This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger here on American Family Radio. Glad to be with you today. Hopeforthecaregiver.com, hopeforthecaregiver.com.
We're heading quickly into what I call the most difficult time of the year for family caregivers as a group.
Now, some individuals may have different times of the year be more hard, but as a collective group, the holidays tend to be very tough for us as caregivers. We're trying to force things sometimes because of fear or anxiety or guilt, obligation. We've got to make this the best one because this could be the last one. We've got to do this, we've got to do that, and we're already tired. The days are shorter you know the nights are longer It's just, it's a tough time, and we've got all these added responsibilities of meals, and preparations, and decorations, and so forth.
How do you stay strong and healthy while taking care of someone who is not, particularly this time of year? And that's what this program is. is all about. Hopeforthecaregiver dot com. Hopeforth the Caregiver dot com.
I want to take you to the book of numbers to start off the program today. The book of numbers. You ever spent a lot of time in the book of numbers? It's part of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which would be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In Hebrew, it's often called the Torah, which is law and Greek is the Pitateuch.
Five scrolls, Pinter. Took. They are not just the opening chapters of Scripture, they're the foundation. They tell us who God is. He's the creator of everything, holy, faithful, and just.
They tell us who we are. made in his image, but were fallen in need of redemption, And they show us how God rescues his people, gives his covenant, and calls them to live as his own. And then every story that follows, David, the prophets, even the gospel, stands on what's built there. The sacrifices in Leviticus, for example, point to the cross. The covenant with Abraham points to Christ.
Everything's going to point to Christ, by the way.
So, if you ever wonder how the Bible all fits together, go to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, and I'm going to take you to the book of Numbers for our journey into all things caregiver-related. And again, what is the purpose here for us as caregivers? It's for us to have clarity of thought. for us to be able to walk in a manner different than what we've been doing. We tend to be reactive.
But for us as caregivers to live more peacefully with the craziness that's in our world. We need to learn to be more responsive, not reactive.
So let's go to the book of Numbers. There's a story there in chapter 22 through 24 that I've always found intriguing. It's about a man named Balaam.
Now, you've probably heard about this. Balaam wasn't exactly a prophet of God in the way that Elijah. or Isaiah War.
Okay, he was more like a hired gun, a freelance spiritual consultant, a prophet for hire. If he had a sign outside his tent, it probably would have read prayers, prophecies, and curses, competitive rates. You know, how do we do it? Volume prophecy, that's the key. You get two curses a month, and the third one is free.
No, he that's the kind of guy he was. And all the kings around knew it, he got results now. Again, he is not a prophet from God. But he often got results and the Kings knew it in that Area, and so they would hire him to do these things, and the king of Moab. His name was Balak.
He sent messengers to Balaam. He said, Israel is marching through the land. And Balaak was pretty worried about it. He'd heard about the Israelites and He said, Look, Balaam, I've I'm going to pay you handsomely if you'll curse these people. Whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed.
Now to Balaam's credit, He didn't jump in right away. He said, Let me ask God about this. And God said plainly, don't go with him. Don't curse these people. Leave them alone.
They're blessed. and that should have settled it. But Balak. was desperate, and so he sent more messages to Balaam. With more money, more honor, you know, we'll double your price, you know, whatever you need.
And all of a sudden, Balaam started seeing some of the bills he had piling up or opportunities here. Evidently, he had a car payment or something, and he started to wobble. And we need to. Make our monthly quota. Whatever.
But he obviously was enticed. In fact, he told the guys when they came back the second time, he said, and this is in verse 18 through 19, Balaam said, though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less.
So please you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. You see what he did there?
Now, God had already spoken. clearly and decisively. But he's going to go back and see if God's going to change his mind or if there's something else. Maybe I missed something. Is there a loophole in this thing?
He should have already said God told me no. Got her respoken. But he didn't want more clarity, he just wanted permission. You ever find yourself in that situation? I cannot be the only one.
where God has spoken very clearly. In our fallen nature, We do not want clarity. We want permission. Go back all the way to the garden for that one.
