Daily Devotions for Caregivers

  As caregivers, we deal with a lot every single day. Many things we don't (or can't ) even talk to others about. Some things, we don't share out of fear; we can't let them think we are incompetent or incapable of providing care for our loved ones. Other things are just not cool to share, I know you know what I mean! We can have so much going on in our heads and our emotions, but we keep it tucked away inside. Society doesn't allow brutal honesty. Sometimes, it's because hearing one's deepest emotional struggles makes others feel like they need  to do something, but we don't need anyone to do anything - we just need for them to hear us. But we keep things to ourselves in silence, mostly because others just won't "get" it. This open and raw honesty is one of the things I've loved about the Psalms. I was reading Psalm 13, where David was pouring all his honest thoughts out before God. He was speaking some of the unmentionables caregivers ...

 You know that scripture that says, casting all your cares on Him, for He cares for you ? Yeah, that one. It's 1 Peter 2:7. We've probably read it what feels like a million times. It's the execution that is difficult, not the reading. What is it that makes it so hard to give Him all our cares? I have a few ideas. But first, let's break it down a little bit. There are at least two ways to look at this highly memorized verse. And it's a good one to memorize, but totally useless if we can't actually do it! He cares for us can be interpreted to mean that He is an all-loving, all-caring God who is concerned about every detail of our lives. He cares. This is true. But another way to look at it is that He is doing all the caring for us, so we don't have to. Either way, He's helping us and caring for us! For caregivers who are often operating from a state of overwhelm, it's a constant all-day-long battle to keep rolling our cares over onto Him so He can do t...

 Caregiving is a strange mix of emotions. I'm pretty sure there's nothing that can squeeze who we  really are out of us like becoming a caregiver. It forces us to take a deeper look at ourselves. It can shuck us down to the bare essentials of life in no time. I've often referred to it as the crucible of life. But that doesn't mean it's all bad; it just gets rid of all the extras we thought we needed. We love our persons! Most caregivers love caring for loved ones, even if we don't  love why  we need to care for them. And of course, there are other situations that are equally effective at revealing who we really are. But caregiving is in a class of its own! Lol. There's no time to carry around extra stuff. In fact, sometimes, caregivers tend to stuff emotions and feelings because there simply isn't time to sort them out. That's part of why we live on that proverbial edge, ready to explode, because our hands were wet when we grabbed a dishwasher pod, a...

  Does it ever feel like life is kicking you when you're down? I think it happens all the time. Lol. As caregivers, our plates are absolutely full all the time. Even the smallest thing that goes wrong in our day can feel like the proverbial last straw that breaks the camel's back.  We often run so close to the edge emotionally that the tiniest thing tips us right over. I can't speak for you, but I know me! It can appear that everything is fine, and then I totally lose it over something seemingly stupid like struggling to open a new bag of underpads or briefs. smh. It happens. :-) But that's because our "emotional cup" runs on full and a drop of anything makes it run over the edges.  In Psalm 18:17-19, David mentions that his enemies attacked him at his weakest moment. Sometimes, it feels like life lands a socker punch when we are most vulnerable. And as caregivers, we can pretty much feel vulnerable all the time. But there's hope... In verse 17, David says...

 This morning, I was reading Psalm 18. It's one of my favorites, talking about how God brings victory, defeats the enemies, and provides safety. And that's a super general overview! But what caught my eye in verse 2 was that David said God was his rock  - twice. So I grabbed the NASB as it was also nearby. It used rock twice in verse 2, also. I thought it was a little funny for David to state God was his rock twice, and of course, I thought it could be for emphasis. But it wasn't.  I grabbed my handy-dandy (old-school, I know) Strong's concordance and started digging. In verse 2, the first Hebrew word used for "rock" is sela. In the KJV, the second word for rock is instead strength. It is the Hebrew word, sur. As I dug through the two definitions, they can both be translated into rock. But they really mean two different things. Here is a brief comparison: Sur(tsur)  refers to a huge boulder or cliff.  Sela refers to a cliff or crag. A rock formation that conta...

  Do you ever just feel alone? Not just a little bit lonely either. That gut-gnawing aloneness that digs deeply at your soul. And sure, we know  we are not alone. God is with us. We get that. We understand that. But there are times when our souls sink into the mire of aloneness and it's difficult to climb back out. Here in Oklahoma, we have this nasty, red, clay-like "dirt." If it gets wet, it gets so slick that you can't walk in it. If there is any slant to the ground at all, you may find yourself covered head to toe in muck, trying to get out of it. Lol. It can be quite the sight and quite the difficult situation. Sometimes, aloneness swallows us whole and it's like trying to get out of the mucky, wet clay pit. We just keep sliding back emotionally. It can feel like you're not making any progress at all, just getting sucked into a pit. Ever feel that way? If we think about it for a few minutes, there are a lot of emotional caverns that can suck the life out ...