Daily Devotions for Caregivers

Hebrews 11 has been called the Hall of Faith  since it lists so many of our spiritual ancestors who trusted God and had faith long before us. After going through this long list of our Bible heroes, the first verse of Hebrews 12 reminds us to consider this cloud of witnesses of a life of faith. As I look back through the list, I see a lot of people who trusted God even though they faced difficult circumstances. No two stories are the same, but they all demonstrated faith in God. Even Rahab made the list of faithers. She never could quite shake the subtitle of "the harlot," could she. Even here, the writer of Hebrews states that it was through faith that Rahab the harlot  didn't die in Jericho. Her faith rescued her and her family.  Looking through this list that contains Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, and Samuel, so many stories come to mind. These guys and gals were not perfect by any stretch. Yet they are listed here as having faith. Even Gideon, who led t...

  I think most of us can agree that it isn't eternity that we are worried about. As believers, we've already secured that package deal! It's what we are carrying through time that weighs us down. It's the day-to-day responsibilities associated with caring for others that drags our souls (mind, will, emotions) through hell and back. Of course, we look forward to the "sweet by and by." But what about the nasty now and now? This morning, I was reading in Jeremiah.  In chapter 9, verses 23-24, the prophet says this:  Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, or the mighty man in his might, or the rich man in his riches. Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand I am the Lord who is just and righteous, whole love is unfailing , and I delight in these things. Physical strength, riches, worldly wisdom - none of these will do us any good once we step out of time and into eternity. Knowing God, worship, and people will stand the test of both ...

 If you look at a musical piece, you may notice the key signature. It provides all you need to know about how the piece should be played. It indicates the key the piece is written in, the tempo, and the time signature. If you've listened to any classical music, you've probably heard the Flight of the Bumblee. The musical notes are played in such a way that it makes you think of the way bumblebees fly and flit around quickly.  The notes, played quickly by skillful musicians, seem to fly from the instrument out into the air as fingers fly across the instrument to create this audible illusion. It's a fun piece - but it is fast. That's because the key signature for Flight of the Bumblebee indicates a tempo of 94 bpm and a time signature of 3 beats per bar. That's a note and a half played each second! It can be a fun piece to play and to watch be played, for sure. I heard the song last night as it was used in a movie my son and I were watching together. So, it piqued my ...

  The last week has been a blur. However, that's not really too uncommon, right? The good thing is that there haven't been any extra catastrophes or quick runs to the ER! It's just been life - caregiving life and it's eaten my lunch... Has it ever felt like life is a swarm of bees? For me, sometimes, it's my thoughts. I know I'm an overthinker, and my friend Mary used to say my mind was like Google. Just one word and hundreds of tabs open, ready to go in any direction. Lol. My thoughts can be like a swarm of bees that come faster than I can defend. Sometimes, it feels like the responsibilities of being a caregiver do the same thing. And, of course, there are times when it's all dive-bombing my mind and emotions. Can anyone say #overwhelm? It's not like caregiving is easy to navigate anyway, without feeling like there are thousands of bees (thoughts, tasks, calls, visits, chores, work projects) sitting just out of view. We can't see them, but we hear ...

 One of the things about caregiving is that it's never done. It's not a job where you can clock out and go home to your "real" life and leave work behind. It's very soul-consuming. It's all the time. That is why caregiver burnout is such a real problem. Even if you get something that looks like time away, you're still on call and ready if needed. The wound is always fresh, somehow. I stood in my son's bedroom door this morning, watching him breathe and sleep. Parents just do that, right? He looked so peaceful and was resting well. Then I had this deluge of thoughts go through my head. Why him? Why did this have to happen and strip away all that he was?    I recall sitting across the table from my daddy and him asking some of the same things when my mom had slipped further into dementia. With tears in his eyes, he asked me,  Why your mom? She was so sweet. She never hurt anyone and helped so many people. I had no answer, of course. Just shared a few tea...

  Caregivers are acquainted with grief and loss in many ways. Some of us became caregivers following a tragedy. Sometimes, we kind of grow into caregiving as parents or other loved ones begin to age. It is quite the transition for caregiving to become our norm as it begins to shape and rearrange our lives and whole worlds. People tend to show compassion at first. As life went on, everyone went back to living life; we were at a standstill. It took time to find a new normal. But we all did. Once caregiving became our norm, it's like everyone else just moved on - it was normal for us to be in the cave! Lol. They got used to it. They assimilated us into their normal.  But our entire worlds changed. We'd never be the same. For many caregivers, it's a very lonely walk. Others have friends or family members who help out. But it is still a different life for many. We can get so used to going it alone that even if someone asks if they can help on those extremely rare (if they even e...