So Balaam saddled up his donkey and he headed out and he's ready to go. But the Bible said that God's anger. burned against him because his heart was wrong, so the Lord sent an angel to block his path. Balaam couldn't see it, but the donkey could. And the donkey turned off into a field first, and Balaam got mad and beat her to get back on the road, and then they came to a narrow passageway between two walls, and the donkey tried to squeeze by and crush Balaam's foot.
He beat her again. Finally they came to a tight spot where there was no room to turn. And the donkey just stopped. sat down and refused to move. And Balaam That high-priced spiritual consultant started swinging that stick again.
And the scripture says, The Lord opened the donkey's mouth. And the donkey said, And she said, 'What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?
Now this is the part that gets me. Balaam didn't faint. He doesn't you know, just freak out. He doesn't call a priest or a psychiatrist. He answers the donkey back and he starts saying, You made a fool of me.
If I had a sword, I'd kill you right now.
Well, look here, I don't know about you. But if one of the horses out here, or the cows, or we're around a lot of livestock out here, if they started talking. I think I would take a moment. I wouldn't start arguing. I said, hey, you talked.
But he didn't do that. He immediately started talking to this donkey. Having a conversation. And that's when the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw what the donkey saw. He saw the angel there, and Balaam fell on his face and so forth.
But you know the rest of the story. Rembrandt did a beautiful painting of this. It always struck me. I remember seeing that as a child. The very thing that Balaam was trying to beat into submission, though, was trying to save his life, and instead of being astonished at it, that it was a moment to save his life.
And this tremendous event that happened, the donkey started speaking, he started arguing with the donkey. And every time I read that story I see myself in Balaam. Because there are days as a caregiver when I get so locked in, so determined to fix, to control, to push through. That I miss what God is doing right in front of me. And I've beaten a few donkeys in my day, not little ones.
But moments and situations I didn't understand, times that I got so angry, because things didn't go my way. I was so consumed by what I wanted that I couldn't see that God was protecting me from something.
Sometimes the miracles in our life. Don't look like a parted Red Sea. or a sudden healing.
Sometimes it looks like a roadblock. A delay. A no. An insurance claim that's not paid. A job that we lose.
There's so many different things. That block our path to what we think we're going to do. And in that moment, it feels like Just one more frustration in a life that's already filled with em. But maybe just maybe that's the donkey sitting down in the road. keeping us from something far worse.
Maybe God is standing right there saying, stop, look, listen. You see, Balaam's problem wasn't that he couldn't hear God, it's that he didn't want to. He had his own plan. He was so focused on getting there that he argued with a talking animal and thought nothing of it. But as caregivers, do we do that?
Do we get so tired, so focused that we miss the astonishing way that God is working right beside us? Maybe today he's speaking through something small, a word from a friend, a verse you've read a hundred times. Or maybe, just maybe, you're listening to a donkey right now. It's very, very possible. Who knows?
God might already be standing in the path, holding out his hand, not to punish you. but to protect you. And if your donkey starts talking, Let me just say this. Don't argue. Just listen.
Just listen. Just wait. You may find protection. you may find clarity. and you may even find Hope.
for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosberger.
Glad to be with you today. HopefortheCaregiver.com. We're Continuing on in our excursion of all things caregiver related, How do you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not?
Now, a couple of things. Why am I doing this? I've got enough going on in my life. Do I need more stuff to do? And I'm doing this because I have a scriptural mandate to do this.
Paul says in Corinthians, comfort one another with the same comfort you yourself have received from the God of all comfort. The question I have to ask myself and I I don't mind being asked. What comforts me? What does comfort me? And in light of that, I want to talk a little bit about Something we got a listener, Sandra, who listens to this program, and she sent me a note through the website.
And I do try to. Um answer as many things as possible. I try to call Sarah. Another listener called reached out to me and I was able to have a very nice chat with her. And she listened to me while I worked in the kitchen.
So sometimes I will call, but you will hear me doing laundry and cooking and cleaning and everything else in the background. But I very much appreciate this audience. This is a unique show. And American Family Radio took a big chance with me. They said, Jim Stanley said this when he signed me to come on American Family Radio.
