I love how God's grace never changes. When Paul found himself in difficult circumstances, he asked God three times for relief. (2 Corinthians 12) A breif look back at chapter 11 lets us know some of the trials Paul had faced. Caregiving's hard, but I haven't been in a shipwreck! Caregiving is tough, but I've never been beaten with rods. Caregiving is difficult, but I've never been robbed. Looking through his list somehow takes the sting out of my own. However, Paul was never where we are either. Which is actually good news. It means when God told him that His grace was sufficient for his crazy circumstances and difficultites - we can apply it to ours as well. No matter what we face God's grace can match it! I love that.
As caregivers our thoughts and emotions can be all over the place in a matter of seconds. It's not unusual to have extreme joy followed by extreme sorrow, followed by extreme anxiety, and end up in peace. This cyclical activity can go on and on and on. Lol. God's grace is able to keep up with our extremes, and even stay ahead of it sometimes - and that's saying a lot!
Do you ever have down days? I know I do. They are just times that emotions seem hard to pull up. Some of us may cry or scream for relief. God's grace is enough to meet us in the lowest moments.
Do you ever have super-hero days? I do sometimes. I find myself taking the situation or the day by the horns and wrestling it down. Then I turn around and say, hand me my cape. Lol. It's a silly analogy, but there are a few times when we advocate for our loved one and win, or we finally get a breakthrough in finances, or something, anything, goes right for a change. We can get just as caught up in that moment as we can in the lower moments. But God's got grace for that too.
His grace is enough to raise us up when we feel like we are on the absolute bottom. But it's also grace enough to sustain us when we kick into "I can do it on my own" mode. Even if we don't realize it, His grace is there to sustain us - because we'll soon realize we ain't all that. That's when we need His grace.
Today, I will be thankful that His grace is sufficient for the eb and flow of caregiving emotions. I'm particularly grateful that His grace never leaves us high and dry, no matter what. My thoughts will be on His abundant, endless, extreme grace that He designed to perfectly fit my situation today. Whether I feel like I've lost it all or won it all - I'll remind myself that His grace is enough for my extremes, so I can trust Him for one more day. Will you join me?
I closed my bookstore to save the expense - but I'm in the process of moving the books all over to my Amazon bookshelf. I added a few Kindle books last night, with more to come. Check out my Amazon boookstore.
This is excellent. I lead a Parkinson Caregiver group -- and I'm sharing it with my weary caregivers. Thank you so very much!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found the blog, I hope it can be useful for building hope and encouraging other caregivers. Thanks for letting me know about your group, that's awesome! And as always, thanks for reading!
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