Daily Devotions for Caregivers

 I'm an honest person, and I'll be the first to tell you that my responses are not always that great. In fact, I fail in that area a LOT! My first response is pretty much to freak out. Then, when I think it all through and finally pray, I'll act a little better.  Maybe, just maybe, I've gotten a little better over the last nearly 18 years of caregiving.  When we are thrust into crazy situations, our responses can be hectic, unpredictable, and extreme. Once we walk it out a little bit, some of the craziness of caregiving becomes normal to us. That's sad, right? LOL. But I think we don't tend to freak out quite as fast as we think it through and develop a solution. That's because caregivers are awesome problem solvers and critical thinkers. The nature of what we do demands it.  This week, I've been exploring some responses in the Bible. First, I looked at the Children of Israel. God comes in with His strong arm and rescues them out of bondage. As they jour...

 We are still slowly moving through Isaiah 49. When I find something in the scriptures that really speaks to me, I just camp there. This chapter is so full of God's passionate pursuit of us. It's loaded with His compassion and comfort. Right here in the middle of the Old Testament! Imagine that.  Today, I am focusing on verse 13. In the NLT, it says Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted  His people and will have compassion  on them in their sorrow.   Several things stand out to me in this verse. First, I love the full-spectrum command for all of creation to respond. Why? Because God has comforted His people and had compassion on them. But not just compassion. He shows compassion to them in their sorrow. I love that because you almost can't have caregiving without some level of grief.  We may be watching our loved one fade slowly away day after day. Or we may suffer the "loss" of our loved one who...

 It's easy for life to feel like a wilderness. I will say that my mental image and definition of a wilderness changed when I used to hike the Kistachie National Forest wilderness areas. I thought it was going to be barren, dry, and empty. I was surprised to find it natural, full, and living. Wilderness doesn't mean there is nothing there.  A quick look at the online dictionary reveals wilderness to mean: uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable. Yup. That's about right. At least the 7-mile trail I loved to hike was that way! It had abundant plants, animals, and beautiful natural features to enjoy. But it was a rough hike filled with climbing, sliding, and crossing small waterways. It was the challenge that drew me to hike it over and over again! In Isaiah 49:11, God tells Isaiah that He will make mountains into level paths... and that He'll raise the highways above the valleys. Sounds like to me that He's going to smooth out the path in the wilderness.  What I no...

We do what we do out of genuine love. Caring for our loved ones is our number one priority. It's so easy for us to get lost in the process, which means that as caregivers, we deal with social isolation. The loss of our social life can weigh heavily on us, even if we can get out and about some; there are times we feel imprisoned by our circumstances. Personally, I've missed weddings to funerals, and everything in between, because of caregiving duties and a lack of help. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts. That's why this phrase in Isaiah 49:9 grabbed my attention. This chapter is Isaiah's commission from the Lord. God is giving him instructions and explaining the mission. Part of this mission is to tell the prisoners of darkness to come out into freedom. (NLT) As I read that phrase, prisoners of darkness  I felt like I could relate on some level. Of course, this is talking about stepping from darkness into the light and the basics of salvation. (IMO) But on ...

 We don't always get answers to our questions, do we? It's impossible for us to understand why some things happen or why they happened a certain way. Just because there are unanswered questions running around in our minds, it doesn't mean God hasn't responded. Maybe He didn't respond like we thought He would, or with the response we thought we were going to get. In Isaiah 49:8, God tells the prophet, I will respond to you. He goes on to say, I will help you. If I'm totally honest, God's help, which I am very thankful for, doesn't look like what I expected or desired. David understood that God was his help.  In Psalm 121, he declares,  " My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth!   Isaiah and David both knew the source of help. But it can certainly look different for each of us. It can even look different from one day to the next.  As caregivers, there is a lot on our proverbial plates. We have to wear many hats. We are caregive...

 No matter how long you've been a caregiver, you can probably think back to times when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God gave you strength. Here in Isaiah 49:5, Isaiah says, my God has given me strength. (NLT) I've often wondered how people who do not know or trust in God walk through seasons like this. For me, God has been my constant confidant. A confidant is more than a good friend. It's someone you can trust with everything. And we know that God sees everything. He knows everything  - and still chooses to hang around. LOL.  Early on, I realized that I couldn't find strength in any other source. People tried to encourage me, and just as many walked away, unsure of how to help or what to do. There were a few who directly or indirectly acted like I had no faith or this wouldn't have happened.  I'll admit that at first I struggled a lot with questions like, Where is God, now? I really had trusted Him with my kids, and it looked like and felt like He...

