The Broadcast Show 3/6/2021

This is the show for you as a family caregiver. For those of you who are up late at night pushing the wheelchair, doing laundry, getting things cleaned up, planning meals, all the things that go on with a family caregiver, back and forth to doctor's offices, back and forth to rehab centers, back and forth to pharmacists on the phone with insurance companies, and then just sometimes laying there and having a late night conversation with the ceiling fan. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. It's hosted by a caregiver, it's for caregivers, it's about caregivers, it's all things caregiver, and we're glad that you're with us. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. Before we get into the meat of the show today, I have a letter that I received yesterday from a listener, and his name is Colby. Colby is incarcerated in a Texas prison, and he listens to the show and to the network faithfully. It's a beautiful letter, Colby, and I thank you for listening, and I thank you that you took the time to write. You said in here, many times your voice has calmed my soul, and God has used you in wonderful ways.

You and Gracie are a big part of my thoughts and prayers. It's a beautiful letter of how God is working in Colby's life and how this show is connected to him. He goes on to say that his dear uncle and aunt are struggling right now because his uncle's had a pretty rough surgery, and his aunt's taken care of it, and his mother, who is a widow, is taking care of him.

He's only got 12 months left, it's a non-violent crime, and he'll be released on parole, and then he's going to go live and help take care of this beloved uncle and aunt and provide some relief to his mother through this process. Just a real meaningful letter, and he asked if I could reach out to his uncle and aunt and his mother and communicate to them some tangible, practical help and hope as a caregiver. I'm going to do that, Colby. I want to let you know. I'll send you a note about this, but you're listening to the show today. I just got your letter yesterday. I'm going to call your uncle and aunt after the show today.

I'll give them a chance to wake up this morning. Then I'm going to also send them a copy of my book, Hope for the Caregiver. I'm going to go ahead and send them a copy of my CD, Songs for the Caregiver, that they can just play. Hopefully, it'll help when things get a little agitated. It's just a very calming CD of hymns. Those of you who listen to the show regularly know how much I love the hymns and music that builds us up. My book, Hope for the Caregiver, I just sent the proposal to my agent for my next book that will hopefully be out next year.

I'm working on that. This book is the one that launched it all. It's available wherever books are sold. I think they even have the Kindle version.

It's only 99 cents right now if you want to go and get that on Amazon. I did an audio version of the book. When I wrote this book, Colby, I wrote it for situations just like you're describing for people who can pick it up and put it down. Whatever page you turn it to, you're going to find something that's going to help you and strengthen you as a caregiver. I know my fellow caregivers. I know that we don't have time to sit down and read these long epistles where people just kind of blather on and on and on, that we've got to get right to it.

Most of the time, the best we can do is catch a couple of pages. As I tell people, I say, it's so easy, you can read it in the bathroom. I know because that's where I wrote it.

No, I'm just kidding. I wanted to have something that would be available to my fellow caregivers that would just be a source of strength and comfort to them. I remember I went to a counselor one time and I was really struggling.

This was some years ago. I was really struggling and the counselor said, well, I'd recommend a book for you to read, but you're the guy to write it. I did, and I thought, well, what would I say to fellow caregivers? Then I thought, well, what would I say to myself? What would I want people to say to me?

That's what I wrote. I'm going to send that to your uncle and aunt, Colby, and I appreciate this. If you go and look at scripture, scripture talks an awful lot about those who are in prison. Psalm 69, 33 says, for the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners. Well, I want to tell you all, all you listeners, that Colby belongs to the Lord. He's one of the Lord's own people and he's a prisoner right now, serving at his time. He'll be released in 12 months. All that, we hope, will be very smooth for him, but he belongs to Christ. He listens to this show. He's a part of this audience and he's a part of our family.

I would ask that you take that to heart to continue to lift him up. There are a lot of scriptures where the Lord speaks to the plight of the prisoner. It's a metaphor for all of us in the bondage of sin. Jesus started off his entire public ministries that have set the captive free. There are people who are behind bars in this country right now who are more free than people who live in mansions. Our captivity is in the heart. Scholzen-Nietzen was able to say after many, many years in a Russian prison, thank you prison for the change you've made in my life. Mandela was in prison for 27 years and came out a changed man. Paul spent many times in prison. There's Joseph. Just go through the list of all these amazing stories of how God worked in the midst of a prison. He does that every day. That is the Gospel. That is the message that he goes into the dungeons.

