"Leave to Thy God To Order and Provide"

Speaking of hangry, we got something going on at the Truth Network that's going to help the world not be so hangry. Yeah, he's talking about just needing God's Word. He said, please help the Truth Network send Bibles to Africa.

And we know that they need God's Word. We have until the end of the month, just $5 gets a Bible in the hands of a poor, impoverished believer all over the African continent with the help of the Bible League. Just $5.

Just think about that, Robbie. Just $5. So please give. If you can give more than $5, man, we'd love for you to do it. And the number to call is 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD.

Live on American Family Radio, this is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the caregiver. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. How are you feeling? How are you doing?

What's going on with you? More than 65 million Americans right now serving as a family caregiver. Maybe you are tuning into this show for the first time and had no idea that there was a show for you as a family caregiver.

Well, there is. And this is the world's largest. We're here on American Family Radio and other networks as well. I want to give a big shout out to the Truth Network. His radio affiliates in Suffolk, Virginia, 96.9 Norfolk, 100.1. 110 AM. 1010 AM.

And we're just glad to have all the affiliates that are carrying this show around the country and streaming around the world through the AFR app, which a lot of folks are listening to that now, by the way, it's just people listen to it differently through their phones and so forth and on Alexa and other things. And so we're glad to have all of you here as we come together to strengthen the family caregiver. That individual who puts himself knowingly, willingly, voluntarily without pay between a vulnerable loved one and even worse disaster. And maybe it's a disease. Maybe it's a disability. Maybe it was trauma that led to a disability. Maybe it was an event like a stroke. Maybe it's alcoholism or addiction. Those are chronic impairments. Maybe it's aging.

There's all types of different things that are going on to afflict human beings. And there's always a caregiver. And you are in the right place. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. I live in Southwest Montana. I woke up to, no kidding, five inches of snow this morning. So here we are almost June, but we need it because last year we had a pretty rough fire season. A lot of dry ground and we don't need the drought. And so I'm glad for the moisture and this snow will clear up here in a couple of days.

The rest of the country is enjoying nice balmy weather, but we have a cold and snowy up here in the Rockies. But we do love it and it's beautiful and it's great to see. All right, I'm going to, before I give, I'm not going to give out a scripture first because it'll give away the song. So I'm going to step over to the caregiver keyboard. And I'm going to give you the song for today and we're going to talk about this throughout the show. And if you know this song, this is your time to call in 888-589-8840. And then tell me why this song is important to you. And we're going to tie this into the to the family caregiver.

So I'm stepping over here to the caregiver keyboard. Are you ready? All right, do you know that song 888-589-8840? I didn't play the whole thing. It's a little bit long, but I wanted to talk about that song. I may play the whole thing a little bit later on the show.

But 888-589-8840, if you know that song. I want to tell you a story that ties into that. I have spent a lot of time in a hospital over the years. Gracie, to my knowledge, has had now 80 surgeries that I can count.

150 other smaller procedures. And this has been going on since her car wreck back in 1983. So when I get to the hospital with her, there's usually a lot of activity. And that was pretty much the norm for us. And I'm running around and doing stuff and trying to coordinate with kids and all that kind of stuff. And that was our life for many, many years.

This particular time in my life, God had been working on quite a few things in my life. And for whatever reason, I was not frenetic. You ever get frenetic at the hospital? You're just running around and just, you know, like a chicken with your head cut off.

And those of you who have had lots of hospital visits and so forth. And you're just kind of trying to get so many things done. And you're on your phone or whatever. Well, that was my normal thing.

But I wasn't doing that this time. And I was just sitting there beside her. I was actually looking at the menu for that night of just what we're going to order from the hospital cafeteria.

How how many of you all have spent a lot of time in the hospital cafeteria? It was very quiet in the room. Gracie was post-op. She was not on monitors. And she was resting. And I looked over at her and she was blue. And she stopped breathing.

I immediately got the nurse in and they called the code team and she had coded, put into respiratory rest code blue. And I had been at that hospital. I don't know how many times. I mean, just countless times. And there are people that showed up in that room that I had never seen before.