He said, Look, I'm either going to be making the Best genius decision of my life, or this is going to go down in flames. And here we are since 2018 on American Family Radio.
So we haven't gone down in flames yet, Jim.
So take heart. There's always tomorrow, but no, take heart. But there's never been anything like this because here's this vast group of people who don't really know what to do. We're overwhelmed. We're overworked.
We're. stressed out, we're underpaid, under trained, and we don't know what to do. And so how do you help people that are doing this? And the only way to do that is for somebody who's done it. And that's where I come in, and I have done it, and I am doing it.
I'm still there, I'm still a caregiver. And so, when you write me questions and you reach out to me, I take these things very seriously. And, Sandra. uh sent a letter and she described something that I'd like to really delve into and that is spiritual attacks. How many of you all feel like you're under spiritual attack at times?
And it's a very real thing for us. We live in a world filled with devils. Martin Luther said that in a mighty fortress is our God, though this world with devils filled. And I wanted to maybe just delve into this a little bit and tell you my thoughts on this and what I've done. She asked what I've done.
I am not. The the end all to end all of this.
Okay? Don't look at me as anything other than just one fellow caregiver. who has endured this now for forty years. And here's what I've learned through it, and here's the scars that I got from this particular battle, or this particular battle, or this hard lesson. And here's how I've seen God work in this.
That's all I'm doing.
Okay. If you look to me for anything other than just one fellow caregiver who has seen God work and be faithful in very difficult things. giving testimony to that. That if you see me as anything other than that, then you're you're l you know. you're looking in the wrong place.
Because I'm nothing but just somebody who has just done this for a very long time and have seen God's hand. and I've seen his Scripture hold up in very dark circumstances. And there is spiritual attack. Make no mistake, we're going to go through it. But here's where I draw some comfort and some strength.
Again, comfort one another with the same comfort that you yourself have received from the God of all comfort, okay? What does that look like with spiritual attack?
Well, I'll tell you. And let's start with Job chapter 1. One In verse six Now this is a very difficult chapter for many people to understand. I, chief among them. I struggle with this immensely, but here's what the text says.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
Now remember, what does Satan's name mean? Accuser of the brethren? The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down on it. And the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house, and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand.
Only against him do not stretch out your hand.
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Now Again, a very difficult text for many, including me, to wrap my mind around. But here's something that is not difficult for me to wrap my mind around. Job did not belong to Satan. Whatever happened to Job? was under God's purview.
not Satan's. God was sovereign over all of it. Satan was walking to and fro that means he's not omniscient he's not everywhere. He is not God, he is a created being. And he is, there's not a duality here where God is opposed to Satan as equals.
No. He's not. And I had a Bible college professor. Tell me years and years ago, this is forty something years ago. He said Satan is not omnipresent, he is not omniscient.
And he has more important people to deal with than you. Don't blame Satan for your own stuff. And you've all heard the crowds out there, the there's a demon in my toaster kind of thing. And that gets a little bit tiresome. Because it's basically deflecting responsibility for dealing with our own sin, which is plenty.
doesn't mean that we're not going to have spiritual warfare, because Scripture clearly says that we will. But it does mean that we are not bound to that. We are not condemned to that. That we belong to God. And I'll give you another example.
The night. that Jesus was betrayed. He was betrayed by two people. Judas and Simon Peter, Now to Judas Jesus said what? But you must do so quickly.
And later it was said about him he was a devil from the beginning. But to Peter He said Simon Satan has asked for permission to sift you. But I have prayed for you. and when you come through this, Strengthen your brethren. Satan didn't ask for permission to sift Judas.
You already belong to him. He was a devil from the beginning. But he had to ask for permission to sift Simon Peter. And Jesus didn't pray for Jews. He prayed.
for Peter. And he didn't say if you come through this. He said when you come through it.
So, what can we glean from that as caregivers? What can we glean from that when it comes to spiritual warfare? Number one. Who do you belong to? That is the first question we ask.
