Daily Devotions for Caregivers

It seems kind of funny for a caregiver to be exploring this being quiet  thing since our lives are pretty much anything but  that, doesn't it? I mean, come on, most of us get up before the sun to get our daily stuff started and we retire long after the rest of the world is down for the night. There's just a lot to do, period. Add to the "regular" stuff the fact that this is the last week of the month and all the "regular" people like nurses and case managers want to get their visits in all at the same time - and you've got anything but  a quiet week! How in the world is the caregiver supposed to calm their souls  when the world around them is constantly in a topsy turvy  state? Some days I'd give a million bucks for 5 seconds of sit-down-and-be-quiet-ness. Wouldn't you? I do think it is entirely possible to quiet our souls  while the world around us, in our own homes nonetheless, is crazed and spiraling. There's a place we can hide in H...

I'm pretty much known for voicing my opinion. As you can imagine, I've found myself in many predicaments because I've said the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time. My mouth was the reason I took frequent trips to the principal's office during my years in school. I am also not a good waiter. Oh, I can wait tables - but I'm not good at waiting for stuff, or people either for that matter. All of this was going through my head as I read Isaiah 30:15 this morning. It's a given that we are going to have times in life when we are just going to have to wait. So it's not really so much about the wait itself - but more about how we wait. That's where being impatient and mouthy are a bad combination. Now, I have to say I have calmed down a lot over the last few years, but I've not gotten much better at being patient. Isaiah 30:15 has always stuck out to me for a couple of reasons. So it's no wonder as I was studying about being still ...

I'm from Oklahoma and we have a lot of storms and during storm season we have more than our share of tornadoes. Fortunately, I've only seen a few and that is usually from a distance. They are powerful and quite noisy. One of the oddest feelings in the world is to know there is a tornado out there, but feel the more than just proverbial calm before the storm.  It can be so still, absolutely nothing moving or making any noise. No wind. No rain. Absolute calm - but you know that any second the wind is going to whip up and you're going to either run for cover - or run for the camera so you don't miss anything! (I usually do that latter.) There really aren't a lot of words I can use to describe that kind of eerie stillness. It's kind of like a quiet explosion as your hair stands on end waiting for the excitement that's about to occur. I think it's that quiet kind of anticipation God was looking for when He told the psalmist, Be still and know I am God. ...

Yesterday my daughter came to sit with my son so I could use her car to go get some groceries. We've been limited to what I can carry on my back while pushing him in his chair since the van is broke down...again. Since it's summertime here in Oklahoma and many days have heat advisories  issued, so I have to wait until late in the evening before we go. So I was very appreciative of a vehicle with air conditioning to run my errands. As I was driving along, the afternoon sun was bearing down and the little air conditioner was doing all it could to keep the car cooled off. I noticed as I drove, when I would pass under shaded areas there was an immediate relief as the shade provided a shield from the weight of the overbearing heat. I remembered there was a scripture that talked about the Lord being our shade. When I got home, I looked it up and found it in two different place. Psalm 121:5 says the Lord is your shade on your right hand. It's also found in Isaiah 25:4 whic...

This train of thought started yesterday morning. I was bathing and dressing my son to get him up for the day and I could hear some birds in the backyard. They were chirping away as if nothing was wrong. I started thinking about what Jesus said in Matthew 7:25-27. He basically said He provides for birds and you don't see them out there worrying about where their next meal is coming from. I smiled as I continued to listen to their constant, cheerful chirping; and I encouraged myself in the fact that they were not worried about at thing - nothing at all. As long as they are still singing, He must still be providing. So this morning I looked for birds in the Bible using Biblegateway  and somehow I ended up in Psalm 50. Asaph is credited as writing this psalm and in verse 7 he begins with more of a prophetic word to God's people. He starts out explaining that He accepts the sacrifices people are bringing to Him. He said, I have no complaint. But in verse 9, He says I want no m...

The account of creation in the final chapters of Job are among my favorite scriptures. To hear the account of creation from God's point of view is nothing less than powerful. All of a sudden, Job and his friends are silent as God begins to describe His handiwork in words they could understand. And as He gives us intimate details of His creation, that only the creator could know - I am awed once again by His power and wisdom. This morning as I was reading the questions God was asking Job, I turned them around to statements of action. These are some restatements of the way God handled creation in my own words: He calculated and measured earth's dimensions He set boundaries for the waters of the earth and told them they could "go no further" He commanded the morning to appear He knows where light comes from...and where darkness goes when light appears He knows where the seas "come from" He ensures the proper sequence of the seasons He placed the co...

After yesterday's devotion, I continued to think about things about God that do not change. He is constant, ever-abiding and is not affected by the winds of life or our circumstances. I started making a list of some of the things I thought of and came up with quite a few things off the top of my head. My list included His love, His mercy, His righteousness, His provision for us, the truth, salvation, His power, the power of Christ's sacrifice, His Word and His callings. This is just a very topical list of things that simply don't ever change. Throughout the day I meditated on these and a few others on the list I had compiled.  Then I decided to look up the word forever just to see what I found. I used Bible Gateway and searched just the NASB and came up with these little nuggets: The Lord will reign forever -Ex. 15:18 The Lord abides forever  - Ps. 9:18; Ps 102:12 The Lord is King forever  - Ps. 10:16; Ps. 29:10 In His right hand are pleasures forever ...