Daily Devotions for Caregivers

 Do you ever feel like you've finally fallen off the cliff and you and your emotions are spiraling out of control? Yeah, me too. The day-to-days of caregiving are enough without unpleasant surprises being tossed into the mix, right? If our loved one is struggling in some way or they become ill, or any number of things can send us spiraling off into an emotional cyclone. It's important to know we are not alone. As I was thinking about some recent events and how they affected me and my emotions - I came to a conclusion. It's not the things we can control that send us off into emotional lala land. It's the things we can't control. The things out of our control that tip the scale against us. And for caregivers, that can be a LOT of things. And they can all come at one time. Unfair. Each day it can be a struggle when it comes to managing emotions. I must say that there are times when they get the best of me. I feel what I feel though. The feelings are not the problem, it

  A few weeks ago, I did a live video for Facebook and one of the clips I made I titled, "God lives in this mess." I talk a lot about how He is not afraid of our messy, topsy-turvy lives. He crawls right up in the middle of it all and brings all that He has to the table. Nothing is left behind. Grace. Peace. Mercy. It all comes with. This morning as I continued reading in Ephesians, I found this verse in chapter 3. Verse 17 in the New Living Translation says, And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts  as you trust in Him. I couldn't help but wonder if God (Christ) is really comfortable in my heart. Then, the video came to mind and I started thinking about what I'd said - God lives in this mess. My mess. He's not scared. He's not put off. He's not wondering what to do and how long it'll be before He can get out of it. Lol. Sometimes, depending on our situation and our loved one's condition, it can be difficult to get out. F

The truth that God is with us comes up a lot in our Caregiver's blog. There's a good reason for that, actually. We need  to know we are not alone. We need  to know that God sees and hears us. We need to know that He is with us. Caregivers like myself often need to be reminded (over and over again) that God doesn't ignore us like people. He doesn't abandon or leave when the going gets tough. He just stays right here in our "here" no matter how it looks or feels. He's not afraid of "being with." This morning, I read and reread Ephesians 1. There is so much in that chapter! But the last verse is where I got all the "feels." Verse 23 says, ...the church...is filled by Christ, who fills everything, everywhere with His presence. (NLT) Everything, everywhere would include right here... it includes me! It includes my son's room...the hospital room where we spent last week. God's presence in here. That made me think about Psalm 139, whic

  I like reading self-help books, but I'm not sure how much some of them really help. Lol. But I try. Most recently, I picked up It's Okay if You're Not Okay.  It's about grief and how we all work through the process differently. Each caregiving environment comes with its own pre-packaged grief to work through. It's complimentary and included for free. Lol. Kind of like a staff infection when you go to the hospital.. just comes along with the deal. (I'm kidding.. mostly!) As I read, I realized that I really did have a lot of unexpressed pain and grief stuffed inside - my pain was voiceless. That's when this poem popped out - I share it with you hoping you'll relate - but I'll be glad if you don't. In the midst of the pain - the grief - the sorrow - God is there. Even though this is not expressed in this poem - know that I know God is present with me. His presence isn't a remedy for pain and it doesn't make grief go away. But it does allow

  Does it ever feel like life just keeps throwing sucker punches? Sometimes even our caregiving can get into sort of a groove. We get used to the craziness, even though we know that each day can toss different things in our laps. But every once in a while it seems like it all piles up. It's no longer a lot of "smaller" things being chunked at our hearts. It's one big BAM after another. It kind of takes the wind out of our souls. Am I right? In those moments of being tee-totally overwhelmed it's hard to know what to do. Thoughts race or don't come at all. Every solution can feel wrong. Breath becomes shallow and we have lots of questions...until we don't. Breathe. That's all we can do sometimes. God gets that. He understands when we lack adequate words to express our feelings or thoughts.  He gets it when cannot see but we are still looking for Him. He sees our soul reaching for His heart from deep within the caregiver's foggy cave. I love that abou