To whom do I belong? To whom do I belong? To whom do you belong? And once that question is settled, Then Scripture is incredibly clear, then, on what is involved in this. You will be buffeted.
You will come under all kinds of things of persecution. Jesus said this, trials, tribulation, persecution. Satan is going around like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. There are all kinds of things that are going to come your way, but not one of it. Not one of those things.
will come to you outside of the hand of God. Satan does not have permission over God's people. Carte blanche, he has to ask. He had to ask for Job, he had to ask for Peter. And guess what?
He has to as believers He has to ask for you and me. And that is incredibly comforting to me. to know that whatever God allows, It is not happenstance. It is not. surprise guerrilla warfare attack from the enemy.
It is permission granted. For His glory, or our edification. And we can trust him with it. It doesn't mean it's going to be fun, it doesn't mean it's going to be pretty. It certainly wasn't for Peter, it certainly wasn't for Job.
It certainly wasn't for Charlie Kirk. or his family. It certainly wasn't for Jim Elliott. And Nate Saint. And the other men that were killed by the Aucas.
It certainly wasn't for the Apostle Paul, as he languished in a prison, and then was eventually beheaded, or Peter. But the comfort we have, is that knowing that none of these things happen outside of the Providence of God, And as William Cowper said in the wonderful hymn, Behind a Frowning Providence, He hides a smiling face. There's something going on here that is greater than us. Satan asked for permission to sift Peter, and it was very painful for Peter. It was very painful, and Jesus knew it would be.
And that's why he interceded for him. He prayed for him. And he prays For you? and he prays for me as well. interceding before the father.
For us. And then the other question that Sandra asked me is: do you. confront Satan directly. Do you speak to Satan directly, or ask the Lord to to rebuke him? I'm not a big fan of talking to devils.
So I ask whatever we bind on earth is bound in heaven. This is what Scripture says. And I ask the Lord to do it. You know, there's a and there are people there Countless books written on this. That you can go out and do, and really good ones.
And there are people that are much wiser and smarter than me. But again, what is my comfort in this?
Well, my comfort is that I belong to Christ. and Satan has to ask for permission. Gracie belongs to Christ. Satan had to ask for permission. There is nothing that is going to happen to God's people that is outside of God's hand.
He's not reactive. Remember, we talked about that in the beginning here. We tend to be reactive. and the goal is for us to learn to respond. God is certainly not reactive in fact, He decrees.
He decrees.
Now the question is, do we believe this? What do we know? For we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 38 through 39, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is what comforts.
That is what strengthens. That is what prepares us for spiritual warfare. That is where we stand when all hell breaks loose. And that is hope for this caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.
We'll be right back. Yeah. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you.
HopefortheCaregiver.com. HopefortheCaregiver.com. And Sandra, back to your question that I talked about the last block, I hope I answered it appropriately for you. If I didn't, feel free to follow up. But also, I did consult with a friend of mine who is an amazing guy.
He's a very, very educated man, a messianic rabbi. Been on this program before, and he's got a prayer covering that he prays when it comes to spiritual warfare. And if you want, you're welcome to write me and I'll send it to you. What he has sent me, and I'll gladly send it to you if that's something you would like. You could reach out to me through the website.
When you go out there to the page, it just says contact. There's a little form you fill out. Just say, hey, send me that. prayer about spiritual warfare that you reference, and I'll be glad to send that to you. And I may post it if we get enough requests, I may just post it out there.
But it's pretty comprehensive, and I think it would be meaningful to you. And I again, I There are some people out there who just get out there and talk directly to Satan and try to have a big Let's get ready to rumble kind of thing. I asked the Lord. About this, you know, and I just talk to the Lord. I don't spend a lot of time talking to devils.
I know Paul did. He cast out demons and so forth. And And I'm learning about this sort of thing just like you are, okay? But again, I stand on that great comfort that the powers of this world, Do not get free reign to the people of God. everything.
everything. is through his hand. And that strengthens me. And I know that means we're going to face some painful things because I look at the people of God who have faced many painful things. and there are many painful things yet to come.
