Daily Devotions for Caregivers

Following Paul's advice in Colossians 3:2 can be difficult for the caregiver; beneficial, but difficult. He told us to set your mind on things above - Our days are filled with tons of caregiving tasks to do and when life itself is blaring in your face it can be difficult to set our minds on things above . Any given day our minds can be full and busy getting tasks associated with caregiving lined up and done. Take my week for example. It's the last week of the month and it seems like all the health professionals wait until the very last second to do their visits. Then they expect m to jump through hoops rearranging things to make room for them in an already tight schedule. Fortunately and unfortunately they are all doing them today. A new aide, the doctor and the case manager are all coming today. I don't see getting anything done today. These kinds of busy days it can be difficult to get your mind on anything other than just surviving. How am I supposed to be able to ...

As a caregiver, we can play many roles and wear lots of hats all at the same time. People looking in often don't realize that there is a lot more to us than just caregiving - even though it consumes a lot of our lives. Sometimes I feel totally scattered; my thoughts and life feel like they are going in many different directions all at once. The caregiver can be caught in a very fractured life. Colossians 2:10 says that we are complete in Him.  Even though our lives can feel shattered or scattered, and we don't enjoy some of the "freedoms" others seem to have, we are not fractured.  We are whole. In many instances caregiving brought hurt and confusion into our lives and quite honestly, in many cases it never goes away we just learn to deal. I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that this is what my life looks like from here on out. And one of my biggest challenges is trying to prepare for when I'm gone. It's not a fun thought - but it has to...

In many instances, caregivers can feel out of touch or out of sync with the "real" world simply because most of our lives are lived in a cave. We can tend to be on either side of the spectrum. One, we are trapped there; or two, we feel safer in our caregiver's cave even though we are alone. Personally, there have been periods of time when I didn't have the capability to get out and there have been times I've preferred being tucked away in mu cave. But God's word does not know any boundaries whether they exist only in our mind, or if they are an invisible barrier we put up ourselves. God can reach all the way into the depths of despair. He can see past the walls we build to keep ourselves in, and others out. His love can reach all the way into our life-mangled hearts. In Colossians 1:5-6, Paul is speaking to the Christian believers when he says that the Word of God bears fruit from the time we first hear it. And guess what! His word does not stop bearing ...

Philippians 4:19 is going to finish out our little journey through Philippians. My God will supply all your need  according to His riches in glory. Those of us who grew up in church know we learned this one early on. It was also used by our parents when we didn't get or couldn't have something we wanted. As we learn to be content in Him and with Him as we talked about in yesterday's devotion, our list of needs begin to shrink. I think some of that comes with age too as we learn to distinguish the things that have true value. We all have the same basic needs like food, shelter and love; but beyond that our needs can vary greatly. 1 Timothy 6:6 reminds us that godliness with contentment is great gain. I have to admit that during this caregiving journey I've had some very tight almost suffocating financial situations. Anxious thoughts try to take over my mind and infiltrate my life. But in those moments I stop and talk myself through it by saying things like I have foo...

Caregiving is one of the hardest things I've ever done; and I've done a lot of "above average" things. I have started and ran my own freelance business, taught junior high math, hiked 10 mile wilderness trails and run a marathon. I also got rid of all my stuff at one point and picked up and moved half way across the country all by myself to stay with people I had never met. But as I read this familiar scripture one more time, it didn't seem to fit exactly like it did before. In Philippians 4:13 Paul says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Paul wrote it while sitting in jail. He wrote it to encourage the Philippians. What did he really mean? If we look at it contextually, it might not mean what we thought. We've used it for every tight spot in life and for an encouragement to get things done that we thought we couldn't do. While that might not be a bad thing, it doesn't seem to be the context of the verse. Looking at the enti...

I enjoy taking pictures of nature and BC (before caregiving) I used to enjoy hiking. One of the things I liked so much about being out in the wilderness area was when nature would surprise me with a burst of color. It was always amazing to me how I'd be in the deep woods miles from anything, maybe even climbing a relatively rough terrain scattered with rocks and out of nowhere would pop up the daintiest little flowers. It always made me smile. This morning when I was looking for some sort of picture to put here I had my choice between just 2 or 3 I'd taken from my small backyard. Then I had this thought, none of these flowers are there - not one of them exists today. It almost made me sad to think that they are just here for a short time and then they faded away. it can seem like our whole lives are that way at times. Honestly, sometimes I feel really cheated  by life. It can seem like I had several spots in my life where there were colorful bursts  only to be denied my ...

Be anxious for nothing.  That's what Paul told the believers in Philippians 4:6. Obviously they didn't have a handicap van and people parking in the way of the lift in a clearly marked restricted area! (People wrongfully taking handicap spots is one of my pet peeves btw.) As a caregiver you know how anxious life can be at times, or all the times sometimes. Surely Paul would rethink these instructions were he here today, or maybe he wouldn't.  Every single day there are constant opportunities to be anxious, sometimes it even feels like we are living anxious. If we do not guard ourselves we can be one huge bundle of anxious as we walk through the day. And it can take the smallest thing to cause us to explode. One of the strategies I use for dealing with anxious thoughts is to turn them into prayers. Sometimes, when I remember, I turn them into thankful prayers. Then not only do I have peace in my heart, but His peace invades it as well. And when I give Him these crazy, ...