What's A Special Meal for You?

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888-589-8840. This... Oh, by the way, you can also follow along at hopefullhecaregiver.com. Hopefullhecaregiver.com to see all the things that we have going out there, and subscribe to our podcast. We do the broadcast live here, like we're doing right now, and then we will podcast it out later on, and it's a free podcast you're welcome to take advantage of. We've got over 500 episodes, and we have a lot of fun here, and we're glad that you are a part of it. Thank you for the entire American Family Radio community, the Truth Network, the His Network, and all the other affiliates we've got around the country. This is a unique show. There's nothing like it in the country that has the scope, and the breadth, and the reach that we have here, and I'm so grateful to American Family Radio for hosting this, because there are 65 million Americans right now that are struggling as a caregiver.

Maybe you're one of them. Taking care of aging parents, and taking care of a special needs child, or a family member with trauma, an alcoholic, an addict, the mentally ill. Whatever the chronic impairment, there's always a caregiver, always a caregiver, and who is reaching the family caregiver? Who's talking to that person?

How do you even reach? What do you even say? And we speak fluent caregiver here, and ultimately though, it's our Savior's native tongue, and that's the whole point of this, is to be able to speak with clarity, and understanding what the gospel says to the family caregiver. Somebody asked me one time in an interview, a reporter asked me, and we're not a believer, it was just a regular interview I was doing, and they said, what would Jesus do as a caregiver? I said, well, I don't know what he would do. I'll tell you what he did do, and he delegated.

He delegated care of his mother to John from the cross. That's one of the things he did, but ultimately he came and cared for us in our hopeless estate, and provided a path for us to be reconciled to God the Father. What a tremendous example of a caregiver to people who are chronically impaired, and that is us. If we understand that, if that's our starting point, which it is on this show, then we can go from there. All right, now I always have some things I want to ask you. You are an astute audience.

I try to trip you up with passages from hymns, passages from scripture, and you guys are constantly just jumping on this thing and getting it. It's not a trivia question today, but it's pertaining to what we're going to talk about. I want to ask you, I want you to just think back this through your childhood or where you are now, whatever's going on.

Just take a moment. What is your favorite meal? What's a meal that you can recall with great clarity today that somehow does something to you that gives you a warm feeling, that gives you a sense of comfort, or just something that just, a lot of pleasure. What's a great meal that you had? It doesn't have to be something complex and over the top. It's something that just means something to you.

I'll tell you one of mine, and I have several. I'm the cook in my family, and so I've learned to cook. Now, when Gracie and I first got married, she did all the cooking, but as her condition worsened and it became very difficult for her to stand and cook, I took over those responsibilities. When she lost her remaining leg 26 years ago, I was the guy, and I didn't even know how to boil water very well. I was pretty weak at that, but I've learned to cook, and I'm a pretty good cook. I try to recreate things that I think were meaningful to me.

I grew up in South Carolina, out in the country. I have four brothers, and so dinner was a big part of our life. There are certain foods that still bring home those wonderful memories of that, and for me, one of those is a hearty vegetable beef soup that my mom used to make, and it would have cabbage and celery and kidney beans. You know, those of you who love vegetable beef, and I love soup to this day. I've made soup just the other night. I made a green chili chicken soup that I love a lot. I made an elk chili the other night.

I live in Montana now, so we cook with elk, and I have all kinds of soups that I love, but there's something about that particular soup that brings a sense of comfort or warmth, and I just love it, and often with cornbread, good cornbread, sometimes iron skillet cornbread. We're going to talk about this today, about meals. Meals are very important to us as caregivers and as human beings. They're important to God, and we're going to talk about all that, so if you have a favorite meal, whatever it is, call us and tell us, 888-589-8840, and tell us why.

What about it? I mean, I've been to great restaurants all over the country. I've been overseas and eaten wonderful things, but there's something about, there's always that one or two meals that somehow connects with you on an emotional level. Do you have that?

Is that something that's a part of your life? 888-589-8840, and I'm going to give you some scriptures, and we're going to talk about this today. Jesus said, let's see if you know where this scripture is. Jesus said to them, the disciples, come and have breakfast.