  This past week has been one of the hardest on my caregiving journey. My son became sick suddenly and in a matter of hours was septic and in respiratory failure. Early Sunday morning his white count was barely above normal and sitting at just a little over 11. The second trip to the ER on Sunday evening revealed a WBC of 25.5. That's escalated way too quickly for me! There were many issues, but when I realized at 3 AM Sunday morning he was in respiratory distress my emotions went crazy. (He's home and doing well now btw!) My thoughts and emotions were all over the place and I kind of felt like I was betraying myself. Lol. As much as I tried, I could not reel in the fear. The questions. The racing thoughts. I was overwhelmed. I wanted to pray that God would heal Chris so that I could take him home and continue our journey. Then, that felt so selfish. Why pray that he remains in this immobile body and continues to endure the daily stress and strain of existing? But I couldn'

Does it ever seem like life just drags on? It's easy for caregivers to feel like like is a little nagging at times. Maybe for some it feels like the responsibilities and chores that go along with caregiving just keep chipping away at our hearts and souls. Each day can present opportunities to choose between trusting God and falling apart. There are times I'd like to find life's escape hatch so I can go away and hide in bliss. At least for a few minutes, right? Lol. Maybe there isn't a magic button or an escape hatch. Instead, God inserts Himself into life's equations. An equation means all sides are able to be balanced out. It sure doesn't feel like that in life though, does it? But God is the great equalizer - he can balance out our emotions, our finances, our cares, and more. Because when He steps in - nothing we see changes, but everything changes. Knowing God doesn't mean escaping the storm, struggles, or trials life throws at us. It just mean we have th

I know that as caregivers, we don't always get a lot of time to sleep. Even if we do go to sleep, we have to sleep lightly because we listen for our loved ones. We often have to get up during the wee hours of the mornings. Our loved ones may need to be turned. Maybe we need to change them. And for many caregivers, loved ones who are ambulatory like to get up and wander at night. The nighttime hours can present many challenges for caregivers.  Today, I'm thinking about sleep because I've gotten even less than normal since Saturday. My son became very ill and we went back and forth to the hospital until they hospitalized him for sepsis. That's one of the scariest words in a caregiver's vocabulary! He is no longer septic, but we are still in the hospital as he continues to recover. Not much sleep there - right! Lol. But my soul can "sleep" or rest in the middle of the storm. During my morning devotions I found myself in Acts 12. Peter has been arrested for pr

  Valient is an interesting word, and we don't use it too much anymore. I found it when I took a deeper dive into a scripture I was reading. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen  those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. (NLT, 1997) It's a familiar scripture, but I pulled out the Strong's app and looked at the Hebrew words in the verse. "Strengthen" was the one word I focused on, and it was interesting to say the least. It is a primary root (H2388) and has a long list of ways it could have been translated, and they are all really good. But the next to last phrase is what caught my attention. " Take (hold), be (urgent), behave self (valiantly) - withstand.  Valiantly stood out from all the other terms, and I had to look it up to make sure I had the proper meaning. It basically means to be courageous and determined in the face of struggles or difficulties. Hm... pretty much describes the caregivers I kn

Our daily routine includes breathing treatments in the morning and at night. I have to sit right beside my son to ensure the mask stays in place. He sometimes yawns or moves and it'll end up on his forehead or chin... lol Not effective. So, I have to stay close to make sure he gets the medicine properly. Yesterday, I decided to grab my guitar and sit nearby so I could play a little since I can't do much except watch him for 16 loooong minutes. I pulled the bar stool over to his bedside and just started playing and singing. (poor guy! lol) As I went through some older worship songs I realized that God's holiness hadn't changed a bit. These older songs about His holiness, His love, His grace, mercy, and the cross are still relevant. It was quite calming to realize that God didn't lose anything when I became a caregiver. His grace didn't start leaking out and His mercy didn't run out. I thought, He is still holy. My circumstances don't dictate or change His