I mean, like SWAT team nurses and that kind of stuff. And they intubated her and I stayed right there and I was calm. And and got, you know, everything got sorted. And they ended up taking her down to ICU and yada, yada, yada.

What's the what's the application there? I was doing nothing. I was just sitting there. I was just sitting there. And she coded. Had I not been there? Had I been out doing all the normal activities that I was used to doing and was known for doing? She died.

It's just that simple. And it was it was a scary time, but post-operative with Gracie could be a bit dicey. And sometimes with pain management stuff, they hit the mark and sometimes they miss the mark. And this is one of those times where they missed the mark and I was there. I was where I was supposed to be. I was doing nothing.

And was able to save her life. Oftentimes, as caregivers, we feel like it's all up to us. And if we're not doing something and if we're not looking like we're doing something, then we don't feel settled in our own spirits.

You ever feel that way? That you've got to somehow just be a flurry of activity. And that is when I started to embrace the concept that a friend shared with me. He said, never doubt the power of inactivity. That's a different kind of concept for caregivers because we are a flurry of activity.

And I still am. I mean, I make no mistake. I'm not saying these things like I just sit around and watch TV all the time. I get fussed at quite often by friends at Gracie because I work from home. So the phone is my office, if you will. And I always have a Bluetooth on and I'm working.

I'll do media interviews and all that kind of stuff while cleaning the kitchen. And I don't really make many apologies about it if you hear clattering in the background. I got a friend of mine that called me up one time and said, don't you ever just sit down and talk? And I said, no, I have things to do. But I've learned that there are times when I need to just sit down and do nothing. And I want to give away the song, but just to do nothing.

Because that is itself an action step. We're going to unpack that more once you tell me what that song was. 888-589-8840 888-589-8840 This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the caregiver. This is the show for you as the family caregiver.

We'll be right back on Broadway. Hey, this is Peter Rosenberg and in my three and a half decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital, sleeping in waiting rooms on fold-out cots, chairs, even the floor. Sometimes on sofas and a few times in the doghouse, but let's don't talk about that. As caregivers, we have to sleep at uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. We use pillows from MyPillow.com.

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This is Peter Rose Boogie. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're so glad that you are with us.

That is Gracie, our wife with Russ Taft from her CD Resilient. And by the way, we're doing a special promo for this month. We've got a pretty good sized shipment that we're putting together to send over to Ghana. We've been working there for 16 years now and we train and equip local workers to build prosthetic limbs for their own people.

We normally take teams of people, but we can't do that right now with the COVID, but we do send over supplies. We recycle prosthetic limbs and you guys have been great to help get the word out to let people know that you can recycle a prosthetic limb. It goes to a prison in Arizona and they are run by a group out of Tennessee called Core Civic. We've been great friends with them for many years and inmates volunteer to disassemble the legs for us and we can recycle the foot, the knee, the pylon, the screws, the adapters, the connectors, the prosthetic socks, some of the liners and sleeves, the belt systems. All those kinds of things can be reused and we'll make a custom leg over there. We buy material for that, but we've got a shipment now that needs to get out of the prison, get over there. And so if you want to be a part of that and help get that word out and help lift others up, you can go to standingwithhope.com today and be involved with that and donate or you can go to my website at Hope for the Caregiver.

Either way, it'll take you there. And for a one-time donation of 250 or more, we're going to send you Gracie's CD, my CD, and my book. And just as a gift, just a one-time thing, we just want to get this big shipment going and we're doing other things right now to offset the fact that we cannot go.

We sponsored one of our patients and we've been treating him since 2006 and he is finishing up his bachelor's degree and we're helping pay some of his tuition to get his degree so that he can go out and he's going to be a teacher and he's been an above-knee amputee for some time and we put a leg on him and so forth. So there are a lot of different things that you can be a part of and if you like what you're hearing on the show, if it's been meaningful to you, be a part of it and help us do more and do it better. And thank you very much. All right, we've got a lot of folks that are calling in and want to talk about this song.

I'll just give you a little taste of it here. It's... That's a wonderful hymn and it ties in with what we want to talk about today. So, and if somebody else gets the song and you know it, that's okay because I'd like to hear how this song is meaningful to you. So don't just hang up because you didn't get the name of the song because you obviously have a connection with this song.