Come and have breakfast. He was cooking breakfast for them at the shore there at the Sea of Galilee. They'd gone out fishing, and this is just a powerful moment of Jesus making some breakfast for these guys, and maybe breakfast is one of those meals for you. Here's another one, and this is in the Gospel of John.

Jesus, therefore six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there, and Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. There are a lot of different passages of scripture about Jesus having a meal, and of course, I've always heard that wherever two or three are gathered, there will be macaroni and cheese.

How many of you know that? I don't know if that's, that may be in the Book of Second Opinions, 319, but meals are important. Meals are important to us, and a well-prepared meal doesn't have to be something exotic. I've had exotic food in my life, and it's wonderful, and I appreciate it.

I appreciate all the preparation that goes to it, but sometimes it's a simple meal. Is there something like that that connected with you? As a caregiver, this is something I want to unpack today and show why this relates to us, and I've tried to recreate those meals that I grew up with with my sons, and to this day, I can see the look on their faces when I would get it right and make a meal that they loved, and I mean, of course, you make steaks and all that kind of stuff, and you always think of that, but sometimes I've made a big old crock pot full of soup, tried to recreate what my mother did, and my boys, well, they're not boys anymore, but they will always be my boys, but you can just see the look on their faces. It's something that just, it's hearty, it's comforting, it's on a soul level, it touches them somehow. Why is that? And what does that for you?

What does that for you? 888-589-8840, then we're going to get into that today and talk about what does Scripture have to say about this, and how in the world does this apply to a family caregiver? And probably if you're a family caregiver, you're making most of the meals, aren't you?

There's an important lesson in this, in breaking bread together and bonding together over food, ultimately with our Savior. So we're going to talk about that. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840, we'll get to the cause of the next segment. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. Help the Caregivers make better caregivers. 1-47 emergency support, increasing safety, reducing isolation. These things are more important than ever as we deal with the challenges of COVID-19. How about your vulnerable loved ones?

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Mycompanion247.com. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I have. I'm Gracie Rosenberger and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident, leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie and I am Standing with Hope. Welcome back to Hope with a Caregiver here on American Family Radio, Truth Network, His Network and all across the country, all across the world. We're glad to have you with us.

I am Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for caregivers, about caregivers, hosted by a caregiver. Now in my 35th year, bringing a lifetime of experience to offer a lifeline to my fellow caregivers.

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. And today we're talking about food. We're talking about food, your food, a meal that means something to you. Maybe you haven't had it in years, but it means something to you.

And we're going to talk about that day and listen to some of the things of why this is important and then what is the context in scripture and then why is this important to caregivers? Okay. So I'm going to tie all this in, but first I'm going to hear a couple of people call in and talk about their favorite meal.

This is Rhonda in Illinois. Rhonda, good morning. How are you feeling? Good. How about you?

You know, for the shape I'm in, I'm in pretty good shape. Tell me a meal that means something to you. Well, it actually has to do with the caregiving part of it. In 2019, we put my mom on hospice care and, um, it was probably a few days before she actually passed away. I had brought her a piece of banana cream pie. Um, at that point she wasn't able to really eat a lot. Um, but I was staying at her house, um, kind of helping take care of everything. And I got up in the middle of the night and she was sitting up in bed. Um, so I asked her if she was hungry and I told her that I brought her the piece of banana cream pie.

And so we sat on the side of the bed and that was the last meal that we had together. But we shared that piece of pie and she talked to me about, um, some of her childhood, like she was remembering things with her grandparents at the time. And so we just sat and shared that piece of pie and the memories that she was remembering at the time. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Banana cream pie. Have you had it since she's passed away?

Not the same kind. So I ordered it here not too long ago cause I was really missing her. Um, and it wasn't the same, but you know, it was, it, it's always going to be tied to that memory. Well it's, it is a, um, uh, that is, that is extraordinary. That is extraordinary.

And I, I love that. Where did you get the banana cream pie? What was the, what was the one that was so good? It was just at a little family cafe in Knoxville that was near her home.

Knoxville, Illinois. Was it, was it homemade at that little restaurant? Yeah, it tasted more homemade.

Do a couple of things if you don't mind. One of them is, uh, let that little cafe know, um, about the significance of that pie. I bet the owner would find that meaningful. I would, I would like to think that they would.