But Paul also said, None of this is worthy to be compared. to w what awaits us in Christ Jesus.
Now, again, these are moments when you have to ask yourself, do we really believe this? Do we really believe this? I heard a great clip from a pastor that I follow, Alistair Bigg. And he was talking about this the other day when people say, you know, how do you feel? And don't talk about how I feel, ask me what I know.
And he and he was r referencing the um The worship songs at the church. I feel like this, or I just want to raise my hands, I just want to do this, I just want to do this. And it's just repeated lines about our feelings all the time. He said, I don't want to talk about my feelings. He said, I feel awful.
Ask me about what I know. And you know, I used to do this on this program when I took a lot of calls. I would ask caregiver, how are you feeling? And I did that to start a conversation about the caregivers speaking in their own voice. But now I felt really.
Strongly about this. I think I'm just going to. If you call into this program, I'm going to ask you: what do you know? Because it's going to reframe the conversation. What do you know?
And Paul, remember, he said, For we know, Romans 8:28, for this we know. And when you don't know a lot of other things, land on what you know.
Okay? And what we know is Immortal, invisible, God-only wise. You know, we know that He is holy, and we land on those squares, and we are immovable. like a tree planted by the water, I shall not be moved. And that's where we live as caregivers in the midst of all the craziness because it's coming at us so fast.
relentlessly.
So what do we know? And what we know is we belong to him. And we rest in that, we hang on to that, we stand firm in that. And these are the things that give enormous amount of comfort.
So I will try to answer all the questions that come my way. I may not give you the answer you like or that's the best answer or even the smartest answer, but I'm going to try to do the best I can with it.
Okay. And I'll either answer it on the program here. I'll send you an email or I'll call you. Either way, whatever is expedient at the time, because I am a full-time caregiver.
So I'll do the best I can. But these are important things. And if it's important to you, you know what? I want to spend the time with it. And I'm going to do this for another program.
I'm going to give it the respect it deserves. I had another listener write in and talk about what happens when the caregiver has lost their loved one and how does the caregiver deal with, you know, in the aftermath of that? They're no longer caregiving, but the. The trauma to the caregiver. And I've talked about that many times on this program, but evidently they haven't heard it, so I want to give it a refresher because it deserves a lot of respect.
I don't live in that place because. I'm still a caregiver. And and God has seen fit to let this thing go on for a very long time for us.
So I I have to rely on other people. Their experience to be able to give some understanding of that, but more importantly, I just relied on scripture. And we'll talk about that in another episode, and I'll give that the full weight that it deserves. In fact, I may even bring on a couple of special guests that can talk about that with a little bit more experiential understanding because I don't have that. I did lose my father, but I wasn't acutely caring for him.
Uh my son was, and my mother and my uh siblings. But it was different, not the same way that I care for Gracie.
So, I want to bring in people that have first-hand experiential understanding of that so that they can say, okay, here's what I learned, here's what I've seen.
So if you'll just hang on to that, we will. address those things. And if you have other questions or whatever comments you have, this is your place to do it. I promise you, I'm not the sage here. I'm not the guy that's going to give you all the answers.
I'm just going to tell you what I've learned through it, what my experience has been through it. And I'll give you the best information I have. And if I don't know it, I'll find somebody smarter than me and we'll go ask them. And we'll find out together. How about that?
And we will always consult scripture on this.
So if you want to go out there, go to hopeforthcaregiver.com. It'll take you to my website. And there's a little. Contact button that you can click on, and you can send me whatever's on your mind. I've been doing something over the last several weeks, and I wanted to ask you in this.
block of time right here. About something that may apply to you. Do you have trouble getting rid of stuff? We've been now that we're moving into our new place here and we've been in a little tiny place. We've had stuff in storage rooms and And Gracie's seeing all of her clothes now for the first time.
She has not. We had some that were in a closet in the barn. We had some that were in a closet up at the garage. We had some that were in a storage room. We had some that were just in boxes.