  Tired and sleepy are not the same thing. Some evenings, I am exhausted, but not sleepy. I don't like that combination, because my brain is still running 100 miles per hour but my body says, no. It's totally unproductive. But when I am tired and sleepy, I am totally useless. My body is down for the count and it will not rise until it has to, if I'm lucky enough for a quiet moment. Yesterday, we talked about how God never sleeps. He watches over our souls constantly and intently. He's intimately connected to us and is invested in our care. But He also doesn't get tired of doing it. I can imagine not getting sleepy - I actually have a love-hate relationship with sleep. I do NOT like wasting the time, but my body insists. Lol. God doesn't get sleepy or tired! Psalm 121:4 says the One who watches over us will not sleep and will not get tired.  He loves to watch over His children and never gets tired of doing it. In Isaiah 40:28 the prophet reminds us that God never

 I've heard it said that Chicago is the town that never sleeps. That's where I was living when my son had his accident and I had to fly out of O'Hare back to Louisiana to be with him. I can agree that the town never sleeps, there is always something going on no matter what time of day or night. One of my friends said I loved Chicago so much because for the first time in my life I lived in a city that had as much energy as me. Lol. I have no argument.  In the second part of Psalm 121:3, the psalmist says that the One who watches over us doesn't sleep. As a parent, I can relate in that I loved to watch my babies sleep. Chris is 40 now, and I still offer up a huge sigh of contentment when I see he is resting well. I'm pretty sure God watches us while we sleep too - and He watches when we don't get the benefit of sleeping. Can my caregiver friends relate? Raise a hand! In my vivid imagination, I think God is hovering over me while I'm snoozing. Maybe, just maybe

  When I find a scripture that speaks particularly loud to me - I camp there. So, we are still in Psalm 121 today and will be for a few more days. I've read it several times since I wrote yesterday's post. Lol. The first part of verse 3 kind of stumped me, though. The psalmist says He (the One who made heaven and earth - the One who keeps us) will not let you stumble and fall...  I had to think about that a bit. I feel like I fall a lot and stumble even more lately. Caregiving takes its toll and it's easy to get swept away underneath the load. But eventually, I reach my hand out of the dark abyss my soul is in to find that God's hand is already in place to pull me right out of the mess. I don't think this verse means we never mess up. I don't think it means we don't ever get swept away in emotions, decisions, or other aspects caregiving may bring up. It does mean that God will not let them overcome us and keep us down. Proverbs 24:16 says that the righteous

They say that hindsight is 20/20. When we look back on things we've done or experienced it is so clear what we should  have done or what we could have done. That's not really a negative, it's just one of those things in life that happens. Sometimes we just can't see clearly enough until time has distanced us from the situation and our emotions.  Afterthought can be a powerful positive, too. We often think that the afterthought  has a negative connotation. But I'm thinking that an afterthought can be powerful. It can catapult us into the next victory - even if it came out of a negative experience. Right now, I'm thinking an afterthought may just be an exclamation point on the end of an experience. In Psalm 121:2, the writer says this. My help comes from the Lord ... I'm pretty sure none of us have an argument against that. As caregivers, we rarely do what we do in our own strength, because quite frankly, it ran out a long time ago. Last week, we talked about

  For those who are acting as caregivers to loved ones with health issues, it can be extremely difficult to provide a comforting environment for their loved ones and maintain financial security. Many people who are taking care of their family members end up spending quite a bit of their own money during the process, leaving their finances in shambles. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re taking care of your own needs while making sure your loved one is safe and comfortable. Even when setting your home up for the care process, set it up for your self-care by increasing natural lighting, adding plants, and giving yourself a designated space to relax and meditate. It’s not always easy, but with these tips,  you can create a plan that works for you and your loved one.   Continue Working   Many caregivers feel they must give up their day jobs in order to take care of their loved one full-time, but this can put a serious strain on your finances quickly. Instead, look for a