Daily Devotions for Caregivers

 I don't think there's one caregiving soul out there who would disagree with me if I said that caregiving is hard. No matter what our situations are, and there's really no way to compare and rank them,  being a caregiver presents many challenges. Some days those challenges are spaced out as we've adjusted to our "new normals." Other days, it seems like they stack up one on top of another, and we just sit, watch, and wait for our lives to topple one more time. Yesterday, I was able to put into practice some things I've been "preaching" on my Facebook Live devotions and here on Daily Devotions for Caregivers. Gratitude is a common topic, and we talk about it a lot. Honestly, some days it is easy to be grateful. Other days when we are scraping our way to survival, it's slightly  (tongue in cheek) more difficult to even find something to be grateful for - let alone express it. But yesterday, I had two moments where gratitude just welled up inside...

 Do you ever feel like you are just way out on the waves of life's sea, and everyone is on the shores waving and wishing you well? It's easy to feel like everyone has left, mostly because in most caregiving situations when it lasts more than a week or two - everyone does leave. They are not sure what to do with you or your loved one.  This morning, I was thinking about Jonah and Noah. One of them (Noah) obeyed God to a T. The other one, (Jonah) disobeyed God deliberately and intentionally. But God made it His business to meet both of them right where they were.  God met Noah in the Ark on the top of the water. He met Jonah in the belly of a fish at the bottom of the water. Their decisions to obey God or not put them in their positions in the water. But God met with both of them. He went out of His way to reach Noah and Jonah. This gives me some hope that no matter how I mess up or get things right, God will meet with me - because ultimately, it's the relationship with God...

  This morning, right in the middle of my FaceBook Live devotion called "Peace Out," I had this crazy thought. I was talking about Moses in reference to a scripture I'd been meditating on. One thing I've said over the last few years is that we cannot use our situations to measure God's grace. It's easy to think when everything is going bad that we missed it, we disobeyed Him, or we are just "way off." But that's not so. Moses went to get the Children of Israel at the command of God. He also led them out of Egypt just as God had told him to. Yet Moses found himself in quite a pickle when he ran smack dab into the Red Sea. And to top it off, as if he needed a little more stress in his life, Pharoah was pressing in from behind. But his pickle of a situation didn't indicate he'd missed God at any point. His journey had only begun, but Moses was right where God wanted him to be. Actually, what I said that got my own attention was that God sent...

 To say that the caregiver's proverbial plate is full, is an understatement. I keep trying to blame my short fuse on my age, but I know that it keeps getting shorter because of being overloaded and overwhelmed. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that each day has more things to do than what will comfortably fit inside of 24 hours. I'm constantly shifting tasks around and choosing the highest priority tasks to complete. That means some things get done - but not all. There's always some straggling chores to nag me every night. I honestly feel like I'm riding the caboose and barely keeping up, or not keeping up at all! Maybe it's just me. (?) I am certainly guilty of pushing myself too hard and then condemning myself when I fail to reach my goals. I'm so glad that God is not like that! I was looking at all those listed has having faith in Hebrews 11 this morning. Many times, we are wowed by their abilities and accomplishments. But not one of them was pe...

Do you ever feel broken? Sometimes I look around at all the other "normal" people who are not caregivers, and feel like my life is so broken. As caregivers, we can't always do all the "normal" things like plan and take vacations, take a job in another city, or even hop in the car and run to the store to grab butter. When I scroll through facebook and I see all the things all the "cool" people get to do, it can start dragging my emotions down into the pit. But feeling broken is not the end. Let me quickly distinguish the difference between broken and brokeness. Brokeness is a state we become before God. It's the realization of our desparate need for Him - whether we are broken  or not. They are the first group Jesus mentioned in His first ever sermon on earth. In the sermon on the mount, He starts with Blessed are the poor in spirit (broken), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven . (NKJV) The NLT translates it this way - God blesses those who realize ...

 I'm still thinking about Peter a lot. We like to think of him as a failure. After all, he did sink when he looked away from Jesus. But before you clutch your pearls, think of all those times your thoughts have strayed away, or you've looked the other way. I know I've done it lots of times. I did it before I was a caregiver, but caregiving has a way of sucking the life out of us. In our fight to survive, we can be easily distracted by the storms around us; all the while, His peace is standing right in front of us.  Us church people often toss condemnation Peter's way because he took his eyes off Jesus. But, hey, at least he had enough momentary faith to get out of the boat! He didn't think about sinking, all he could think about was getting to Jesus, and a few bumps along the way totally distracted his journey on the top of the water.  Jesus didn't let Peter fail. Even though it was Peter's fault for looking at the storm, Jesus still reached out a hand and h...

 This morning, I've been thinking a lot about when Peter walked on water. It's funny how we label the story that way, isn't it? Why not call it "The night 11 of the disciples were too afraid to move"? Why not call it "Water walking with all the other boats in the same storm looking on"? Most of the time, I've heard it referred to as when Peter walked on the water, Jesus walked on the water, or Jesus calmed the storm. No matter what perspective we view the account in Matthew 14, several things were going on at the same time. There are a few things that stick out in these few verses. Of course, we know that Jesus ultimately brought peace. He calmed the storm that He had sent His disciples into just a few short hours earlier. He also came to His disciples in the middle of the storm. He didn't wait until the storm calmed - and He didn't calm the storm before He headed over toward their boat. Now that's a thought - He could have calmed the sto...