And I've got everything out so she could see it. And she's been going through it and slowly but surely getting rid of things that she hasn't seen in some of it six, seven years. And it's been kind of a weird experience. And then we're pulling stuff out of a storage room that we haven't seen for about six years because we've lived in a little tiny cabin here in Montana.
Now we have a little bit more space to. unpack some of these things, we're realizing, wow, we've been... We've been hanging on stuff we don't need. And Gracie and I have been having... At times, uncomfortable conversations when I ask the question: are we going to use that in this home?
And if not, where do you want to put it? Because we're either going to have to store it somewhere and pay for it, or is it time to let it go? How do you know that? How do you know when it's time to let it go? What what works for you in that regards?
Because it's been a quite of a journey and it seems like you could go through I mean, I w I had a box full of stuff for my taxes from 2008. You know, I mean, we don't need to keep them that long. But they've been stuck in a box in the back of a storage room. You know, that during that time when you need to keep them, and so it's time to get rid of them and move on. And so I'm trying to.
I normally have a burn barrel. I don't have a shredder, I have a burn barrel. And my burn barrel can't be used right now because we don't have a lot of snow just yet. We had a little bit, and then it's been nice and warm. Got up to 60-something this week in November here in Montana, which is unusual.
Normally, we have a foot of snow on the ground.
So that's kind of weird. But we are slowly but surely getting rid of things. And and I'm organizing and and and it is Man, it's work to organize stuff. And we got pictures we haven't seen in a long time. And we're trying to, and Gracie's very good at making this place or any place into a beautiful home, but it just does take time.
And she can't do it by herself and and so I have to help her do it uh or Somebody, a friend, will come and help. But I'm not very good at that sort of thing. I'm not very good at art. I will tell you, one time we had, she has a lot of these antique decorative plates. This will give you some insight into Gracie's abilities and her mind.
We have these decorative plates that she's collected from grandmothers and things like that. Beautiful stuff. Um blue willow stuff and uh whatever that means.
Some of you are going to know what that means, but but old stuff. and she had it mounted around our kitchen in Nashville. And there must have been several dozen beautifully displayed. It was just lovely. It looked like a little country cottage.
And I took the ball down. Don't get ahead of me. Don't panic. and I painted the kitchen whilst she was in the hospital one time. And then I needed to ask her.
I said, okay, look, I'm not sure exactly where these go. Go back on the wall. And my mother listens to this program every week, and she will absolutely start saying amen because she knows Gracie very well from her hospital bed. Gracie was able to, with exact precision, tell me where every one of those things went.
Now that is impressive. That is impressive, but that's also What? I have to work with sometimes that I have a wife who is so precise and everything is very, very detailed, very literal. One time she was we were in the middle of a very intense conversation And Gracie's looking at me with nothing. short of just Focused attention.
I mean, I've never seen her stare at me so hard. And then This was back when she was she was able to get up and walk a little bit easier. She got up out of her chair. And she walked over. on her prosthetic legs.
And she adjusted the lamp shade right behind my head, just a little bit because it was off-center. Yeah. So she I thought she was paying attention to me and She was not, but that's okay. It's uh so we're we're going through that right now as a couple, trying to say, okay, what do we really need to hang on to? What is important that we keep?
I envy my brother and his wife. They both work for the State Department. And they've moved many, many, many times. And my sister-in-law is incredibly efficient at packing and streamlining and organizing, and everything has its own place. And, you know, and Gracie's got that kind of mind too.
She just doesn't have the body to be able to do that herself.
So she has to lean on me to do it. And I'm the kind of guy that has to bring in a leaf blower to my desk every so often and just you know have at it because I'm not that organized. My father was that way. I mean, he had the same thing every day. He did his coffee the same way.
Everything was the same. I'm just, if somebody gives me a cup of coffee, I don't care. Just, I'll take it. You know, I'll just drink it black. I don't care.
My mother's that way. My mother and I are just carbon copies of each other, and we're just all over the map, scatter brain. But I'm married to someone who is incredibly organized, and everything has its own place.
Well, when you're trying to get rid of stuff, well, what about. This.
Well, it goes here. This is where it goes.