So I would like for you to hear it and share with others why this song is important. So let's go to one of my favorite that I've ever talked to throughout the whole show. He's been, gosh, he's been listening for a long time. Homer. Homer in Oklahoma. Homer, good morning. How are you feeling? Good morning, Peter. Much better after hearing your performing of that particular piece. It's one that really has powerful meaning for me because it lifts my heart in times of stress. Be still my soul. I love that hymn. Tell me, tell me why it's one of your favorites.

Drill down on that a little bit. Well, I'm something of a musician myself, but over the years, it's become more understood that music appearances the soul. It's the language of the soul. And in my darkest times, I can always go to that proof of intelligent design that has an effect on me. Be still my soul when played as you just did with great inflection, reinforces that God is present. God is alive and God suits.

And for me, most recently, I've joined a bereavement group, not as a facilitator, but as a participant. And music is always introduced in the group as powerful. And that piece is powerful for me.

I think that is a great word for it Homer. It is a powerful hymn. And I'm going to step it over here to the caregiver keyboard. I'm going to read the text here. Be still my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide in every change. He faithful will remain. Be still my soul. Thy best, thy heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

That is a text that will be around for a very, very, very long time. And it is that you don't, this is why I do the hymns on this show because it's nothing against a lot of the writers that are writing wonderful things right now. But these hymns reflect something different to me and they anchor me. There's a depth to them.

They've stood the test of time. And I love these hymns. So Homer, I'm impressed that you got it. I'm glad that you got it because it is a great hymn. And I appreciate you listening to the show. So thank you for that Homer. Thank you Peter.

God bless you. All right, Barbara in Ohio. Barbara, good morning. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling good. Thank you. I was already comforted by your words because I only remembered the title of the song, not all of the words. It's a longer song. It's a slower song. It's not meant to be sung kind of fast or plunked out. You know, one of the things I don't particularly like is when people just plunk out these hymns, play them with the respect that the text deserves.

And you know, when you have a text of that, and listen to this third verse. Gracie does this on her CD. She combined it. She did it a cappella. I didn't have it loaded this morning. I'm sorry for that.

That's my bad. But she leads off with Be Still My Soul a cappella and then goes into Balm and Gilead. And it's a wonderful arrangement. But listen to this third verse. Be still my soul. I don't have my glasses on, Barbara, so you have to bear with me. This getting old is not everything it says in a brochure.

Be still my soul. I'll read this after I get my glasses. I always have to make things bigger.

This is really embarrassing, y'all, but that's just part of getting old, I guess. And I'll look it up and do it. But it's, I love the last line that Gracie does with it. I'll look it up. But it's the text of this thing just drives home this reverence and settling down of our lives so that we can focus right there on what God is doing. And be still my soul thy Jesus can repay from his own fullness all he takes away. There, I can read it now. I had to look it up.

That's embarrassing, y'all. Be still my soul when dearest friends depart and all is darkened in the veil of tears, then shalt thou better know his love, his heart who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still my soul thy Jesus can repay from his own fullness all he takes away. And that is a, that is a soul anchoring text, isn't it, Barbara? It is.

It really is. It's given me the words to give to my friend. I tell you, I have something on my heart today.

I don't know if you know the answer to it, but the other night my one of my very best friends who's been chairgiving her husband now for the last past year or more, and with Alzheimer's, and they took him to the hospital. And so the family, so the request came through to pray, but then the request included, the family says, don't bother, Pat. She's weary and she needs rest. And I said in my journal, all my heart aches for her and her family tried to protect her because I know she's spent and weary, but she needs to know that we care.

So send her a message with no words or a short prayer or a scripture, whatever the Lord gives you. I was there. I was weary. I was spent, but I also felt very alone. And I didn't know my family did the same thing. I didn't know about it until later. Well, there is a, she is weary and she is spent and she doesn't want, need or want to necessarily talk about it.

If she does, that's her decision. I sat down with a Messianic rabbi for an interview that I'm going to put out next week that I hope you all listen to. And we talk about the concept of shiva and how it relates to the family caregiver. Shiva is, they call the sitting shiva. And that is what they do in the Jewish culture.

