Daily Devotions for Caregivers

  One thing that I absolutely love about God is that He has big shoulders. He can handle anything I need to give to Him to carry. God's not afraid of our emotions, feelings, or situations. One of the things that I have learned from the Psalms is that it is okay to say just about anything to God. He won't get mad. He won't walk away. He won't tell me to come back when I am in a better mood. He has big shoulders. Big enough to carry my struggles, problems, emotions, and me too! One psalm that helped me find this out is Psalm 13. David poured it all out before God. He turned the emotions loose and told God exactly what he was thinking and feeling.  O Lord, how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? (NLT) When I realized God not only didn't strike David down to the ground, He let it be put in the Bible, I reali...

  This morning, I was reading about Benaiah in 2 Samuel 23. He was one of David's mighty men, and these three or so verses are all we know about him. He accomplished some mighty feats, but the one that stands out is that he chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killed it. Why would you chase a lion? I shared on my FaceBook Live devotions, Peace Out, this morning how we have to chase down the things that are trying to destroy us. For example, so many things try to steal the peace we know  He gave us. We remind ourselves that God is present. He won't leave us. We also choose favorite scriptures we can use as weapons when we feel things like doubt, fear, anxiety, and any other emotion or thought trying to overtake us and drag us down. I'll post the video below. After I finished editing the video and uploading it across social media channels, I started thinking about it a bit more. As a caregiver, sometimes I'm just tired. Other times, I am too tired. And other days, ...

 In 2 Samuel 22 verse 49, David says, God held me safe beyond the reach of my enemies; you save me from violent opponents.  (NLT) This verse grabbed my attention this morning, and I've been thinking about it. Now, fortunately, we don't often fight physical enemies like David did. But today, we don't have to be up against physical people to be valiant warriors. I dare say that any caregiver is  a warrior. We may not fight physically, but our enemies and opponents can definitely launch violent attacks against our souls! Maybe we aren't facing a man holding a sword, but we do face many enemies on many fronts daily as caregivers. For some, it's a financial enemy. Perhaps for others is it physical illness or weakness in their own bodies. Sometimes, it is pure old doubt or fear that tries to wreak havoc in our minds and hearts. There's no doubt that there is a battle, many battles, and they are daily. The good news is that God keeps us just out of the reach of their d...

 I found myself in Psalm 118:24 this morning. It's a familiar scripture that we used to sing in the Charismatic days. This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. The funny thing I saw this morning is that the scripture is sandwiched between verses that are prophetically describing the sacrifice of Christ. I never thought about it before. It was a popular chorus back in the day, but had I known we were singing indirectly about the crucifixion, it might have changed how I sang it.  My thoughts camped out on how God made, predetermined, and planned the crucifixion and knew just where He was putting it in time. He made the day. But He also made the day that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. He made the day you would be born, too. Today was also made by God. God has given us our days on earth. Some of them are wonderful days. We celebrate birthdays, especially the days our kids were born. Milestones are celebrated, graduations, marriages, the day we met our...

 I don't know about you, but my days can become overwhelming quickly. It usually starts with my hyperactive mind running through all the things I should do today. All the things I need to do today and a realistic look at what I might be able to accomplish today. If I am not careful, I will end up sinking into the emotional mire and getting about half of what needs to be done completed. The good news is that I have found a couple of strategies that help me keep going so that at least the essentials are done. One of these strategies is to focus on the day's tasks one at a time, little by little. It's so easy for the list to grow and start casting a shadow on my day, and the funny (not haha funny, either) thing is that it usually starts while I am doing  the caregiving stuff. Usually, I make a list and have things running in my mind, but when I go into my son's room to start the morning get-up-and-going routine, my mind starts running away, and my heart stops dropping at h...

Well, it's morning, so here we are, starting a new day—one that looks like every other day yet oddly can change on a dime. Sometimes, it can feel like the movie Groundhog Day (which I've never watched, by the way!). But at any moment, everything can change, and it can mean a run to the hospital, changing things around because the aid didn't show (again), or any number of things that can catapult us into an emotional upheaval. Since caregivers tend to live on the edge and not in the fun way, it doesn't usually take much to tip us emotionally. Seriously, it's barely past eight o'clock and I'm digging down deep to find a way to let His peace reign over my racing thoughts and tight emotions. But you know what? He gets me. He gets us. He sees it all, down to every nagging little thing digging at the peace He put in our hearts. So, what's a caregiver to do? When things roll over us and wash out our emotions over and over - we just keep running to Him over and ...