Well, we don't have that anymore. We don't have space for this.
So it's been an interesting time. I don't know how you deal with it. Is there a scripture or a hymn that comes to your mind on how you deal with this? We may cover that in one of our hymns that we do that every caregiver ought to know. This is Peter Rosenberger.
We'll be right back with one of our hymns that every caregiver ought to know. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. HopefortheCaregiver.com.
HopefortheCaregiver.com. We're continuing on in our series of hymns that every caregiver ought to know. It started out as 30, but I'm confident it'll eventually be 300. And I was thinking about our... But we talked about in our last block, we talked about clutter and getting rid of it, letting things go.
Well, guess what? There's A hymn that addresses that. In a manner of speaking, I think we can make the case. She was a young Englishwoman from the 1800s. Her name was Frances.
Ridley Havergal. FRANCIS RIDLEY HAVERGEL and she was the daughter of a clergyman, a a preacher's kid, And she was small, and she was often sick. She was a pretty sickly child. She was also exceptionally bright, very, very smart woman. had an amazing mind.
she could quote entire books of Scripture from memory, and spoke several languages fluently. Bright, bright woman. But more than her intellect, what marked her life, what people knew her for, was her hunger to belong. holy to Christ. In 1874, she spent several days visiting a home where, in her words, some were unconverted and some half-hearted.
She prayed fervently. That before she left, every person under that room would come to a place of peace with God. and before her visit ended she believed that she saw it happen. And that night she couldn't go to sleep. She stayed awake in bed and she lit a candle and began to write, and She wrote it wasn't a polished poem, it was more like a spiritual inventory.
A lot of the hymns that we s sing and play are very sculpted poems, like, but this was not for hers. It was like an inventory. She went through it line by line, offering each part of herself back to the Lord, her time, her hands, her voice, her silver and gold, her will, her love. She was clearing the shelves of her soul. She was going through.
The storage rooms of her soul, if you will, the storage spaces. one by one until only one thing remained, which was devotion. She didn't just write about it. Years later, she followed through on her own work. She gathered her jewelry, heirlooms, gifts, expensive pieces, and sold them and gave the money to missionary work.
She wrote to a friend after that, I know now I have given my jewels to the Master. and I love to think that he has accepted them. That's not spring cleaning. That's not purging. That's consecration.
And so this hymn today that we're going to cover for caregivers, it it lands in a in a real tender place for us. we spend so much time holding things together, holding on to things. that we don't even notice what we're still holding on to. Control, expectations, resentment, things that we just need to let go of: physical things, emotional things, spiritual things. Our hymn today talks about that the real Peace isn't by holding tighter, it's by letting go, and that's what Francis Havergall did.
And those words that came to her that night when she couldn't go to sleep, she lit that candle, she started just writing that inventory. They have outlived her. and echo now down for all these years. and how many people have sung this hymn that we're going to do today, let's go to the Caregiver keyboard. Our hymn today Is take my life and let it be.
Consecrated, Lord, to thee, take my moments and my days. Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Now, the tune she didn't write, it was a guy named Melton, I think, that wrote this. And it was paired with her text, and then somebody else paired her text with another tune that is an anonymous tune. The old tune, the other one is. Mm. I don't like that tune.
I mean, it's okay, but it's it was um I think that was written by her father. I mean, it was they called it, um, I don't know, it says it's anonymous, I don't know, who knows, but I don't like it as much. The one that most people know is called Hendon, and it was composed by um Henry Milan, but he died 10 years before Francis Havergal wrote this hymn.
So they had known the hymn The tune to this hymn long before she had written this lyric. But somebody paired it with it, and that's what kind of stuck. And it's written in F. Yeah. But I don't do it in F because it's a little bit high and I do it in D.
And the arrangement I do with it, I take it really slow and I do a walk down. If you're a church pianist and you want to play this one for the offertory or whatever, just do a walk down with it. And by that I mean you just Start with a D in the base and work down. Um Just a D major scale. Uh Um Something just take it real simple, and I just I go real simple and sometimes I take a little bit of liberty with it, so.