I hope they would. And, um, but, but let them know that, that that was how, how special that was. That that's the memory.

That's the last memory. That's the last time your mother and you had, had something to eat together. And it will always be important and just thank them for a great pie. And, um, I mean, you know, and then when you, when you do order that pie or get that pie next time for you, invite somebody to join with them and tell them that story. Tell them that story because that's, that's, that's a beautiful, that's a beautiful memory, Rhonda. That really is.

That's, that's, that's, that's wonderful. Right there as you were facing your, your mother leaving this world, right in the presence of death, you stopped and had a banana cream pie together. And that brings me to my scripture of why this is important today.

Why are we doing this? And I look at Psalm 23, five thou prepares the table before me in the presence of my enemies in the, in the midst of the greatest enemy, which is death. You had that wonderful, tender moment with your mother, banana cream pie. And that's, that's, that to me is, is how God is, is revealing things to us in these moments that we can have those kinds of times. And, and, and I, I love that Rhonda.

I just truly love that. And, um, can you make banana cream pie? Um, I'm not much of a pie maker, but I bet I could probably find a good recipe.

If I follow a recipe, I'm good. Well, I don't know that I could make a banana cream pie. Uh, now I like a banana cream pie. Um, and I, uh, uh, you probably have seen my pie newsletter.

No, I'm just kidding. I don't know, but I love, I love pie. Uh, mine's peach.

I love peach pie, peach cobbler, peach pie. I love it, but that is great. Well, Rhonda, I thank you for sharing it with us. And I, I really do appreciate that. And this, and, and, and let that, let that restaurant know, let that little cafe know. And then the next time you have it, share it with a dear friend and just say, look, I just wanted to have this piece of pie here with you and let you know why this is significant to me and, and, and talk about your mom and talk about the journey you had with her. And, and, and those are beautiful memories that are worth keeping alive.

And every time you eat banana cream pie, you have these wonderful, wonderful memories of your mother. And that's wonderful. So, so thank you for sharing that with us and trusting us with that. Okay.

Absolutely. Thank you. All right. We'll see you. Thank you for calling.

All right. Let's go to, um, Starla in Louisiana. Now, if Jeff Foxworthy says, as long as there was a roadside ditch, people will never starve in Louisiana.

Is that true Starla? This is true. I don't eat everything in Louisiana, but this is true. Some people do eat a lot of nasty stuff here.

Some people like to fight with their food, like get on back in that pot there, you know, in Louisiana. I'm very, very particular about my food though. Tell me, tell me what's a favorite meal of yours. My favorite meal is cornbread dressing. I love to make cornbread dressing.

I'm sorry. What's the story behind that? Everybody just loves it at the holidays and they love mine and it's, it's comfort for me. I, I can eat it all year round, but my favorite story behind it is, well, it's not quite as dramatic or lovely as the previous callers, but my favorite memory is after the hurricane Harvey went through, um, Houston and orange Texas. And there was a, you know, so much flooding. I made cornbread dressing for, we had Thanksgiving made cornbread dressing for 1200 people and they were astonished that somebody took the time to, to do that from scratch for them. Wow. For 1200 people.

I wouldn't even know how to start with that. Lots and lots and lots and lots of cornbread. Yes. Lots and lots and lots of cornbread. What is a, what's the recipe? I mean, where did it come from? Did you make it up?

Yeah. I, I like, you know, a lot of people just make bears with just chicken or just Turkey. And if I am making it on such a large scale like that, then yes, that's what I do because you know, it's really hard to afford the other stuff. But if I'm making it just for family or just for myself, even I like to put several different kinds of meat in it.

Like I will put chicken or Turkey and I also put ground beef or shrimp or a ground sausage in it. Oh, this is, it's, it's just amazing. Well, my wife loves her grandmother's dressing that she would make and that was important for every Thanksgiving and so forth. She loves that and I do as well. It's wonderful dressing. And, but I love the fact that you did this for people in the, in the aftermath of a hurricane. Thou prepares to meal before me in the presence of mine enemies, you know, and that just reflects that scripture more.