 This morning, when I turned my computer on, that little wheel went round and round. It always takes a little bit for my laptop to reboot, reset, and get ready to go for the morning. I stared at that little wheel that was spinning round and round. I thought it was a great representation of how my brain was acting this morning. Lol. Do you ever feel that way?  My brain is trying to reload to take on another day, but the thoughts are just spinning round and round. It doesn't seem like anything is getting done at all. It's one of those days where I'd like to just sit and stare at the wall and drink coffee. But as caregivers, we all know that's not got a chance of happening. :-) So, I pick up my Bible hoping to find something to help me reload for the day ahead, and again there's nothing. I'm pretty sure it's a sign of burnout. But who has time for burnout? There's too much to do, and this brain and heart of mine have to get reloaded, so I can get the tasks ...

There's a lot that goes on in a single day in the life of a caregiver. We are all great jugglers, and learn to balance it all out. Of course, that usually means we end up cutting out our plans for free time or five minutes to relax. I may not get a shower for a day or two, but you can bet my son will get his personal needs met. Am I right? There's a lot to juggle , and there's a lot coming at us all at one time. In some ways, that's not much different than anyone else's chaotic life in these high-energy times. This morning, there were a lot of things coming right at me, and I was sure they were not going to miss!  I found myself juggling things around here and there. I did opt for a shower and cut some other things, just so you know! Lol. But it can sure be frustrating trying to figure out which important things should go in those early morning hours. Do I cut my walk, which is beneficial to my physical and mental health? Or do I cut the shower which can offend anyo...

 It's so easy to think we messed up when life takes what we perceive as a wrong turn. When something catastrophic and life-altering occurs, we begin to try and figure out what we did wrong. Maybe it's just me! :-) Tons of questions start to form and run through our minds. Did I miss something? Did I disobey God? Didn't I have enough faith? Did I doubt? Perhaps I didn't pray enough, read enough, or do  enough of something... But that's not the case at all. Storms don't come in life because we commit a sin or because we omit something. They are just part of life, period. Yesterday, we talked about Jonah . He did find himself in a storm and the belly of a whale because he disobeyed God, I'll admit. However, let's look at a New Testament account where obedience sent the disciples right into a storm. In Matthew 14, Jesus told  the disciples to get into the boat and go across the sea. He did not warn them about a storm. He did not prepare them by telling them ...

Do you think it odd that right in the middle of the wilderness, God instructed Moses and the Children of Israel to build a mobile Tabernacle? I mean seriously. He just rescued them from centuries of brutal slavery, and they are traveling across the wilderness toward the Promise Land. In the middle of their journey, God effectively added "one more thing" to their overloaded plate. Why would He do that? I think that He knew they'd been locked in a mental cave. Think about it, the generations coming out of Egypt had never known anything but slavery. They had known oppression, mistreatment, and probably dealt with depression a lot. I suspect they dealt with what we would call PTSD today. Yet, here they are, free and headed toward the land God is giving them, and He has them stop and construct the Tabernacle. Why? God said that He wanted a place to meet with them. He was getting Egypt, bondage, and the slave mentality out of them and soaking them in His grace and mercy. He wan...

  It's too bad that a picture-perfect world only exists in our imaginations. Of course, we have movies, TV, and books where we can enjoy that perfect world in our minds, even if it is only temporarily. Don't we love stories where the good guys always win, the girl finds the love of her life, and daddies always come home? Too bad life doesn't always play out in a "they lived happily ever after" scenario, right? One thing I love about the Bible is the stories tell us just how it happened. There's no sugarcoating or smoothing things over. The writers, inspired by God, didn't try to make our heroes out to be perfect. We have the stories and the characters just as they were in real life. Those of us who live in picture-imperfect worlds need  to see the blunt realities the Bible portrays. We need to see how God's grace carried them through, even when they messed up - and boy, did they! It's okay  - I mess up too. As my thoughts ran through so many of my ...

 Caregiving is a journey on a road that has many hills and valleys. Some parts of the journey can seem like the hills and valleys are all bumped up next to each other, and there are no breaks in between. This is a pretty accurate description of one day. Sometimes, it explains the emotions of an hour. And sometimes, even less time can occur between the highs and lows. Highs and lows for caregivers can be in so many areas, and even all at the same time. Wins and losses all add up and we just hope that at the end of the day we are in the red emotionally. No matter how the day's game plays out  - we all want the W in the end! TheW, in sports terms, is the Win, ultimate victory! Everything doesn't have to run smoothly, and it doesn't have to be the greatest day ever - we just need to feel like we won the day as we crawl into bed each night. When David was at Ziklag, he was in one of his lowest moments. He'd been rejected by the Philistine army, as the lead commander didn...

 I love the Psalms. The psalmists are all so open, raw, and real with their emotions. Reading the Psalms has let me know that it's okay to tell God anything  and everything.  During my growing up years, I was toted off to church any time there was a service. Sometimes, we traveled, and I got to miss school to attend minister's meetings with my mom. I learned so much at the height of the Charismatic move. I wouldn't trade anything for that upbringing. As the movement evolved, we found ourselves in the middle of the Faith movement. I've seen some of the greats like Lester Sumrall and Pop Hagin many times.  But the "faith movement" was lacking a bit and got off center. It was indirectly taught that if we had faith, we didn't get sick, we wouldn't be poor, and bad things wouldn't happen to us. You can imagine my personal conflict when I got sick. And when my son had his wreck, and I started my caregiving journey, it took some time to reshape and redefi...