Don't be alarmed, don't adjust your set. That's what I do. Take my life. And Let it be. Consecrated.
Yeah, draw. To Take My moon. Moments in my day. Please let them flow. In ceaseless praise, let them flow.
Win seasless prize, just real simple. And again, I throw in a few more chords, but the main thing is just to slow it down. Think about what she was saying. She's relinquishing everything. She's surrendering everything.
She's cleaning out the storage room of her heart, if you will. She's getting rid of furniture she's been holding on to, clothes she's been holding to, IRS documents she's been holding on, she's getting rid of all of it. Yeah. Take my hands. And let them move.
At the impulse. Of thy love. Take My feet. And love Then be Uh Swift and beautiful Uh Beautiful. For the swimming.
And beautiful for thee. I love when Gracie sings this, by the way. We're gonna get her singing. Don't worry. Take.
My voice. Sure. And let me sing Always own. Mm. Before my king take Uh Lips and let them be.
Filled with messages from From the filled with messages from the You see how it's kind of a an inventory she did just of her life. She She just laid it all out there. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose. And again, this is a woman who had jewelry.
She gave it away and supported missions. This is a woman who had enormous intellect. And she chose to use it. You can imagine her writing this by candlelight, you know, after she had such a burden for all those folks to be able to know the things of God and to know the Savior. And so she's writing this by candlelight.
Take my will. And make it done. Um It shall be. We know. Take My It is time.
It shall be. Thy royal throne Um It shall be What a great text. Take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, and I will be ever only all for thee. It's a tremendous hymn that this woman wrote.
And I think it... It'll apply us to where we are as caregivers to day. We are holding on to so much. Whether it's fear, whether it's resentment, whether it's stuff, all those kinds of things. And here's this woman reaching down.
from a hundred and fifty years ago. Saying Open your hands. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet. And that's why I love this hymn.
And it's a great hymn just to be able to play simply. Again, you just do a simple walkdown. And if you're a guitarist and you want to do it in D, lower that, you might want to lower that E string down to D and make it that way. Might make it a little easier than him to twist your fingers into contortions. But just do this simple walk down.
And you can hum this through the day. It's it's a very memorable tune, too. Take my life and let it be. And that is our hymn for today. That is our hymn that every caregiver ought to know.
Thank you for taking the time. We're out of time. Hey, listen, it's the end of the year. StandingwithHope, standingwithhope.com slash giving. If you want to be a part of what we're doing, whether that's the prosthetic limb ministry, whether it is the caregiver outreach for the wounded or those who care for them, whatever program you want to be able to sponsor, we'd welcome the help.
Our 2026 caregiver calendar is just about done. If you want one of those, we're giving them away to people who support Standing With Hope for $100 or more. We just give them as a thank you gift. They're pictures from here in our place in Montana, and I put them with a quote that applies to us as caregivers. Quotes I've said on this program or in my books, and then I just put it with a picture of here in Montana.
I think you'll like it very much. Standingwithhope.com/slash giving. Standing with hope is the 501c3 nonprofit. Thanks so much for taking the time. We'll see you next week.
Gracie, when you envision doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think? The inmates would help you do that. Not in a million years. What does it mean? I would have ever thought about that.
When you go to the facility run by Core Civic 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 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. When I go in there, and I always get the same thing every time that these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one man 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 we were still in the 1800s and 1700s. I mean, you know, I thought of peg leg, I thought of wooden legs.
I never thought of. Titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and C legs and all that. I never thought about that. I had no idea.
Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that Core Civic offers? I think they're just absolutely... Awesome. And I think every Prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because. 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. Are just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much. That test so much.
about Just 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 be whole. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limb, whether from a loved one who passed away, Yeah. You know, somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own.
What's the best place for them to do? How do they do that? Where do they find it? Please go to standingwithhope.com/slash recycle, and that's all it takes. It'll give you all the information on the what's that website again?
StanningwithHope.com/slash. Slash recycle. Thanks, Crazy. Take my hand. Lean on me.
We will stay.