Absolutely. I look through all these times in scriptures where, you remember the story in, um, when Elijah was after Mount Carmel, you know, he had this huge, well, and then the angel brought him food. You remember that? He had this huge victory at Mount Carmel and then he, and he heard that Jezebel was after and he ran and he had to run to the desert. He kind of basically passed out and he was so tired and an angel woke him up and said, here's the meal, eat.

You got more to go. And that's when he, he went on that journey to, to the place of the cave there when he heard the still small voice, but the angel of the Lord woke him up and had a meal for him. So here eat, you know, and Jesus is cooking on the shore of the, of the sea of Galilee.

And this is after the crucifixion and the, and the disciples were kind of, were struggling and they were like, gosh, you know, what do we do now? What's going on? He said, come on, let's just have something to eat. Just here.

Here's some fish eat. And here you are showing up in the aftermath of a hurricane for 1200 people. Well I do it, I do it for all types of fundraisers.

I do it for people that, you know, surgeries and stuff. I'm always, I always love to cook. And to me it's just a blessing.

If you're cooking for 1200 people, yes you do. God gave us the gift to do it. We supposed to do it. Well, I just think that is, uh, that is marvelous. And, and, and what a great blessing that was to those folks who, you know, they've lost everything and they're in the midst of, there are a lot of them probably just shocked at the devastation.

They are. It's extremely traumatic. And I think about that for, for caregivers that oftentimes we're in the midst of great trauma and something as simple as a meal. And I'll share about that at the next segment of, of what happened to me with, with the situation like that. Cause you know, I mean, I'm from the South, you know, whatever's going on, you're going to show up with a casserole. Telling the story about, um, the, when Gracie was in the hospital, the couple had invited you over.

Yes. And they set me down and they had a bowl of vegetable soup and cornbread, you know, and they didn't have some exotic meal. It was just soup and cornbread. And I sat there and, and, and, and it was, yeah. And it, it was, it was deeply meaningful. And, and so thank you for remembering that. That is very gracious of you. Somebody loved you enough to minister to you on a personal level. And you know, they didn't know that that was, that was a, that was my dish was vegetable beef soup. They didn't know that.

They just did it. And that, I think, I think that's just a, such a reflection of how the Holy Spirit works in all of us to, to minister to one another. We, the God of all comfort and comforts us so that we can comfort others. And, uh, thank you for that so much, uh, for, for sharing that with us and, and put some andouille sausage or some shrimp in that dress and see how it tastes. I appreciate the call there. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rozenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. That's my wife, Gracie. And, um, I would get her out here on the radio, but this is an early hour for her. We're in Montana, so it's a little bit earlier for her. She is up. I know she's up, but I don't think she wants to come on the radio right now.

And, uh, but you can get a copy of her CD. Go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com. Be a part of what we're doing here.

Help us do it more. We'll send you a copy of that CD. You can see it right there at the front page, hopeforthecaregiver.com.

And it is a wonderful CD. She does a great job. We're talking about your favorite meal for you as a caregiver, not your favorite meal for your loved one, but for you. Something that has meaning to you as a caregiver.

888-589-8844. If we're having problems on our streaming live with Facebook, it's because I have a running problem with my, uh, Facebook feed. And I don't want to go into how I feel about social media and Facebook right now, but I'm thinking about just canning that all together and just recording it and just putting out on the podcast without Facebook. So, um, for those of you who enjoy watching it, otherwise it's always easy just to listen to afr.net.

I spent a good bit of time this morning trying to explain to my parents again, if they're listening right now, God bless you for getting it right. But, uh, to listen on Alexa and mom and dad, but it's, uh, there are a lot of ways to listen to the show and you can always go back and listen to it on our podcast at hopeforthecaregiver.com. It's a free podcast, wherever podcasts are, Apple, I, you know, whatever, Amazon or whatever, uh, you can go out and stream it.

Um, and, uh, there are like 500 something episodes and please share it with folks. Uh, we try to put interesting interviews. We do this show, we put this show out as the podcast, but then we also have other things we do throughout the week that I think you'll find very meaningful and I hope you'll take advantage of it. Uh, but we're talking about favorite meals and why is that important to us as a caregiver? Scripture talks an awful lot about food and there, there, are deeply meaningful moments in scripture, poignant moments that occur around food. And, um, and, and sometimes they were heartbreaking moments that occurred around food.

