Daily Devotions for Caregivers

  Do you ever feel like you don't have a place to belong? Maybe it's just me - but I often feel like my life sticks out like a sore thumb. It's obvious that my life is different, but most don't get close enough to find out the true details. Now that the pandemic is mostly over, we're trying to get back out some. I'm still avoiding huge indoor crowds, but we are doing a few things, including weekly therapy sessions now. I just feel awkward. And just in case I forget, I've got my beautiful son in his chair to navigate through furnishings, store aisles, and small doorways that say they are "accessible."  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone - but I sure feel like it most days. Can anyone relate? I kinda hope not. But here we are, trying to navigate life. It's complex. It's complicated. It's consuming (body, soul, and spirit). And yet, caregiving is beautiful in its own way. What a wonderful demonstration of God's love toward us. No ma...

  I know I have shared in recent devotions about how I've been trying to be more thankful. Throughout the days and long nights, too, I purposefully find something to be thankful for. I've been trying to shift my whole mentality over to thankfulness instead of complaining. Honestly, my situation hasn't changed since I started focusing on gratitude instead of attitude, but I have noticed a couple of other things. This morning, during my personal devotions, I found myself in Psalm 34. David, who was in a tough situation with King Abimelech, said, I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. As I read that verse over two or three times, I wondered, honestly, if it was even possible. Can I really praise God all the time? Can His praises really be in my mouth continually? I was meditating on this phenomenon (tongue-in-cheek there) when I thought of a familiar verse out of Philippians. In the second chapter, verse 14, Paul urges the believers to...

It's so easy to focus on the craziness and hardships of caregiving, isn't it? Well, to be fair, it's all right there in our faces, and it's hard to see around them sometimes. Together, I'm sure we could make quite the exhaustive list that would include social isolation, loneliness, exhaustion, sleeplessness, financial struggles, living grief, and more. I'm pretty sure I've touched on all of these at some point in our devotions for caregivers.  We know we're not going to wake up in the morning, and everything is going to just be alright. Of course, that's assuming we slept at all last night. Lol.  Something at some time has rocked our world, and we make the choice of caregiving. Some say it's a sacrificial choice; I say it was the only choice for me. But however we got here - wherever here is - here we are! Now to survive. We all have our strategies and tips for surviving caregiving. Some are conservative, and some are probably a bit bizarre for t...

  There are many blessings along life's highway, am I right? As caregivers, each day can bring many blessings, and as I'm learning to look for things to be thankful for, no matter how small they may seem, blessings abound around me. It's funny how we find "new" things when our perspective changes. But some days are harder than others. And sometimes, blessings bring along a bit of trouble. A new car comes with the obligation of making a payment, maintenance requirements, tags, and insurance. A new house comes with a mortgage and upkeep.  Recently, my son was able to get a SmartVest, which is a percussion vest that vibrates to "beat" against his chest and break up junk in his lungs. It was such a blessing. It seems to truly help keep him clearer from day to day. But, of course, it came at a cost. Not money, but time. He is to wear it twice a day and let it do its thing for 20 minutes each time. I was so happy to get it, then realized the time commitment in...

  Those long nights can take a toll, can't they? For me, I've figured out that when Chris is doing well, I do well. But when he's not - I kinda lose it. I find myself grasping for His grace like a person without air gasps for breath. I can feel so needy, so helpless, and so vulnerable in those times. But I must say that every time God has come through. He has carried me when I thought there was no way to take another step. Why? Because He is faithful. The way things are going does not affect His faithfulness. This morning, I was thinking about the whiney children of Israel. They complained about everything. It's not that they didn't have things to complain about - it's just that they chose to complain and whine about everything. They said that they wished they could have stayed in Egypt - at least they knew what to expect as slaves, right? Bondage brought with it a set of expected experiences. They knew they'd be mistreated. They knew they'd be overworke...

 Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to strategize ways of dealing with stress. It's something we all deal with, especially caregivers. I'm walking and exercising more, which helps the body get rid of stress and it helps improve sleep to some degree. But I've also been working on training my thoughts. I've been working on purposefully finding things to be thankful for. At first, it was a bit difficult because let's face it, caregiving is hard work.  This morning, I was plugging Chris into a nebulizer for a breathing treatment as he had an asthma attack yesterday afternoon after we'd been out for a little bit. As I was doing his treatment and his tube feeding, I didn't even really think about it; this "thought" just rolled up out of me. I thought, thank you, Lord, for carrying us through the long night. My own thankfulness surprised me! Lol. I realized at that moment that it's getting easier and easier to be thankful, even for the litt...

  Do you ever feel like you're running around all day working hard to try and get the proverbial ends to meet? It can definitely feel like it's a circus around here sometimes as I juggle to keep everything moving as it should. But when those "ends' do meet - it seems like they are mismatched. Every day has a list of all the things that need to be done, plus unexpected add-ons. It certainly feels like things keep spinning around and around.  What do you do on those days when everything feels out of control? I have a few personal strategies, like stopping and making lists. I'll sip an extra cup of coffee or tea and make a list so I can more easily focus on those items that have to be done and let other tasks wait until tomorrow if they can. But while I'm sipping, I'm also praying. I ask God for wisdom in all my dealings. I include everything too. I ask the Lord for help handling my clients and managing work tasks. I ask Him to help me arrange my day, so I...