 In yesterday's post, we talked about how His grace is sufficient for us even when we feel insufficient. Of course, we get the principle from Paul's discourse with God in 2 Corinthians 12. Paul was begging God to take away what was troubling him. God did not. Instead He assured Paul that His grace was more than enough to carry Paul through his latest trials; and he had a lot  of them! As I went through the day thinking about some changes I'm making and how life is going right now, I had to keep going back to this truth. God's grace is enough for me today. He's got me right here, right now. His grace isn't going to run out today! These are things I encouraged myself with throughout the day yesterday. I kept thinking of a song we used to sing, I'm sure it's still on the radio from time to time. It's a Chris Tomlin song More than Enough.  Last night once I had a chance, I went to find the chords in one of my music notebooks. But the notebook I needed wa...

I think any caregiver could be the poster child for overwhelm.  How about you? I'm not even going to start on my list of the things that need to be done every single day because you have a list of your own! One thing I've been trying is making a daily to-do list. I don't have enough paper to write it all down, jk. But I can write down the top things I want to make sure get done in between all the other things that need to be completed, too. It's a real rat race, isn't it? Just to add to the state of overwhelm and having too much  for a human to reasonably get done each day, there are feelings of just not being enough. I have some crazy thoughts like, If I was enough,  I could get all these things done and more. Why do we put that kind of pressure on ourselves? (Maybe it's just me!?!) All these crazy emotions swim around in my head and my heart all day long.  We have  to do this and that, but then there are those that are important, too. It all starts to look lik...

 As I was finishing up yesterday's devotion, I wanted to say that God isn't scared of the dark. I stopped myself as I knew I'd get all ramped up and just keep on writing. But my mind stayed on that thought for a large part of the day. I thought about how He is not afraid to meet us in the dark, hidden parts of our hearts and minds. Nothing gets too ugly for Him!  Our Bible heroes from yesterday were Paul and Silas, who had been put in prison for preaching the gospel. God wasn't afraid to show up and show out for them there, no matter how dark it must have been when they chose to start singing at midnight.  From there, my mind went to so many stories where God wasn't afraid of the dark. I thought about Joseph sitting in prison for something he didn't even do. God was there. I thought about Daniel being thrown into the lion's den, where he spent all night.  When the king opened the mouth of the den in the morning and asked if he was okay and if his God had sav...

 How much time do you spend every day second-guessing your decisions? I may not be able to find a specific time for that, but I know I do it a lot, and it is exhausting.  My mind runs back over every piece of the day as I wonder if I could or should have done something differently. Or better. Or worse. Lol. I "should" on myself a lot. Maybe I should have taken him to the hospital sooner. Maybe I shouldn't have taken him at all. I should have called the doctor. These scenarios can go on in my mind all day long if I let them. Second-guessing is part of caregiving, isn't it? Always wondering about the what ifs.  But second-guessing doesn't change one thing, not at all.  I wonder if some of our Bible characters did any second guessing. I was reading Acts 16 this morning. Paul and Silas thought about going to Asia, but God said, "No." Then Paul had the dream where the man asked him to come to Macedonia, and that's where they went. There were some really g...

  God sent two Josephs to Egypt. In the Old Testament, Joseph was betrayed and sold into slavery by his own family. A famine drove Joseph's family to Egypt to survive, and they dwelt there for 400 years. Fear caused horrible slavery. Pharoah was afraid that they were getting too big and too strong, and the oppression began until it turned into full-blown slavery. We often associate Egypt with oppression, fear, bondage, and slavery because of the dark years God's people spent there.  But in Matthew, God sent Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus to Egypt to protect them from Herod, who wanted to kill the baby who was destined to become king. Of course, it was all a misunderstanding because Jesus wasn't going to set up an earthly kingdom by dethroning the fleshly king. Again, fear brought adverse circumstances. As caregivers, we can deal with fear in many different arenas. For me, if I fear something, it's getting older and not being able to care for my son, who needs total ca...