I've been doing it for thousands of years. And when the bereaved is sitting there quietly and people sit with that person, but they don't initiate the conversation. They just sit and let them initiate it.

You don't want to give an anecdote. You don't want to try to some kind of nice funny story about their loved one or whatever. You just sit there with them and then let them speak as they feel a need to, as they process what happened and you could see an evidence of that in scripture in Job 2 13, when Job's friends saw that his sorrow was so great. And they just sat there with him for seven days and didn't say a word.

And in fact, when they started talking, that's when the wheels came off theologically of what they were saying. But that's your friend. That's you and me. Sometimes we just need to sit and we don't need people to tell us, well, they're in a better place or God has a plan or this. They don't need to try, we don't need to try to offer something. We could just be with them. And one of the things the rabbi said was that that you put, the one thing you can do is you can hold their hand and put your hand on top of their hand. And that is one of the most poignant signs of just comfort.

Just, just holding their hand. That's it. You're with them. I love that. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. And that presence of just being with us in it. And that's what the whole, the word Immanuel means. You know, God with us.

And that's the whole point of it. So, Barbara, thank you for sharing that. And thank you for just giving us an opportunity to talk about that with your friend. And I'm grateful that this song means something to you, Barbara.

It really is. Yea, thank you. Well, appreciate you. Appreciate you listening. We've got to go to a break.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver.com. We're glad to have you with us. Be still, my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Is that something that anchors you?

Is that hymn something that, a hymn that means something to you? If it does, give us a call. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. Our song this morning reflects a journey for us as caregivers. And I love these old hymns and I like to play them in a way that makes sense to myself and to give respect to the text. This is Be Still, My Soul. I love this song.

The tune, I believe, is Finlandia. And you can't just get a, you know, I don't like it when people take the hymns like this. I hate that. Listen to what this text is saying. The text is saying, be still, my soul. And as I, this was driven home to me, as I said earlier, as I was sitting there in the hospital with Gracie and I was just being still and I looked over and she had coded. And if I hadn't have been still, she'd have died.

And I used to think that as a caregiver, I'm supposed to just run, run, run all the time, time, time. And sometimes I'm not supposed to do that. I'm supposed to just be still. And if you look through scripture, you'll see tons and tons and tons of scriptures about being still before God. Psalm 62, 5, For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. Psalm 46, 10, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth. Exodus 14, 14, The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. Psalm 37, 7, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil desires. And Jesus, of course, one of my favorites, he wakes up.

He's at the bottom of the boat. All the disciples are freaking out. He just says, looks at the storms as peace. Be still. He speaks to the wind and the waves. This is, this is the message throughout all the scripture of learning to be still.

God is God all by himself. He doesn't need our flurry of activity. You tracking with me on this?

As caregivers, I know we have to do a lot of tasks. I'm the king of multitasking, you know, but there are times where we have to practice intentional stillness. Be still my soul. The Lord is on my side. Let's go to Judy in Illinois. Judy, good morning. How are you, how are you feeling this morning, Judy? I'm wonderful. Thank you, Peter. You are a blessing to me. Is this my friend, Judy, the baker who bakes, gets up early in the morning and bakes all kinds of stuff?

Yes, it is. I won't be making bread today. I'll be making cream puffs for my granddaughter. Oh, Judy. I'm gaining weight just thinking about it.

Oh my goodness. What's going on with you today? I just love this song. You know, I was raised in a parochial school and we sang the hymns all the time and it's different today. We never sing the hymns and I really miss them. They minister to me so much more than the songs we're singing today on the screen. But a couple weeks ago, I fell in church, got a big rug burn on my knee, but I was on my way to the suggestion box to put suggestion that maybe we could have equal time for the hymns because nobody sings in our church. They don't know the songs and it just sounds like you're always singing by yourself. And I miss the hymns.

Unlike Barbara, they called before me. I don't always remember all the words, but just the music just ministers to me. I was married for 58 years before I was a widow and over those 58 years, there was 14 different times people came to live with us and I took care of them. I've never had anything as intense as you've been through. But I've been through 17 major surgeries in the last 18 years and I've taken care of other people while I'm trying to recuperate myself. And sometimes you get very, very weary. It's just something that you have to step aside with God and just be quiet.

