that instead of having a feeling of shame or concern about where she’s at right now, Lord, that You would just give her grace and understanding, that You would turn her heart toward You and give her the answers that she needs to move forward in her faith with You.

[00:25:24] Lord, sometimes it’s so hard to have faith in You when we cannot see You. And so I just pray that the Holy Spirit would be with us and guide us and convict us and give us wisdom and show us who You are. You are a good God who loves us. You loved us so much to die for us, and we thank You for the hope of eternity we have. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen. 

[00:25:48] Be sure to tune in for the next episode, which will cover Chapter Five, Heaven on Earth: When You Wonder Where Your Baby Is. 

Ashley Opliger: [00:25:57] Thank you for joining me for today’s episode of the Cradled in Hope Podcast Book Club.

New episodes covering each chapter of the book will release on the 1st, 15th, and 22nd of each month through the end of the year—so be sure to subscribe and follow along.

If you don’t have your copy of Cradled in Hope, you can find it wherever books are sold. It’s a biblical guide for grieving moms after miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss—filled with vulnerable emotion, biblical wisdom, practical guidance, and hope-filled encouragement.

To accompany the book, I’ve also created the Cradled in Hope Guided Journal—a beautiful companion that includes space to write your responses to the discussion questions, full Scripture passages from each chapter, and additional reflection pages and guided charts to help you process your grief and draw you closer to Jesus. You can download the free digital version on my author website at AshleyOpliger.com/Journal, or order the printed version on Amazon if you prefer to write by hand.

Until next time, know that you are not alone. You are seen, loved, and Cradled in Hope.