He goes into the prisons. And so, Colby, I do thank you for listening to this show. Aren't you glad that we have a network here? This show is carried on American Family Radio and The Truth Network and his radio and some other stations that pick it up.

But American Family Radio has a wide reach. This is not the first letter that I've gotten from individuals who are incarcerated who listen to the show. They never cease to touch my heart in ways that it's the highest compliment that I can get for doing this show is that somebody who is in prison is finding hope in this. And it's the highest affirmation that we're doing something that has value. Because this is why I do it.

I do it because I understand the hopelessness that so many feel and if we can anchor ourselves in Christ, regardless of whether we are in a prison or stuck in a hospital room or rehab centers or wherever else we are, then we are free and who the Lord sets free is free indeed. So, I really appreciate this Colby and I will reach out to your family and communicate this to them and hopefully we can offer them some tangible things that will strengthen them today and we look forward to the time when you're with them and we want to hear more from you. So, thank you so much for that. I want to switch gears a little bit today. We've talked, we've done a kind of a series over the last couple of weeks and so forth. I've asked you as a listener, you know, what is something, a favorite meal that you have? What's something that you shared with your loved one or something that connects with you? And I had some great stories with that. I remember one lady called in and she had this wonderful lemon pie that she'd bought from this restaurant that makes really good lemon pie and she happened to have that in the refrigerator and her mother woke up at two in the morning and was hungry and said, when I got a lemon pie, so they had lemon pie together and that was the last meal that they had was a piece of pie together and it was just a real moving story. And then we talked about what's a favorite song of yours?

What's something that resonates with you as a piece of music that has connected you? And we've got wonderful stories of that. And today I want to talk about laughter. Is there something that particularly sets you off that's funny, that's kind of helped you chuckle in the midst of maybe something's happening to you as a caregiver? I have plenty of those kinds of story. A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries open the bones, dries up the bones. Proverbs 17, 22 says in Ecclesiastes 3, 4, the time to weep and the time to laugh.

Do you laugh as a caregiver? Well, we're going to try to see if we can help with that when we come back. 888-589-8840. We'll be right back. 24 seven 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? We can't always check on them or be there in ways we'd like. That's why there's Constant Companion. Seamlessly weaving technology and personal attention to help push back against the isolation while addressing the critical safety issues of our vulnerable loved ones and their caregivers. Constant Companion is the solution for families today. Staying connected, staying safe.

It's smart, easy, and incredibly affordable. Go to www.mycompanion247.com today. That's mycompanion247.com. Connection and independence for you and those you care about. Mycompanion247.com.

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. In my three decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital trying to sleep in waiting rooms, on fold-out cots and chairs and even the floor. As caregivers, we have to sleep in uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. Do what we're doing in my home by using pillows from mypillow.com.

These things are great. They have a patented interlocking fill that adjusts to your individual sleep needs and for caregivers trying to sleep in a hospital room chair. Believe me, our individual sleep needs get ramped up significantly. You know, I've never liked taking pillows from home to the hospital with because I never felt like I could get them clean again. But with pillows from mypillow.com, you can throw them in the washer and dryer. They got a 10-year warranty, guaranteed not to go flat. 60-day money-back guarantee.

They're made in the USA. As a caregiver, you need rest. So start by going to mypillow.com, type in the promo code CAREGIVER and get 50% off the 4-pack which includes 2 premium pillows and 2 go-anywhere pillows. You'll receive a discount on anything else on the website when using your promo code CAREGIVER. That's mypillow.com promo code CAREGIVER. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver for somebody who is struggling to care for somebody who's got a chronic impairment and you're trying to keep them healthy by staying healthy yourself. And that is Gracie singing, no matter what comes my way, my life is in your hands. And that's from her CD Resilient.

You can go out to her website. It's www.hopeforthecaregiver.com. I used to, my long-time producer in Nashville would fuss at me when I would say W instead of W. All right, we're going to talk today a little bit about laughter. What do you got going on with you? Have you ever had something funny happen to you as a caregiver? Scripture says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. Luke 6 21, Jesus says, blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. Do you have to wait for your caregiving responsibilities to be over to have laughter, to have moments of levity?