And sometimes it takes living a little bit of life to understand that. I do think the pendulum, and I'm going to say it here and you guys can verify this around the country, but I do think the pendulum is going to swing a little bit back towards the great hymns of the church because they stand up, they have depth to them, they have structure musically. The church hymnal is basically, and of course Bach was the father of church music and he was steeped deeply in the Reformation and his theology was so solid and it came out in his music.

In fact, probably not everyone, but the vast majority of his compositions had SDG at the end of it, a solo de gloria, to God, Alonius of Glory. And so the hymnal reflects this, the way it's structured, the way the harmonization is done, and it works, it works musically, it's soul-satisfying musically, and that's a longer conversation to have. But the way the structure of the hymns work, I learned how to read music before I learned how to read words.

I was seeing music on the hymnal as my mother held it for me in church, and I couldn't make out what was going on between the staves, the staves on the music, but I could see the notes and the shapes and everything else, and I was just a little kid. So this is important for us to have the hymnal with us, we are missing out on stuff, and I think people are going back to it because there's nothing like a global pandemic and the unsettledness that's going on in our world today to drive people back to things that have substance. People are looking to stand on solid ground and they're tired of all this stuff that just, you know, a lot of songs today that come out are filled with, you know, personal reflection and personal fulfillment and psychobabble and all that kind of stuff, but when you hear a text like this, be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side, that doesn't need any embellishment, it's there, it's right there, and it's applicable right now to us as family caregivers because we are a frenetic bunch, we are a frantic bunch, and if we can learn to intentionally settle ourselves down, then you can watch what happens to us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. Now that line alone, I could spend a whole show on that, leave to thy God to do it. Not you, it is not all up to me.

It is not up to me. Gracie has a savior, I am not that savior. You're tracking with me. And in every change, he faithful will remain. Be still my soul, thy best thy heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. And ultimately that's where he's taking us, he's taking us to a joyful end and in the process revealing things about himself along the way, sanctifying us through this process of just learning to be still. And that's, I think, Judy, I believe this, I believe that you're going to see a shift more and more of people wanting to hear these great hymns of the faith and to learn them and to embrace them.

I sure hope so. As a child I wanted to play the piano so bad that I was dyslexic and I have eye problems. The music is just all over the place, the song, the words in the book. Some days I get up, I can't even read because it's so bad. The words are just, in Sunday school they asked me to read one Sunday and I started to read and the teacher says, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you reading? And I told him what passes and he said, in what version? Can you do that again? I said, no.

His head shook, he goes, no. I said, no, I could read it 17 times, it would come out different every time. So I really struggled with that kind of stuff. But I had a day, I was so weary, I just had to sit down, I couldn't stand anymore. You know, you get to that point, I've been weeks without sleep and I'm trying my best to help a pen pal from Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship. We've been pen pals for 17 years and everything just seems to go so bad sometimes and I just have to sit there and say, it's okay, God's with him, I know he's going to be okay. But it's hard, it's really hard.

I may not be caregiving 24-7, but it seems like I'm up in the middle of the night and I'm on the computer or I'm reading. Well, when you do those things, Judy, just remember this first line and hum it to yourself. Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side. If you remember nothing else, be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side in the middle of the night.

If that's all you can do, and even with dyslexia and everything else, that will come out right every time. Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side. Judy, you are a delight as always. Go make your cream puffs, make one for me, put it aside for me. You are a delight and I love hearing from you and thank you so much for giving me a call, okay? This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the show for you as a family caregiver.

888-589-8840. Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

Now here it is, this is for you as a caregiver. Leave to thy God to order and provide. Leave to thy God to order and provide. Your loved one has a savior, you ain't that savior. Be still my soul. We'll be right back.

This is Peter Rosenberg. The Bible says, And then she had this vision for using prosthetic limbs as a means of sharing the gospel, to put legs on her fellow amputees, and that's what we've been doing now since 2005 with Standing With Hope. We work in the West African country of Ghana and you can be a part of that through supplies, through supporting team members, through supporting the work that we're doing over there.

