Peace for the CaregiverSample

PROMOTION DAY!

We lived in the country at the time with a field of corn in the rear of our property. I had no idea that my husband that I was taking care of, was taking care of me.  I was in boot camp training, and I had no clue.  

I opened a drawer in our very tidy kitchen one morning and discovered mouse droppings. I came unglued.  I am not a fan of creeping and crawling anything.  Dan told me to follow him to the garage. He told me it was time for me to learn how to set a mousetrap.  I cried.  It was becoming so real that soon he would not be there to do this kind of thing.  I had an attitude that day and told him, “Fine, I will set it, but if we caught the varmint, we would pitch the trap and start with new ones each time.”  He laughed and said that it was okay, they were cheap.  I went back into the house to grab a pair of disposable rubber gloves, and as I picked them up, I wondered how Dan ever set a mousetrap with one arm.  

“Being a Caretaker involves taking care of everything.”

Here I was complaining about this new unwanted job, and he struggled using a vice to help him set traps without me even knowing.  If he had that kind of inner strength, I needed to suck it up and accept my promotion.  Caretaker involves taking care of everything.

“And he said, ‘O man greatly loved fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.' And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, 'Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”  Daniel 10;19

We had one and ¾ acre of land that we mowed, and Dan always mowed the lawn, but as his strength left, he could no longer perform that job.  He was very particular about how our grass appeared.  He was adamant that I cut the grass away from the road and the adjacent land.  All the grass clippings needed to come back on our property, not on others.  He showed me how to check the oil in the mower, where the funnel was to fill the gas tank, and what he used to winterize it.  

One day he asked me to come to the basement with him. He gave me a quick lesson on changing the furnace filter and suggested I always keep a couple on hand.  He had me go over the fuse box and showed me how to flip the main switch.  He had a backup installed on the sump pump but wanted to show me how to test it.  

Oh God, I felt so overwhelmed.  We do not realize all our spouse does until they are no longer available to do it.  In my mind, I silently asked God to help me through.

I remember the first time I had to have the oil changed in our car.  I wanted to break down and cry.  All men were sitting in the waiting room.  Thankfully, our car information was listed on their computer as he always had our oil changed in this shop.  It told the mechanic exactly what was needed.

If a mechanic and a computer knew what I needed, how much more does Jesus know?  

CAN YOU RELATE?

In all the chaos, I was overwhelmed because I was trying to act on my strength to get things done.  It was when I realized that God was only as far away as my lips that peace came.  I needed to call out to God in my need and trust Him to help me. I was slowly learning that as I leaned on HIM and quit taking it all on my shoulders, that peace was near. Join me tomorrow as I learned from an old boat.