I don't think so. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840 if you have something that you would like to share, something that's kind of made you chuckle a little bit or you found some sense of humor, you were able to laugh with your loved one, you were able to laugh. I've played a lot of funerals in my life. As a pianist, I've done this for my dad as a pastor when he would officiate funerals. And then I've also done this once I left, went off to college and a long-time pastor in Nashville and I seemed to do quite a few of them together. And I've been to some that were just horrifically tragic. And then I've been to some where the people could come together and rejoice and laugh at a life well lived and in the midst of even great sorrow.

So there's all kinds of time for that. I think there is a time to laugh. And I think as caregivers, we got tears aplenty, but laughter is about as scarce as Charmin on a Walmart counter. We don't laugh. We don't keep a sense of humor in this thing. And I think that's one thing that sustained Gracie and I through lo these many years.

I mean, I'm 35 years into this as a caregiver, try to go 35 years without laughing. And that's just wrong. And I've seen people who are just so consumed with bitterness. But I think that as we learn to accept the freedom, as we talked about the last segment, the freedom that comes in Christ to realize that this is not the end of the story. And there is a place for this. There's a place for us to have joy. And Psalm 126 2, that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy.

Then they said among the nation, the Lord has done great things for them. You know, and I think that's, I'm not talking about laughing, you know, silly and being stupid and goofy, even though I do that quite often, but I am talking about learning to lighten up. Now I've got a rather serious call as you guys call it. We'll take all that, but I've got a rather serious call that's come in. So I want to go ahead and take this from Ted in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ted, good morning. How are you feeling? Good morning, sir. How are you? Well, I'm fine. Tell me how you're doing.

I'm really good, but I have a question and I'll get right to the point. I have heard that the COVID shots right now coming out Pfizer and Moderna are pretty good, but I've heard it's really scary. Like me, the Johnson and Johnson, the new single dose coming out is using unborn baby, aborted baby material, either in the development or as, I don't know if it's a component of the vaccine, but my concern is on a fire reaching into the spiritual relevancy.

Could this be possibly the mark of the beast in the sense that this is something that inadvertently could be a spiritual matter like this? I have no clue. I can tell you that the Catholic Church has come out against, or at least a lot of them have, because the Johnson and Johnson, according to the article I read, was based on a clone of aborted tissue from abortion. It was based on a clone of that, and that's how they developed it. That's what the article said.

I have no clue on whether that's done. I'm a big fan of not using any type of testing and research that came from abortions. There's a thing in the law, when you're practicing law, things are inadmissible in court. If it came, it's called fruit of the poison tree. Have you ever heard that phrase? If you've got information that goes towards convicting someone, and yet it came from a source that was not allowed by law, whether you've got the information without a warrant, through nefarious means or whatever, it's fruit of the poison tree, and it's inadmissible in court, even if it proves that the person was guilty. So I don't understand why the same law doesn't apply here. Now, if it doesn't apply by man's law, man's law is not the standard that we live our lives by anyway, does it apply by God's law. And if this is coming from basically fruit of the poison tree, which is if you are using medical research based upon the horrific practice of abortion, to me, that's wrong. To me, that is out in a bad place. And so I'm glad that the other two vaccines do not do that. Of course, we've lost our moral compass as a country and as a world anyway.

I mean, the world never had it. The moral compass that we have that guides us in these ethical matters is just blown to smithereens. But that doesn't alleviate us from still responding to God's directive.

And so to our best knowledge, if you have something like this, I would want to avoid that, particularly for me, as much as we possibly can. Now, Paul says we can eat meat that is offered to idols. And I understand that. And I'm no theologian. I don't pretend to be.

As Scripture said, I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I just simply know that God's grace is greater than even this. But I think that at some point we need to, you'll find a recurring theme throughout this entire network of pro-life. Well, if we're using a pro-abortion platform to help us live healthier lives, then what have we really done? And so I take a pro-life stance from cradle to grave. And so we have, we're killing in the womb and then we're killing at the end of life or when people have certain significant disabilities or whatever, we're determining whether or not this life has any value or not.

And then if we're profiting off of that type of mentality, I think that becomes a very horrific place for us morally and ethically in our country and in our society. So I don't know if that answers your question or not. I don't know if it has anything to do with the mark of the beast. I'm not an eschatologist. I'm a caregiver, but I do value life and I don't want to see us build a series of products based on a path of death, if that makes sense to you. It definitely makes me think that I should go with the other two vaccine companies. I have a feeling, and pay attention to some news, read a lot, because I have a feeling there are a lot of people that are much more scholarly and learned than I am who are going to be weighing into this and addressing this. And you're going to see that, but if we're going to be pro-life, then we need to be consistent. And this has changed a lot of things with me. I mean, I even look at the death penalty differently now, because if I'm going to be pro-life, am I going to be pro-life?