You could designate a limb. There's all kinds of ways that you could be a part of giving the gift that keeps on walking at standingwithhope.com. Would you take a moment and go out to standingwithhope.com and see how you can give.

They go walking and leaping and praising God. You could be a part of that at standingwithhope.com. Welcome back to Hope as a Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is the show for you as a family caregiver. He does know the plans he has for you and that is Gracie from her CD Resilient. You can hear more of her stuff at hopefulthecaregiver.com and be a part of what we're doing.

If you like what you're hearing on the show, if the show means something to you, be a part of it and support it. We have a thing that we're going for this month. We're working on getting a shipment together sent over to Africa for this prosthetic limb outreach that we've been doing for 16 years.

It was Gracie's vision to do it after she lost both of her legs. And we've got a lot of parts and equipment to ship. Could use your help to do it. One time gift of $250. We'll send you her CD, my CD and my book, Hope for the Caregiver. And we thank you very much for being a part of what we're doing.

We're talking about being still. Oh, by the way, I want to thank a listener, Bobby in North Carolina called in. He doesn't use a computer very much, which God bless him for that. And he says, how do I do this if I want to donate something? And you just send it a mail. Just go to regular snail mail. P.O. Box 250 McAllister, Montana, 59740. P.O.

Box 250 McAllister, Montana, 59740. Make it Outstanding with Hope. Standing with Hope is the presenting sponsor of everything we do here on the show. And it's the overarching ministry that we created here many years ago.

Gracie and I did. And it's for the wounded and those who care for them. And but we're talking about being still and and what that means to us as caregivers. And I lead to thank God to order and provide. I love that that line in there. And I will tell you, this is an embarrassing story.

I mean, you know, you are used to this by now. Be sharing embarrassing stories. But some years ago, back in 2004, Gracie was invited by the White House to sing at the Republican National Convention in New York at Madison Square Gardens. And she opened up the second night of that convention. And they flew us up there and we're up there together. And it was it was it was wonderful. It was a wonderful time. They put us in the Waldorf Astoria.

Nice place. And she got up and did her thing and really did a great job. It was she's she she really brought it.

And in fact, you see the at the end of it, if you ever watch the video with it, this is long before before social media really took off. But the camera ends up on Governor and Mrs. Huckabee in the audience. And and they were just beaming. And it was it was just a wonderful time.

Well, you know, we're supposed to go home. I think that the next day or so or that Thursday or whatever, two days later, this was on Tuesday night. And the the White House called the RNC had been doing all this stuff.

The Republican National Committee had been doing all the logistics. The White House said they wanted Gracie on the platform with the president when he gave his nomination acceptance speech. Gracie and me on the platform.

They said they'll take me, but they really wanted Gracie. And so we're staying at the Waldorf Astoria. Now, that place is not cheap, by the way. I just want you all to know that. In case you were wondering, that is not a cheap place to stay.

And they said they used to. And then the RNC were saying, no, you go on home and you need to get on a plane and go home. And the White House is saying, no, you stay here and we'll take care of it.

And I think I'm watching the dollar signs increase, because if I if if this thing is going to start, my pocket is going to start being hit with a couple of nights at the Waldorf Astoria, changing planes around, new flights, all that kind of stuff. And I'm thinking, oh, this is not cool. And, you know, I was in a mild panic. And I remember I actually called my father down in South Carolina and actually, I think Gracie called.

Would you talk to your son? And I was, you know, kind of just snorting and blowing and trying to figure out what to do, what to do. And Dad said, just sit still. Be still.

Just be still. So I sat in a rocking chair. There was a nice rocking chair there in the Waldorf Astoria in our room. And I sat down in his chair and I just I was I was just blowing. I was just like a horse after a race. And I just settled down, calmed myself, and I just sat down and Gracie looked at me, just rolled in her eyes and I just sat down and I was still. An hour and a half later, we got a call and they said, it's all good. We got it.

See you tomorrow night. And if you go, we actually made the cover of a couple of magazines because we're right over the president's shoulder. And Gracie wore her tennis shoes because she has better footing. But she left her purse and everything downstairs in the green room. And so when we went up there, you couldn't go back down once you get up there.