One of those is when Esau sold his birthright for stew, you know, because he was, he was thinking of his stomach at that point. But then again, there are other times like when Jesus is sitting up there and he's telling the disciples who were very discombobulated and they, they see, you know, a figure at the shores and come, come eat. And they, and they, they didn't question him. They said, who, they didn't say, who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord who said in the gospel of John. Jesus sitting around with tax collectors at Matthew's house with, uh, with all types of sinners and the Pharisees were aghast that he would break bread with sinners.

But aren't you glad he did? Because he does that with us. And for us as caregivers, we cook a lot.

Most of us do. And meals are important and we want to make a good meal. We want to make a heart healthy meal for our loved one or something special that whatever. But what about you? What do you like to eat? What do you, what, what do you enjoy?

And when's the last time you had it? 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. And this is Roger from Arkansas. Roger, good morning. Good morning, sir. How are you feeling? Uh, just great. Well, tell me about your favorite meal.

Um, a little background. My dad was blind and the blind association traded men to be cafeteria workers and so forth. And my dad could, uh, he cooked turkey in a brown paper bag and I'm actually more of a ham person, but his turkey was great. And, uh, two or three days there before he died, he had, uh, he had cancer and I couldn't lay down. He had to sit up in a chair and, uh, me and him was sitting there talking and I said, dad, I, and I knew we all knew that it was going to be pretty soon. I said, dad, when you get over there, you get a picnic table there beside the river of life and you cook us up a turkey and I'll be over there to eat it. And it's so heartwarming to know that God has got something planned for us, you know, and I'm sure that's going to be part of it. Well, I don't know if it's turkey in a brown bag, but it's, uh, we are going to have the marriage feast of the lamb.

That is promised to us. And I imagine it's going to be quite a feast, but, uh, now your dad made this. And so what did he have one of those bags that you put in the oven that you roasted in and it keeps all the juices and so forth in there. And that's what it done.

Yes, it sure did. And the way he seasoned it, I'll tell you what kind of a cook he was. He cooked at the cafeteria for the state Capitol building for a number of years. He, he was the boss and he was blind. That shows you what a blind man can do. He worked on cars. He built a house. I've seen him up on the rafters on the house, nailing down rafters on the roof. Well, and was he able to do all that stuff before he went blind? Was he a cook before he went blind?

No, he was blind from, I don't really know for sure, but I know he was a real young boy. I do know that. Okay.

So, okay. Well, I worked for when I was in junior high and, and, um, uh, my mother for whatever reason felt like we needed to work. Uh, so would you, when she has five sons, she's going to send them out to work. And I worked for a man who used to teach shop at a school and he'd gone blind and he was about as cantankerous as they came. Um, and I, he wanted me to dig a ditch for him. And so I dug a ditch. Well, I dug where he pointed and I came back the next day and he was all mad at me. He said, don't dig where I point dig where I say. I was like, it's, it's hard to dig for.

It's hard to work for a blind man sometimes because they'll point to something. And it was like, Oh man, so I had to go back and dig another ditch. And he was all mad at me and everything else. And, and my mother thought that was an enriching experience for me. I don't know. I think it was more of a scarring experience, but I dealt with it.

Well, like I said, it would do anything, work on anything. I mean, they wasn't up there. And in fact, he was a certified electrician for Tennessee valley authorities. And the only stipulation that he had to have a helper to show him what color the wires was. Well, it's a, did you ever learn how to cook turkey like his? No, I sure can't. Well, do you still have the recipe somewhere? No, there ain't no recipe.

All right. Well, we'll just have to look forward to heaven where he cooks turkey in a bag in heaven. I don't know what kind of ovens they're going to have in heaven, but I don't know. Hey, I'll tell you what, God's got stuff planned for us that we cannot even imagine.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, the scripture says, and, uh, and I would imagine no, no, no tongue has tasted. Uh, so, uh, but you know, isn't that a great memory of your dad? Yeah.

There was something else that happened right about that same time. I was sitting in his room there and he was sitting next to a closet and he said, uh, Hey Roger, you hear that? Can you hear that music? And I said, no, I don't hear no music. I said, well, where are you wearing it from? And he said, it's coming out of his closet.