These are hard things, but the point of where my journey has been is that I'm seeing that God is able to weigh into all of this. He's the author of all life, and I'm not comfortable. I think given the way the state has acted and the country has acted, the government has acted, I don't know that I'm comfortable turning over to the government the ability to take a life. In fact, I know I'm not.

I'm not comfortable to the government's ability to run a checkbook. Those are my thoughts. I have found that Scripture is very much in the point of God is invading into these places of death and resurrecting and bringing life, and I think that's our stance that we should be as believers. I hope that just kind of gives you at least a little bit of a 360 view from my point of where I'm looking at this thing.

Does that help at all? Absolutely, and today's culture is so pro-abortion and so against God's ways that any stuff you can take, I think, is very smart spiritually to follow the exact most pure way you can state to the Lord. Well, the culture is, we have a culture of death. If you don't like it, kill it, you know? If it's uncomfortable, kill it. Get rid of it, whether that's in the womb or that's in the nursing home or that's in somebody who's living with chronic disabilities. So that's the whole point of where our culture is.

If it's inconvenient, if it doesn't make us feel good, if we don't like it, if it's in the way, we get rid of it. But that's not what God does, and God reaches into the most horrific circumstances and is able to resurrect and bring life, no matter what's going on. And that's the whole point. He is the resurrection of life, is what He said to Mary and Martha when Lazarus was dead. And they kept thinking, well, I know that one day, and He said, no, no, no, I'm the resurrection right here in front of you.

I'm life. And I think that is the place for us as believers to anchor ourselves no matter what the world says. It's not going to be politically correct. They're going to laugh and impugn at us.

They did it to Him. But it doesn't matter. That's the way it is.

And I would rather stand with that. So I hope that helps and gives you at least a starting point. But I would highly recommend you research and read and study all these things, because if we don't do this as believers, we're going to risk being just washed out to sea with this thing. We have to anchor ourselves in these things, and we have to study and show ourselves approved, and we have to be educated so that we can speak with clarity into this. If we're pro-life, then are we pro-life consistently?

And are we reflecting that in our way that we communicate with each other and to the world? Thank you very much, though, for the call on that, Ted. I appreciate that very much. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

We'll be right back. I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and 26 years ago, I walked for the first time on two prosthetic legs. I saw firsthand how important quality prosthetic limbs are to an amputee. This understanding compelled me to establish standing with hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana in 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'm standing with hope. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver, and we're glad to have you with us. 888-589-8840, we'll go to the phones. Wilma in North Carolina. Wilma, good morning. How are you feeling? Fine, feeling fine.

All right, so what you got going on? Well, I'm not a caregiver anymore. I took care of my mother for seven years, and friends that used to call her and come see her, when she got sick, that all stopped. Well, I asked my aunt one day, I said, you and mama used to talk all the time on the phone. How come you don't call her no more? She goes, oh, well, I don't want to bother, you know, I'm afraid she might be asleep or something.

And I said, that don't matter. I'll wake her up. Older people that are bedridden, they sleep all the time mainly because they're depressed. No one come to visit them or call them. And people just, they isolate them like, you know, throw them to the side and sort of isolate them. Come to the house, treat them like they're somebody. You don't have to bring something sweet, because sweet's not good for them laying around all the time. But bring a little piece of food, some Chinese food or something, come visit them, sit on the porch. You can ask them about when they were young.

You might even get educated. Well said. You know, Jesus said, when I was sick, you visited me naked, you clothed me hungry, you're thirsty and in prison. And they said, well, Lord, Lord, where do we see that? He said, as much as you've done to the least of these, you've done it to me.

Those are his directives. And I think that in the COVID world, it's hard to go. You don't want to go over to visit people if you think that you may, you know, get them sicker, but that doesn't mean you can't pick up the phone and that doesn't mean you can't write a note. And I think, let me run something by you here and see what you think about this, Wilma. I think that a lot of times people don't know what to say. And so in the absence of not knowing what to say, they just don't say anything. Would, does that resonate with you?