  Do you ever just find yourself sitting and staring at the wall? It doesn't really happen too often because, quite frankly, who has time for that? But there are times during extreme burnout when I feel like I could sit, stare at the wall, and drink coffee all day long. I'm tired of strategizing about my day. I'm totally over all the mundane tasks that have to be done over and over again - but never get "done." My brain is fried trying to figure out which job to invest my time in and who is actually going to pay me on time. I am pretty sure I cannot do one more load of laundry or make one more meal. I'm fried and the stare has overtaken me and my brain. Lol. I really hope you cannot relate! As caregivers, we have so much on our plates. Yes, I said "plates" because we have more than one full plate to manage and deal with every single day. Caregiving is usually just the biggest plate that's piled high. There's our finances, work, self-care (wha...

 Do you ever feel like your days are filled with heroic juggling acts? I do. Then there are days that the juggling isn't so heroic. Actually, that's most days because it seems I'm always backed into a corner trying to figure out the must-dos and what can waits. Maybe I'm just a bad juggler. Lol. There are so many things for a caregiver to do each day. Things do have to be prioritized. And if you, like me, are trying to juggle caregiving, work, and ministry, well, some days just don't end well. Or at least I end them feeling like a huge failure. One thing I have learned is to shift my focus from the things I chose to leave undone to the things I did accomplish in a day. It ended up being a big help for my mental health. I can spend my evening in the mully-grubs, thinking about the list of items I did not finish. Or, I can change the narrative and begin to list all the things I did  get done that day. Our days are filled with shifting moments, aren't they? We have...

 I was listening to some new releases this morning from Zach Williams and Nicole C. Mullen. Over the years, I've written some songs. I'm not a great singer and definitely just get by as a musician. As I listened to these two outstanding artists, I had the thought that I'd never write a song the world would sing. I'm okay with that. But immediately following that thought was another one. It was how I will always have a place in the King's court. I sing for the One who matters. I'm quite okay with that too! Thoughts of my seemingly broken life ran through my head. Not one second of my life was missed by God, including caregiving. No matter what happens or doesn't happen in life, we still have a place in His courts. My mind went to Mephibosheth. He was Saul's grandson and lived a large portion of his life in hiding and in fear. But David sought him out and gave him his rightful place in the king's court. (2 Samuel 9) Mephibosheth had a caregiver. When t...

  Yesterday, I thought a lot about distractions. I was thinking about some of our Bible heroes and how they got distracted from what God had said. First, I thought about Samson. He was totally distracted by Delilah. The important part of that story is that God still fulfilled the promise He had given about Samson. The distraction didn't change God's mind about using Samson. In 1 Kings 13, a young prophet was given precise instructions from the Lord. He let an older prophet distract him from what God had said. It ultimately cost the young prophet his life. A simple distraction. There can be many distractions in our lives, and caregiving can hold our attention and efforts, for sure. But what if we turned the distractions, even those that come with caregiving, into drivers? What do I mean? I think I mean that it's so easy to get distracted by our day-to-days, but we can use those distractions, and caregiving in particular, as drivers. A driver is the total opposite of a distra...

 One of the biggest life-changing realizations that I have learned on this caregiving journey is that God is unchanged. He didn't throw in the towel when Chris had the wreck. He didn't explain that He no longer knew what was going on and so He'd be stepping down and relinquishing the throne. He stayed God. And more than that - He didn't change one iota. This world would be in a huge mess if God changed in response to my thoughts and emotions. It would be more than a crazy place! lol.  Early on, while we were in the hospital for those initial four months, it dawned on me that God was unchanged. And even though it felt like my heart, hope, faith, and all light and life had been ripped out of my soul - He was still the same. It did take me some time to redefine my faith - and it took me even longer to find a way to trust God again, but He patiently waited until I calmed down and brought it all back to Him. That's when I realized He'd been the one who wiped the tear...

This morning, I was reading about Caleb in the book of Joshua. I kind of let my mind camp there in the passage in chapter 14. This is the part of the story where the Children of Israel are taking the land that God had promised to give them when they first left Egypt. Caleb was one of the 12 spies sent over to check out the promised land. Of those 12 spies, 10 brought back a bad report based on fear and what they saw. But Joshua and Caleb, who saw the exact same things as the other 10, said they could take the land. The people believed the negative report instead of what God had said. That's why they started a 40-year trek in the wilderness. In chapter 14, the 40-year excursion has ended and Caleb is standing at the foot of the mountain God promised him for bringing back a good report, one based on faith, not the circumstances. He begins explaining to Joshua (who, remember, was the other spy who brought back a faith-filled report) that God has been with him, and he has followed God ...