And so I got up, walked over and it had some of them are kind of bi-fold doors and I opened up and I didn't hear nothing. I said, dad, that music was for you. And he, I said, what kind of music? He said, it was all kinds of music. And, uh, he, he was a music, he played guitar at the same time. But anyway, uh, he, I said, that was for you. And, uh, about two days later he died and my two baby sisters sat there and sung him right on into heaven.

What now? What's a, what's a, what's a song that they sang to him? I, sir, I don't, I don't remember. I just know that it was, it was, it was an event angels were saying, and I mean, it was just, I mean, he just slowed down, slowed down and just slowed down to the point that he didn't breathe no more, but they sat right there and sung him.

There are worse ways to be, to, to, to go into heaven. Arthur, it's a Gracie, Gracie and her sister. I remember this when her grandmother was dying and, um, I took, I brought a keyboard into the room there and we played for hours and Gracie was on one side and her sister was on the other side.

There's only two grandchildren, uh, that, that she had. And, uh, they sang to her and, uh, Gracie's dad sang in her and her aunt, uh, over there in the corner of the room. And I just played for hours and, uh, they sang their grandmother into heaven and it was just wonderful hymns. And, uh, it was a, it was a really a beautiful time. And, um, these are wonderful memories that you have of this with your father.

He sounds like he was quite an extraordinary guy. Yes, sir. Well, thank you for sharing that turkey and a brown. I've had turkey like that cooked in a, in a roaster bag like that. And it is good. And I'm sorry you don't have the recipe for that, uh, to do it, to recreate that.

But, uh, it's something to look forward to. It was just a plain old shopping bag, paper shopping bag is what it was. Well, how did he do that? So they wouldn't burn up in the oven because of the moisture in the, in the Turkey. Uh, that, that, uh, in fact, when he got done, that bag would be soaking wet from, from the moisture in the Turkey. You didn't eat the bag. Did you?

Huh? You didn't eat the bag. Did you? Yeah.

It kept the moisture in. No, but you didn't eat the bag. Did you Roger?

No, no. That's like a, well, that's like that old story about plank carp. You know what plank carp is, is you, you pull a carp out from the river and you, you, you lay it out on a piece of Cedar, you put butter and garlic and salt and pepper on it and you cook it. And then you throw the carp away and eat the plank.

I've heard that said with a beaver tail. Just go ahead and just eat the board. Well, Roger, thank you for sharing that with about your dad.

Uh, what a great memory. And, um, and I look forward to having some Turkey with you, with you and your dad one day. We sure will. Everybody will be invited. I can tell you that.

All right. Thank you so much and appreciate the call. This is hope for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg talking about meals today. We're going to wrap all this up and talk about what God has to say about this and why this is important to us as caregivers.

Why does this even matter? Hope for the caregiver. If you've got one more, we'll squeeze in a couple more. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840. As a caregiver, what is your favorite meal? What's something that means something to you? 888-589-8840.

We'll be right back. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me.

But over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. I hate to talk about that.

That is such a powerful arrangement that my wife did of Baum and Gilead. Do you know that one? Do you know that hymn? Then the Holy Spirit revives me. Music does that to our souls, and we can all think of a song that reflects a particular poignant time in our life, whether it's a hymn or whatever. Music is the soundtrack of our life.

But you know what? Our lives are built around meals, and sometimes we have meals that have that same type of emotional content. And that's what we're talking about today. Maybe you have something like that that did that for you.

I have that for me. And as the caller referenced earlier, there was a time when Gracie was in the hospital. Kids were away with grandparents. And I was back and forth to the hospital, back and forth to the hospital.

And I was tired, and I was just bleary-eyed and discouraged and everything else. And some friends on the way to the hospital, they called and said, look, stop by here. You're right on the way. We've got something for you. So I went over there, and they said, Gracie's safe at the hospital. The kids are safe.

And you sit down right here, and we're going to keep you safe. And they had a steaming bowl of vegetable beef soup that was particularly good and fluffy cornbread. And I'll never forget it. It was one of the most meaningful things I've ever done, because that was a soup that meant something to me.