Yeah. That's, that's sad because I used to go to, uh, I was taught when I was young in Kentucky, you know, I love to sit around and talk to old people. You're not going to learn nothing talking to kids your age. You learn patience, learn patience sometimes. And you know, um, just sitting and talking to them, you know, let them start, ask them about, you know, when they were young or something. Um, you know, these people that are just so weak back, they, Oh, I don't, my brother used to say, I'd say, why don't you come see mommy?

You ride right by the house and throw your hand up and blow the horn. I said, that breaks my heart. Why don't you come and see her? Oh, I just can't deal with it. And I said, you know, that's a sorry excuse.

And one day I said, you know, one day he's, he might be bedridden before I die and I'm going to, uh, remind him of it. You know, when people say I can't, when people say I can't deal with it, I, you know, I always ask them why, but what's, what's stopping you from dealing with it. I mean, it's, it's uncomfortable to see infirmity. It's uncomfortable to see disability. It's uncomfortable for these things. This is the human condition, however.

And you know, and I think that one of the things I try to do on this show Wilma is that I try to give people a vocabulary and an understanding of what it, how to even start the conversation. And it's, it is uncomfortable, but you know what? Jesus did this for us. And once we understand, once we understand just what our plight was without Christ, then it gives us a picture, a better understanding then of, of what's going on with other people when they are sick or distressed or disability or marriages are falling apart, relationships, whatever, drugs, alcohol, all those kinds of things. That is nothing compared to the plight of sin. And Jesus came into that plight.

He came into that prison. He came into that, but you know, a lot of people don't want to go visit anybody in a jail. I knew a pastor who hated to go to the hospital and I was like, man, you're in the wrong business. You know, but he liked to get up there and preach in front of people, but he didn't want to go to the hospital. It didn't feel like that was his calling. And I was like, well, I'll leave my response to that when I said, but I'll leave that into, uh, into silence right now. But I was, I was appalled by that, but, but I was like, you know, this is, this is our calling as believers.

It's not a vocational calling. This is what Jesus asked us to do when I was sick. You visited me. It could not be any clearer. Well, I got one message for people listening. Um, you know, that are not caregivers. Don't say be squamish and say, Oh, I can't deal with it. No, don't think with your mind. Think with your heart. Think about them people.

They don't want to be laying there in bed and they can't get out and drive their car, their car sitting out there for months because they can't drive it no more. Offer to take them for a ride. So let's go see the countryside. That's what I do to people.

Let's take a ride and tell me what you want to know. When people say they can't deal with it, I'm like, well then don't let Christ deal with it. You just be obedient. And it is uncomfortable. I've been in more hospital rooms.

Not just with, with Gracie. I've been in more hospital rooms and been to funerals and, and you know, all the above. I've, I've, I've waded into horrific circuit. I'll tell you a picture.

I'll give you a picture of what changed for me. And I realized it was a, it was a, it was one of those kind of snapshot moments Wilma, when everything just kind of comes into focus. And my, my best friend in life, and we've been friends now for 45 years. And he, he and I were hanging out with my dad and dad said, I got to make a stop. Y'all you boys come with me.

And we were in high school or whatever. And so we went over there and he went to the mission in our little town there in South Carolina. And these, these guys at the mission, part of their journey was they had to, they got a free meal and a place to stay, but then they had to listen to somebody come and preach. They would always have a preacher and dad volunteered to do this.

And it's over there at the, not the best side of town over there by the bus station. I mean, you can kind of picture it. And these guys are out there and most of them look like they were hung over. And they, I don't even think they really cared about being there, but I listened to dad get up there and speak. And I realized that he wasn't speaking to the guys. He was speaking to himself. He was preaching to himself and they just, they just happened to, to be able to witness it because he was doing, he was speaking these words to himself to strengthen himself. He was preaching these things and reminding his own spirit of this, of these great truths. And these guys were able to participate in this. I don't know whatever impact it had on the guys, but I know it had an impact on him and my father. And I know it had an impact on my friend and I, a friend in me that, uh, how do I say that by friend and me?

Yeah. And, and it was just one of those things, those, those moments we realized when we go and do this, we're actually building ourselves up. We're speaking ourselves, speaking the gospel to ourselves. Like David did at Ziklag, one of my favorite verses in scripture, when his own men were going to stone him and he encouraged himself in the Lord. Jesus went off and did this by himself when he went and prayed with his father.