So you see Gracie, she's wearing tennis shoes. But we're sitting right behind the president. We were a lot of different magazines and so forth. It was a lot of fun, but it all worked out. But I had to learn to sit down and be still.

Leave to thy God to order and decide. You ever have those kinds of moments where you have to just be still? That this is not yours to fix. And that's embarrassing.

I mean, these are embarrassing things, but my whole life is filled with embarrassing things that I've had to learn. And so, you know, you just. But I see the principle in it. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. Exodus 14, 4. You know, Psalm 131, 2. But I have calmed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

You know, and Job 6, 24. Teach me and I will be silent. Make me understand how I've gone astray.

Isaiah 32, 17. And the effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. This is our journey as caregivers.

Can we intentionally calm ourselves and be still? Tell our souls to be still in the midst of all the craziness. Judy in Ohio. Judy, good morning. How are you feeling? Well, a little nervous. Listening to all the people call in and knowing at 67, my husband's 84 and he just went into a home, knowing what I'm going to be going through.

He's always been a healthy medical disaster, but this is going to be something different. And it's scary. It is. It is scary. And that's the reason that's the that's the reason we're having the conversation day, because there are scary things out there. There are things that get us worked up. If it wasn't scary, we wouldn't have to tell ourselves to be still.

Right. And my son wrote on my blackboard, slow down. And that's what God's been telling me with Psalms 46, 10 for for a while.

It's in my bedroom on my wall. So I thank you. I didn't know the song, but it sure was beautiful. Well, it is a it is a great hymn for us as caregivers to be still our soul. Be still and know that I am God.

So I'm 46, 10. I will be exalted among the nations. I'll be exalted in the earth. Be still and know that I am God. There's an old be still and know that I have God. I haven't played that in a long time, but it's it's a great one. I tell you what I'd like to do if it's all right with you, Judy.

I want to have them get your information. If I'd like to send you my CD, it's called Songs for the Caregiver. And it's just hymns. And Gracie sings about half of them.

I play the rest, all of them. And but there are hymns on there that I think this hymn is on there. She sings it acapella and it's on there and it's I think you'll find it very meaningful to you. You can get this download this CD out of iTunes and Amazon, everything else.

Songs for the Caregiver, wherever you download digital music. But you can I think this will be meaningful to you as you go through this next chapter in your life here. That you when you when you get to that point where you can get agitated and it gets scary and it is scary.

Judy, it is scary. Yeah. Then we calm ourselves down with these things and remember that he is God. Leave to thy God to order and decide. Your husband has a savior. You're not that savior.

Yeah. And as he goes into this place, the thing that I hope that you'll hang on to. Is that you will you will remember that God is already there where your husband is. He's already there. And when you can't be there. When you are apart from him, God is there with him.

OK, he's already there. I remember when Gracie gave up her leg back 30 years ago this this spring, this year. And she said she had been trying to hold on to this leg for a long time.

This is her first amputation. And and she said later, she said, I didn't know what was on the other side of that operating room door. But I knew who was. OK.

Thank you. I'm so glad I called. I wasn't going to call. And I thought about it many times, but your last caller's name was Judy. I was supposed to call.

We get we get one more Judy and we'll have the trifecta here. Well, don't go away. I will put you on hold. I will put you on hold and we're going to get your information. I will send you this CD and just listen to it when you get scared.

Listen to it when it gets a little bit gnarly. And if if I hit the wrong button and hang up, call back and we'll get it. But we'll send you the CD and I think it'll be very comforting to you. OK. Yeah.

Thank you so much. All righty. This is what we're doing here on the show is learning how to calm our soul. And please don't think for one moment that I own this. OK. Everything I'm saying here, I need for you all to say it back to me.

OK, that's the whole point. We've got to remind each other these things. This is where the battle is for us as caregivers.

The battle is not in dealing with all the tasks of caregiving. Those are wearisome. Those are mundane. Those are vexing and all those things. But the real battle is in our hearts where we are so agitated. We are so frightened.

We are so unsettled. And into that, we hear this great text. Be still my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Leave to thy God to order and provide.

OK. This is Peter Rosenberger. Hope for the caregiver.

Hopeforthecaregiver.com We'll see you next time. 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 too.

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 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.

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. But 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.