Family caregivers often carry a quiet load: steady caregiving responsibilities, constant decisions, and the emotional stressors that come with loving someone who needs ongoing help. Caregiver stress challenges can show up as irritability, numbness, guilt, worry, or a shaky sense of faith when there’s no room left to breathe. When every day feels urgent, rest can start to feel selfish, and support can feel out of reach. Naming this pressure matters because the importance of stress management isn’t about doing more; it’s about staying well enough to keep showing up with patience, clarity, and hope. Understanding What’s Driving Your Caregiver Stress It helps to put a clear name to what’s weighing you down. Caregiver stress often comes from a few repeat sources: time getting squeezed, emotions running on empty, too little help, and the early signs of burnout. This matters because stress relief works better when it matches the real problem. If your strain is mostly scheduling and coor...

Get used to Isaiah 49, I feel like camping here for a while! LOL. Even though Isaiah mentions how God has made his words of judgment like a sharp sword, he also realizes the loving care of Father God. In yesterday's blog, Before Before ,  we talked about how God saw and called Isaiah while he was still in the womb. That's some serious forethought, huh?  In verse two, Isaiah says that God has hidden me in the shadow of His hand.  (NLT) As a prophet, Isaiah knows his call is to proclaim the words of God. Sometimes those are judgment calls, sometimes not so much. Ultimately, even when proclaiming impending judgment (Ninevah and Jonah), the call is for people to repent. God's ultimate desire is for us to return to Him.   This is what caught my attention in this chapter. God's talking to His people, heart-to-heart, and He is offering hope right in the middle of their struggles. (Boy, that sounds familiar, now!) It's easy to read the Old Testament and picture God as a har...

 The Old Testament sometimes gets a bad rap. Maybe it's because we don't always see the thread of grace that runs through it. I mean, some of those OT prophets can seem a bit harsh, asking people to repent and all. But even in the midst of what seems legalistic, if we look a little deeper, we'll find God's grace actively at work. Recently, I found myself in Isaiah 49. I have it all marked up, with several things specifically underlined and outlined in the chapter. I couldn't believe there was so much grace shining through these verses. If you have a minute, go read the whole chapter. We're going to walk through it for the next few days. In the first two verses, Isaiah acknowledges that God knew and called him from the womb. We can draw a parallel here to Psalm 139, where David talks about how God watched us form in the womb. Isaiah got that too! I love that Isaiah adds a more personal flair by saying, from within the womb, He called me by name.  What a great pic...

  Ever hear the phrase, gracefully broken? Yeah? That's not me. Oh, I can put on a front so no one knows or sees how shattered my heart and emotions are - but I'm not so graceful sometimes. As caregivers, we never know what is going to come at us any given day. And while I know that I have HIS all-sufficient grace  for each and every day, I don't always handle things in a super graceful way. One little hiccup, and I lose it. It can be anything! Literally! From spilled coffee (hey, that's serious!) to unwashed dishes waiting for their turn in the dishwasher. Little things from not being able to find the perfect temperature to bigger things like heart attacks can send my emotions off and leave me trying to reel them back in. I've laughed about struggling to open a trash bag. Hey, the struggle is real!  The frustrations often come from feelings of brokenness. My outbursts indicate that I am "not-so-gracefully" broken at times. But what I love about God is tha...

                         Ever have those times when you feel all puttered out ? For me, it can happen at any time with no warning at all. I can be rocking along, getting things done, and BAM! It seems like all of a sudden, my emotions are spent. I'm mentally drained, and I need a lifelong nap. It feels like I am living Psalm 62:3... So many enemies against one person! And all of them are trying to kill me! (My loose translation!) Overwhelm is real for caregivers. Sometimes, it feels like it's mid-afternoon before we can take a deep breath. Just caregiving can be overwhelming, but then there are the dishes, the laundry, meal prep, and daily household tasks that take an extra toll, besides taking care of another whole human being. And then if the caregiver works at another job, even if it's at home...it all stacks up. Until we are all puttered out. I'm glad for this description David gives us in Psalm 62. He had ph...