Yesterday, I was reading and sharing from Colossians 3. Paul is reminding the young church to keep their minds on things above, and not focus on things on this earth. He tells them that they are hidden in Christ, who is our life!  What a great way to encourage other believers, right? But then I thought about where Paul was. He was writing this letter to the saints  from a prison cell. He could have been sitting there whining, crying, and moaning about being held captive for no wrongdoing at all. But not Paul. He had turned his Prison Cell into a Prayer Chamber. With his freedom taken away (wrongfully, I might add), he could no longer make his trips around to encourage the churches he'd established in person. But he could pray for them. And he could write to them! And that is exactly what he did. That letter, written in a prison cell, was sent to encourage other Christians. And I believe it was bathed in prayer. Sometimes, it can feel like caregiving is a prison. Many of ...

  We talked yesterday about how God provided for Elijah and how He had commanded the ravens to feed the prophet by the brook. Then, He commanded a widow to take care of Elijah. I have been thinking about what it was like from her side. As usual, I have questions. Like, did she know God commanded her to take care of Elijah? Did she know Elijah was headed over for supper? Or had God commanded the meal and oil to be "enough?" Hmmm. Lots to think about. The widow didn't seem to know. She explained to Elijah that she had just enough to feed her son and herself and then she planned to die.(I Kings 17:12) What a plan! Lol. As a caregiver, I've had a few of those "well, this is it" moments. Have you? Elijah goes on to tell her to make him a "small" cake first, then provide for her and her son. He explains that God has blessed her flour and oil and they will not run out until it begins to rain again. (And again - at God's command. ) But I wonder how man...

  We often find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. In fact, as caregivers, we live  there! There are no soft spots and no easy roads, and definitely no days off! Every day can be a series of figuring out each step, hopefully right before we take it. It's not easy to make decisions for another person - especially if they cannot clearly communicate their needs or wants. Talk about a huge game of guess-and-check! Lol. Caregivers get used to being in difficult spots. And really, all we can do is learn to trust God from our here.  No matter what our here  looks like, we can only trust God moving forward. We have made bad decisions in the past, and maybe some of them contributed to us being in our present situations. And maybe they didn't. Either way we can't change what's behind us, we can only use it to change what's ahead of us. This week, I've camped out in 1 Kings 17. Elijah prophesied a drought and resulting famine, and it got very bad! First, the Lord l...

 As caregivers, we can have a lot of little nagging things that try to drag us down. We may spend hours on end with little or no social interaction, positive feedback, or physical touch. Slowly, these things start to wear away at our souls. As believers, we know  that God is the keeper of our souls. He's got us covered. In fact, embracing His word and allowing it to uplift our souls is a great way to encourage our bodies to release endorphins. Endorphins? What are they, and why should we care, especially as caregivers? Don't we have enough to think about? Yes. We do. And that's exactly why we should think about them.  Endorphins are positive mood boosters. They help block pain signals, induce pleasurable feelings, help cope with stress, and motivate us to engage in activities that trigger their release. I don't know about you, but I could use some help in that area! And, good thing for both of us, I've been thinking about it lately. Now, we don't have someone wh...

 Ever have those times where it feels like you're scared of everything? It usually starts with questions, like: What will I do when I get too old? What if I get sick? Oh man, what will I do if I fall and injure myself? Should I go today? What if we have a flat tire?  That's just for starters; it goes downhill from there. Lol. It's way too easy to be afraid of all the unknowns. No judgement, right? For caregivers, unknowns are scary and sometimes, debilitating. It's easy to live our lives at home and not even try to get out because something  might happen. And we have LOTS of possible somethings.  I really didn't know I was doing this until I needed to take Chris to massage therapy on a day I had to be back by a specific time to teach online. My brain took the first question and just ran with it. If it hadn't been so real, it might have been funny. Okay, so it was funny, once I realized what I was doing! Psalm 94:19 reminds us that God is fully aware of those thi...

 I promise I am not drunk, nor have I had an alcoholic beverage in the recent past... like a few days at least. (lol) But as I got up and stumbled around this morning, that's the thought I had. Seriously, my brain seemed so foggy, and I felt very disconnected at all of life's joints. I walked around talking to myself out loud. For real. The world felt fuzzy and distant. I laughed as I thought, I feel drunk. I guess I was drunk on caregiving. I've talked a lot about the caregiver's fog, but this was a bit deeper than that. I felt really messed up. Emotionally. Mentally. Even spiritually. And I still had to get ready for the Facebook Live devotions I do weekday mornings! SMH. As usual, I got my coffee and sipped it as I reached for sanity and searched for a verse to share. The word “discombobulated” comes to mind. I was all out of sorts, and for no apparent reason. I suppose caregiving is enough to give this effect. Psalm 68 was on my mind from a lesson I'd done a day...

 Do you ever have a series of days that just seem harder than others? It's kind of crazy, isn't it? Caregiving is hard - period. But some days just hit harder and drag you further down than others. There are days that just feel like your soul is being sucked out slowly, so you can experience every sigh, moan, and cry from deep, deep within. I think maybe Paul explained it well in Romans 8:26, when he used the phrase, groanings that cannot be uttered. There are some things, there just aren't words for. But that's okay, because we really can't "say" it anyway. Have you ever had your feelings leak out a little? Maybe you “accidentally” told a trusted friend how tired you were. Or maybe you mentioned to a family member that your emotions were running thin and life was just cloudy. Yeah. I've made those mistakes too. LOL. We usually get the "you know you need to take care of yourself first" speech. Yeah, that really helps, doesn't it? (hint of...