And he, he, he did this with somebody because nobody else was doing it for him. And so when you visit somebody who was sick and you visit somebody who's in distress and you are offering the presence just to be there with them, just enjoy being with them, speaking to them, whatever, laughing with them, cutting up with them, you're building yourself up when you do that. And I hope that people could see that now that there is a path for that. So Wilma, thank, that was a very good reminder that people do need to, when I was sick, you visited me. This is what Jesus said. These are his words. If it helps you, they're in red letter, uh, in your Bible, they are his words and he's pretty serious about it. And Wilma, you have done us a great service by reminding of that this morning.

So thank you very much. Let's go to Cheryl in Kansas. Cheryl, good morning. How are you feeling?

Good morning. How are you? Well, I'm fine, but, but first off, how are you? I'm fine. I'm good. That's the question I always ask every caller. I'm going to ask you, how are you feeling?

Cause I want to hear it in your voice. I want to hear how you're doing. I'm doing good. I really am doing good. Um, um, I am a caregiver.

I'm one of four. We care for our mother. We're having a big birthday party tomorrow. She's going to be 100. She's amazing. She's on very little medicine, very little. She's just still pretty sharp. She still makes us laugh. Uh, she still remember most things. So, you know, I'm pretty lucky, pretty lucky as a caregiver, but, uh, we've been caring for her probably.

I know at least two years, she did real good till she, well, maybe three, she broke her hip. Everything changed after that. But, um, anyways, I, uh, found myself just, uh, and I didn't even realize that I just got lost in it. I mean, I ate it, drank it, slept it, you know what I mean?

From, uh, from, I gave up everything, my job, my, my classes, you know, everything. And I happened to just stumble upon you. I believe it was a divine intervention one morning, uh, when I turned on the radio expecting to find something else, I had my days mixed up and you had talked that day about, you have to be careful you don't get lost in it. And that was a real wake up call for me. And ever since then I have been a whole lot better.

That just was a life that I needed to see and hear. And it really kind of helped me realize that I was lost. Like I had gotten lost in it, not hating it, not anything bad, but just my mind. I'd gotten lost in it. And, uh, and I, by the way, I'm used to people saying that they stumbled into my show and found me by accident. I'm pretty used to that by now. I know it's not by accident.

I know it was. No, no, no. I, I've, I've, I'm yanking your chain here a little bit.

That's because that's hilarious to me. I, what happens is, is that we get into what I call the fear, obligation and guilt, the fog of caregivers, and we get disoriented. And then another thing that happens to us as caregivers is we lose our identity.

We just, we just lose ourselves in someone else's story. And we have a very hard time speaking in first person singular. This is why I always ask every caregiver, every caller, when you call, how are you feeling? And I just want, I just want caregivers to get used to speaking in their own voice. And I don't care, you know, what, what the answer is as far as, you know, if you feel, if you're having a bad day, you don't have to dress it up, but I just want you to say, I feel whatever because we're speaking in first person singular. You ask a caregiver, how are you doing? Well, we had a bad night or she's doing okay.

Or, or his situation is such and such. But when I ask you, how are you feeling? That's when the rails come off emotionally for so many caregivers and then that's when the tears come and so forth.

And, uh, and that's, that's what I've found to be consistent with caregivers is that we do lose ourselves in it. So I'm glad that you have regained your footing, getting back up on the road of your own identity, Cheryl. And you know what?

Happy birthday to your mom, a hundred years old. That's, that's, that's quite a, quite an event, isn't it? I wanted to tell you though, the reason I called. Well, hang on then. Hold on. Let me let you hold through the break then. Okay. Cause we got to go to a break.

That's what the music means. And if you'll just hang on, we'll go to a break. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the caregiver. This is the show for you as a family caregiver.

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. The word of God tells us many times in one way or another, fear not. Today in the world, many are very fearful, afraid of the coronavirus and other perils that are going on in our world. Psalm 91, verses one and two tells us, he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress. My God in him I will trust. I'm Joseph Parker, and we here at the American Family Association would like to remind you, fear not, put your trust in the Lord. We'd like to both encourage and challenge you to aggressively put your faith to work. Certainly use wisdom and insight that government and medical professionals are encouraging, but first put your trust in the Lord. We'd like to encourage you to pray Psalm 91 daily for yourself and your family and keep your trust in him.