They didn't know that. And that was a soup that meant something to me growing up around the table with my brothers and my sister and my very large South Carolina family. And mom would make a, I think mom basically made army chow for us. Because when you were raising five boys, and then my sister's a baby, I mean, to this day, Gracie will tell you, you don't talk a lot at the table while there's food on the table. You talk after the food.

You get it. And I remember I took Gracie home for the first time, and we're passing the meal around the table. We're at this large table in our dining room. And she grew up with one sister. So it was very quiet at her house.

And my house, it's like my big fat Greek wedding. And she put a little portion on her plate and I said, don't you want some more? She said, well, I'll get it a second time around. I looked at her and I said, there ain't going to be no second time, baby.

You better get it now. There ain't no second time. And that was completely alien to me. I didn't even know what leftovers were until I got married. I mean, we didn't have leftovers.

What are leftovers when you have four brothers? And we dug in, but I love those times. And mom would make huge vats of soup and cornbread or biscuits. And those were wonderful meals. And this couple did that for me.

And maybe somebody has done that for you. Maybe somebody put you in a situation where some meal just connected like the first call we had about the banana cream pie. And that was the last thing she ate with her mother before her mother passed away. And what a great memory that was. And then you had the call with his father making turkey who was blind.

And he loved his turkey. So these are things that are important because scripture talks a lot about meals. And ultimately God has prepared one for us when we all get to his kingdom, the marriage feast of the lamb. And what a great celebration that's going to be.

But you look at Psalm 23 5, thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You ever eaten a wonderful meal while in the throes of caregiving? Something that just tasted so good, you just took a moment just to be still and enjoy the meal. It doesn't have to be complex. It doesn't have to be some kind of elaborate thing. Sometimes it can be just something so simple as vegetable soup.

And that's what we're talking about today. That's just a tiny foreshadowing of the things that God has for us that we can enjoy a meal in the midst of whatever craziness we're in as caregivers. Do you think you can do that?

Scripture says you can. And so that's what I'm encouraging you to do. If there's something you like as a caregiver, it's a meal that you like, go ahead and do it. Sit down and enjoy it and maybe enjoy it with someone else.

If you can't enjoy it with your loved one, enjoy it with someone else and just have a nice meal and talk about why this is important to you. Homer in Oklahoma. Homer, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. How are you doing? Hi there, Peter. Well, I'm buffeted, but I'm broken hanging in there.

And I really like your content today. I have to share a meal I had with my wife. We were newly married and God used this as a time of lesson and proving that love can sometimes be blind. We were in a restaurant and I had ordered prime rib and baked potato. Well, in a darkened room, sometimes you mistake certain items and I mistook the horseradish for sour cream.

I turned all different shades of red. My wife just broke into laughter. Of course, the server's got to kick out of it and I'm in pain and agony, but that event carried through our relationship for years. And I just cannot say enough about the joy that God grew within me being married to her, enhancing a relationship on a meal that engaged all the senses all at the same time. But the joy that that brought through our relationship, just being able to share with others, that meals are all about sharing. And when you talk about the marriage supper, Peter, you're spot on.

Meals are very important and God uses them because even at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, Christ recognized that all the senses could be engaged and it was so special. That is wonderful. Homer, thank you. I come from a long line of people who've enjoyed meals. Homer, if you ever go to a Japanese restaurant that's wasabi, not guacamole, I just want to put that out there for you.

Be very careful with that. It looks like guacamole, it's not. It's wasabi.

So be very careful in a Japanese restaurant. But Homer, thank you for that. I'm glad that, and you're still laughing about that years later with the horseradish and I think that is a wonderful memory of your wife and your relationship together and I thank you for that. I'm not asking you to go out and prepare horseradish tonight, Homer.

Maybe something a little bit more, maybe just get some baked potato with sour cream instead. But thank you for that, Homer. I really do appreciate it. I'm going to jump and get one more call and squeeze one more call in for the end of the hour. This is Minnie in Ohio. Minnie, good morning. How are you feeling?

Good morning. I'm feeling fine. Tell me about, let's see, soup. Soup. I love soup. So tell me about the soup. Yeah, my mom was sick with cancer and I make a lot of different kinds of soup for her because I just think it's better for her because all the nutrition stays right in that pot.

