Some of you know that I was a caregiver to my husband for over 25 years. The Lord has taken this burden/blessing from me, but not the lessons I learned doing it. Here is one of the thoughts I had while I was in the care giving part of my life. I pray it has meaning for you.
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The words of one of the songs we sign at church goes like this, “Finish what you started in me.” Are we always willing for God to finish what He has started when often we are so unwilling for Him to start in the first place? For some of us the refiners fire is caregiving. It is never easy. It is a very demanding job. We are always “on”. There is no rest for us. Even vacations are work for us. We have to remember the needs and the special equipment while we are in unfamiliar places and on an unfamiliar schedule in a disability unfriendly world.
We did not willing and with full knowledge choose to be caregivers, but this is what God gave us. A gift it sometimes seems in an ugly box. The gift has been given though. Ready or not we have to open it and take it out and use it.
We have been given a gift. A gift of caregiving. We are imitations of Christ. The perfect caregiver. It is our ongoing gift from God. He will not finish what he has started until we die. But he will finish and we will fully be able to enjoy this very special gift. A gift very few are given.
I must admire anyone who is/was a caregiver. Marty and Keith went through all those years of taking care of Little Keith, and I was always amazed at their ability to cope. When our mom got sick, Marty and older sister Merlynda were the ones who tended to Mom. I have my gifts, but that isn't one of them. I can put a BandAid on a boo boo of a grand child, but illness overwhelms me. I'm sure if I had to do it, as a spouse or mom, I would rise to the occasion. But I can admit it's not one of my strong suits. Kudos to you for all those years of tending to Art. You are a special angel!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words, but I don't feel like an angel. I just did what I had to do one step at a time. If I had a crystal ball and could have seen into the future before all of this began I would have run away. Just like Moses in the desert I would have requested that God send someone else. Greatness isn't in the planning; greatness is in the doing. Not that I felt great, I just know that in my doing for Art it allowed him to be great and therefore God to be glorified through Art's work. God never asks us to do something that we can't do, He asks us to try to do something we think we can't do.
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