If you'd like to get a copy of the Psalm 91 prayer for yourself, email us here at Psalm91 at afa.net. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Roseburger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver, and we're so glad that you are with us. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. We're talking with Cheryl in Kansas who had some things she wanted to add as well. So Cheryl, go ahead. Yes, I just wanted to finish by, the reason I called is, excuse me, I heard the other gentleman talking about vaccines.

The AstraZeneca does have cloned human DNA from the lung tissue, and that's in Wikipedia, Medical Research Council. So I thought I'd tell you that. Well, I appreciate that.

Again, we're going to find out more and more stuff about all these things, and I think it's just the more we educate ourselves, the better off we are, and we'll be able to deal with this appropriately. I'm sorry, I keep trying to talk over you. I'm bad about butting in.

I do know, and then the lady I talked to said another person called in with the same thing, but she didn't know that she could stay on the line, and she had to hang up. But I just wanted to put that out there. That's all, that's all.

Well I appreciate that. The scripture says, study and show yourself approved. The more we understand the Word of God, the more we're going to be able to deal with these things that come in, and we'll have wisdom and we'll have insight beyond our pale, beyond what we can do, because it will be anchored in the Word of God. And the further we get into the nuances of science, the more the Word of God becomes applicable.

Francis Schaeffer talked about this in his series, Whatever Happened to Human Race, back in the 70s, and it's spooky how much he was on point for what's going on right now in our culture today. So again, I cannot stress enough of this that we anchor ourselves in the Word of God. What does God say about it? Now, God's Word does not get into a lot of the nitty-gritty things like, for example, I've used on this show, there's no case scenario in the scripture about a man who took care of his wife for 35 years through 80 surgeries and both of her legs amputated and 100 doctors and 12 hospitals and yada, yada, yada, all the stuff that Gracie and I've done. But there are a lot of places in scripture where it talks about fear, despair, resentment, rage, frustration, depression, all of those things. If it's a matter of the heart, it's in scripture. If it's a matter of the policies of God, it's in scripture. And God is a God of life.

He is the author of life. And if we don't land on this, then where are we going to land? And so that's our point. So Cheryl, thank you for bringing that to our attention. Let me go to Ginger in Missouri. Ginger, good morning. How are you feeling? Good morning. I'm good.

How are you? I'm just peachy. I had to snap a shot of it. You could go out and see it on our Facebook page, Hope for the Caregiver, the view from my office window, because I'm watching the sunrise over the Rockies and it is just spectacular.

And I'll post that on our Facebook page. It is just truly spectacular. And Hope for the Caregiver, you'll see it. And so, and I'm looking over snow covered fields and so forth. So it just, it's very soul settling to me. So yeah, I'm doing okay. So tell me what's going on with you. Well, the first guy, the guy that called in earlier, or that wrote you earlier from prison, that really touched me. I just did quite a few years incarcerated.

Most of my time, I came out minimal amount of time and went back. My family, I mean, we were distant. They didn't get to know me.

I didn't get to know them. Now I come home this time and it's my last time. I've been home two years now. And my mom has got dementia and I watched my grandma pass and my mother-in-law before, but it's sad. She told me last night that she thought she was going to, or she thinks she's dying. I mean, like she said, I feel like I'm dying. And to see you guys, hear you guys all talk about caregiving and the emotions, God bless you all.

I didn't get a chance with that. I really wish I'd been here for my mom. Well I understand that. And I know I could hear the grief in your voice and I know that you're trying to keep it together here, Ginger. And, and I want you to understand there's a wonderful scripture. There's a wonderful scripture that applies to you right now. And Jesus said this, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Now let me unpack that a little bit, Ginger. You have a lot to mourn about and that scripture implies that there will be mourning and that scripture also doesn't give any kind of timeframe on how long that mourning will continue. It just says that you're going to mourn. Blessed are those who mourn. There are going to be people who mourn and we all do.

I think we all grieve and groan in these things. But it also, but he doesn't leave you in that place of mourning and he doesn't abandon you there. He comforts you.

And there are a lot of things that you, go ahead. I was just going to say, my mom, she's comforting too. When she's remembering, my brother just passed away two years, 10 days before I came home, he passed away at 38. And she, she's grieving so bad over him still. She can't, I think it's taken her even down further. Well, and it, and it may indeed, and she does need comforting.

And you know what? The good news is, is that he is not short of comforting. He's never going to run out of comforting. Our savior's able to extend grace and mercy and comfort abundantly without reservation and inexhaustibly. That's what he does.