Nothing gets cooked away. So I make from scratch a vegetable broth, a vegetable broth to start it out because I don't eat meat. So then I made a, it's a shaker recipe and it's four onion potato soup, new potato soup. So you use new potatoes as little round ones, as little dark ones and you don't, yeah, you slice them thin, but you use, um, the rest because for a certain amount of the onions and I used to use handfuls. I use Vidalia onions. I use leeks.

I use, um, it calls for salads and scallions, but I use the handfuls and I use real butter and half and half and cream and it sounds, it sounds incredibly heart healthy, doesn't it? And then there's a farmer that's down the road here a couple of miles and he grows the very best sweet corn I've ever had in my whole life. And um, it's, it's the white and yellow, but I don't know what kind of, but it pops in your mouth. It's like sugar. And I want to get some of that for my freezer so I can use it first. I'm stuffing for, um, when's the last time you made this soup? Your mother's passed away. I've made it since then.

Yeah. But you put that corn in that secret. It makes it potato corn chowder. And then I serve it with a biscuit that's made with sour cream, butter, Parmesan cheese, parsley and green onions. And it's, I make them small so they're like a two biter.

See, there's no waste of them. Everybody get in the bus. We're heading to Minnie's house in Ohio. What time you, what time do you want us there Minnie?

We, we would love that. That sounds wonderful. When is the next time you're making this? Um, when I get some more of those onions again, I have to get all those together.

So it's a Vidalia onions cause they're real sweet. It feeds about 10 people. Well, I think that sounds, do you, do you have a good group of people that, do you have a good group of people that come over and are you able to tell them the story of why you made this for your mother or, or, or things such as that? Well, I can do it with people from church.

Do that. I mean, I know that we've got the COVID thing going on right now, but share it with folks. But, but, but every time you make it, share the story of why, you know, how this came about, why you started doing it. And uh, do you remember that old Keith Green song? So you want to go back to Egypt, eating leeks and onions by the Nile, oh what breast, but dining out in style. You know, I, I, if I could, if I could help make the marriage supper of the lamb, I asked him that. Well, I'll probably, I, I, I'm probably, uh, I'm hoping that I can at least be the guy that's cleaning up afterwards.

I'll be the guy in the back with the broom, but I'm looking forward to that. But you know what he says that in the midst, in the presence of my enemies, he prepares a meal for us. And sometimes I think we as caregivers are so overwhelmed by the craziness. Did you know that we could sit down and have a meal of peace and quiet and of, of meaning and substance no matter what's going on around us.

And that's the whole point of the gospel. Many thank you for sharing that with us and thank you all for being with us today. I just was thinking about this for the show today and I thought, let's just talk about this. You know, we have a lot of dramas caregivers, but do we take a moment to reflect and just have a moment of peace and fix a meal.

And if you have a meal that means something to you, fix it, share it with someone, honor the memory of your loved one. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. That's part of it.

We'll see. This is John Butler and I produce hope for the caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife, Gracie. And recently Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you envision doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think that inmates would help you do that?

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for and they're disassembling. You see all these legs, like what you have, your own prosthetic and arms and arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know, I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out.

Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled? No, I had no idea. You know, I thought of peg leg, I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that. I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there.

What does that do to you just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there. And I wish that I could be able to go and say, this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time, you know, you always make me have to leave. I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them. And I feel like that we have a common bond that I would have never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith based programs that CoreCivic offers? I think they're just absolutely awesome. And I think every prison out there should have faith based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith based program and the other ones like it, but I know about this one is just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much.

That doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limbs, whether from a loved one who passed away or, you know, somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do.

How do they do that? Please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle, standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks Grace. One of our generous sponsors here at the Truth Network has come under fire, fire from the enemy, fire for standing up for family values. Actually one of the biggest supporters of the movie Unplanned that talked about the horrors of abortion. Yes, it's Mike Lindell. You've heard me talk about his pillows for a long, long time. And no doubt big business is responding to Mike Lindell and all this generosity for causes for the kingdom by trying to shut down his business. You can't buy his pillows at Kohl's anymore. You can't get them on Amazon or you can't get them at Costco.

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