That's who he is. He's the God of all comfort. Paul says that we comfort one another with the same comfort that we ourselves are received so that we can go out and comfort others with the God from the God of all comfort, because that's where it comes from.

That's our source. And as he comforts you this morning, even through this phone call you and I are having right now, all I'm doing is extended to you the same comfort that others have extended to me, all coming from the God of all comfort. And so now, Ginger, you are a recipient of this. If you've heard these wonderful words of life, you've heard, if you've heard this show at all, you heard me play hymns on here. And one of my favorite is, is wonderful words of life, seeing them over and over again. Wonderful words of life, beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.

And as I relate those words to you, then you can go and relate these to your mother. There's an old, do you know that old hymn? Beautiful, wonderful words of life. Do you know that hymn? No, no. It goes, wonderful words, beautiful words, wonderful words of life.

Seeing them over and over again. Wonderful words of life. Would you do me a favor, Ginger? Yes.

Would you go and look this up? Just look up the lyrics to wonderful words of life and then say them to yourself and then say them to your mother. And then I'm going to ask you one more favor because we're going to run out of time. Does your mom like music?

Yes. Okay. I'm going to send you a copy of my CD. It's called Songs for the Caregiver. And I want both of you to listen to it.

It'll just, they're going to be times when you'll just fall asleep, listen to it because it's very relaxing. They're going to be times when you weep listening to it because that's the whole thing. We don't, we're not going to get through this life without weeping, but we have the option to receive his comfort and we don't have to receive it.

He's not going to force it on us. But in our distress, he does here. And there are moments, you know, distress. I mean, you were behind bars, you know, distress, you know it. I think we came home and found a really godly, great man that turned me to God.

I didn't know God. Well, you do now and you understand distress in a way that many don't. But now I'm asking you to, I'm giving you the invitation to understand comfort in a way that many have. And if you'll hang on, we're going to get your information and I'm going to send you a copy of my CD for you and your mom. Is that okay? Yes, thank you so much.

You were quite welcome, Ginger. You're why I do the show. You know that, don't you? Yes. You're why I do the show. And I'm not offering you anything that somebody hasn't offered me.

Okay? And we comfort one another with the same comfort that we ourselves have received from God, who is the author of all our comfort. And so I want to send this to you because I think it'll just be comforting to you and your mom. Tears are not a sign of weakness or failure, but let them come without a sense of despair because that's where God intercepts us.

So those tears are not tears of rage or despair, but they're, they're genuine mourning. And then in that morning we will be comforted. And so hang on a second, we're going to get your information. I'm going to send this to your mom and you. Okay. For both of you. All right. Thank you. You're quite welcome.

God bless you. And this is why we do the show. This is why we do the show because in the midst of our mourning and our distress and our angst and our sorrow, he invades these things so that we can have joy. I was going to do a whole bunch of stuff on laughter today, but the conversations took a different place.

So I want to just tell you next week, get ready and have something that's funny in your life. So we talk about that because you know, we don't, that's the whole point about being believers is that we can walk around with calmness and assurance and joy, knowing that he who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. That's the whole point. And we, as caregivers, we have to look at very painful things. We have to walk into very painful things.

And it's like the one caller that she, she shared with us that people don't come and visit. They don't know what to do. They don't want to go into a house of sickness and disability and sorrow and death and aging.

You know, they don't want that. We want everything to be pretty and rosy and pleasant and all that kind of stuff. But Jesus invades all of those things.

He invaded this world to come into those places and he's asking us to do the same and he equips us to do the same. So whether it's, you know, a situation like my father was, you know, preaching at a homeless shelter or you're visiting somebody who was sick or you're just picking up the phone and calling them, you go and bring that comfort to these others, just as someone has done for you. Hope for the caregiver, hopeforthecaregiver.com if you want more information, if you want to, our podcast is free, by the way, we've got, you know, 500 plus episodes out there and you can listen to stuff, all kinds of stuff and share it with folks. If you don't know how to speak caregiver, guess what? I do. I'm fluent in it. But it's our Savior's native tongue and this is what we're wanting to do is help people understand that we have a Savior who is deeply interested in your distress.

And as it is extended, his arm is not short that he cannot save, his ear is not deaf that he cannot hear. Hopeforthecaregiver.com, this is Peter Rosenberger, we'll be back here next week. 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 legs. 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 some place 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.

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? Where do they find it? Oh, please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.