The First Thing That God Said Was Not Good

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Call 866-WIN-ASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to crittercampaign.org. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How are you feeling? How are you doing? How are you holding up?

What's going on with you? This show focuses exclusively on those who are pushing the wheelchair, staying up late at night, they're in the hospital rooms, they are cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, trying to hold down a job at the same time, doing laundry throughout the night, and wake up with bleary eyes and achy bodies, and do it all over again the next day. That's why we do the show. Some of you are hanging your head and you're discouraged and you're in despair, you're frustrated, and you don't know who to turn to, you don't even know what to ask for, you don't even know what help looks like. This show is for you, and you can be a part of the show if you want to right now.

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840, and we'd love to have you as part of the show. We are starting off with a trivia question, and if you know the answer, give the caregivers a chance first. Because you theologians and sons of theologians and so forth, I know a lot of people like to share their knowledge, but if you can, give it to a caregiver first. But here's the question, and this is going to be a little bit different. This is not just trivia, this is a concept passage as well. And I'll explain that as we talk about it. Can you tell me what the first thing that God said was not good? And then show me the chapter and verse. This is going to be a tough one.

The first thing that God said was not good. All right? Think through what I'm asking here, and why I'm asking it. Because this is what we're going to talk about today, and we want to hear from you.

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. I see the phone lines are already lit up, so I'm proud of you all for knowing this, but this is a critical component of the journey of a caregiver. And we as caregivers need to understand this concept that God himself sees these things and actively works in it. And he ultimately is the source of all of our encouragement in this, but I'm going to share with you specifically today why this means something to us as caregivers. All right? So 888-589-8840, if you want to weigh in on that. The first thing that God said was not good. All right?

That's kind of an interesting question. All right. The other thing is I want to tell you about some things as we get ready to go into the holiday season and so forth. Thanksgiving and Christmas can be brutal for caregivers. All right? This is November is National Caregiver Awareness Month, but it is a tough time.

Okay? We're trying to do a lot of things. And now we've got the coronavirus, everything else. We're all running on a deficit here.

Anyway, on a good day, any caregiver is going to be running on a deficit. So let's commit to each other to pace ourselves in this. All right? Let's pace ourselves in this journey and not try to overextend. Keep it simple. It's okay to keep it simple. It doesn't have to be everything that you want it to be. It doesn't have to be everything that you think it should be. It can be what it's going to be. So what you do, what you just think about that as you go into this planning time with Thanksgiving, it's going to be different anyway because of the coronavirus. Keep it simple. Simplify as much as you can and ask yourself, do I really need to do this?

Do I really need to make this happen? Okay? And that's just something to keep in mind as we go into it.

All right. Let's go to some of the phone lines here. And I can't tell. This is Joe in Mississippi. Joe in Mississippi. Good morning, Joe. How are you feeling? Joe, you with me?

We'll come back to Joe and see if we can get a hold of Joe. This is Ellen in Texas. Ellen in Texas. Good morning, Ellen. How are you feeling? Fine. Thank you. How are you doing?

You know, I'm a little bit bleary-eyed this morning myself, but I managed to hold it together. What's on your mind? Well, I just enjoy your show.

I'm not a caregiver, but I've always just listened and told others about your show. But yeah, I know the answer. I've been single all my life, so I know that answer. Well, you know the answer then. The first thing that God said was not good.

That man should live alone. That was the first thing. And do you know the Scripture for that? Oh, it's in Genesis. No, I don't know. You're close.

You're getting warm. Hey, this is for the bonus. This is for the big round here. Can you get the chapter and verse? It's probably chapter one. Actually, it's chapter two. It's chapter two, verse 18. And the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make a help meet for him. And we're going to talk about that today on why that's important for family caregivers. We're going to talk about why. Now, that's before the fall. You remember that now. The first thing that God said was not good. Now, everything else He said was good that He'd done.

And this is before the fall of man. And so God said this. We're going to talk about it. Ellen, thank you so much for calling in the show, and I hope you have a fabulous day here, okay? Yes, you too. Thank you. Thank you.

Joe in Mississippi. Joe, thanks for calling back. Did we get to you this time? Yes. There you are.

There you are. Do you hear me? I hear you, Joe. How are you feeling? How are you feeling, Joe? Well, I'm doing okay. By the way, we may be bumping up against the break, so I'll hold on to you through the break. But go ahead and jump into it.

Okay. Well, I was a caregiver for my mother several years until I finally put her into a nursing home. But she just got worse and worse and worse, and so I was a caregiver. Now, I'm going to need caregiving, so the roles are reversed. Well, not quite, because I don't think she's going to be taking care of you, but your role is reversed for sure. Anyway, yeah, she's gone now, but anyway, I was a caregiver even in a nursing home.

I made sure she got her husband's Navy pension and all that kind of stuff and made sure that she got what she was supposed to have. Well, tell me what's going on with you today. Okay. Well, I'm older and I have health issues, and so since I do have some health issues, I'm the one that's going into needing care and needing a caregiver, and I'm going to have it once we get some things straightened out. My son and daughter-in-law have both said they wanted to be my caregiver, so I'm going to let them do it. Well, I think that's okay to let them do it.

It's all right. That's why you have family around to help you with these sort of things, and the best thing you can do is make sure that you provide as much in the way of resources for them so that they can do this job well and it not become such a difficult burden for them. It may end up being that you have done your homework to prepare because you know the journey. You did it for your mother. Okay, you know what you were feeling. Now you can better speak to what your son and daughter are going to be feeling as they do this with you. All right, and that's a good way to start. Joe, I thank you so much for the call.

This is Peter Rosenberg. This is Hope for the Caregiver. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840 today.

We're talking about the first thing that God said wasn't good. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. We are glad to have you with us, and we are thrilled that you're part of the show. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, some that are watching on Facebook Live, we stream the show on Facebook Live, and those of you who are regular listeners to the show know that I have this running argument with Facebook on the feed from the board to Facebook Live to do this, and sometimes you can't hear the music and the breaks and the callers and so forth, and I am terribly sorry for that. I have no explanation.

I have worked to this point until my hair is white, and literally it is. Those of you watching can see it, but you can hear me, but you can't hear the callers and so forth. I don't know why.

So I will continue to work on this and figure out what is going on with this, and I may have to sign off and sign back on or something. I don't know. Who knows?

We're going to get a congressional committee involved in this, and we're going to try again. All right, we're talking today about Genesis 2.18, and the Lord God said that it is not good for man to be alone. Now, why is that important for us? Why is that important for us as family caregivers to understand this concept? And the reason we're talking about this is because so many caregivers are isolated. That is one of the toughest battles that we fight as caregivers is the isolation that we live with. We struggle in the loneliness, and I've said this often, and you back me up. Tell me if this is something you felt, that caregivers can feel isolated in a crowded room, and caregivers can even feel isolated on a crowded pew, and now we can't even really go to church like normal.

And now in this age of the coronavirus, we are even further isolated. And this strikes to the very core of our design is to be in fellowship. And here we are struggling with this, and it is deeply troubling for any family caregiver.

If you have any experience at this at all as a caregiver, you understand this and the loneliness and the isolation. And so I want to start off with that passage first, and then let's just build from there, okay? In Genesis 2.18, the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. This is before the fall of man. Now, I don't know that it's before the fall of, I mean, certainly Satan has already fallen from heaven at this point, from everything I can extrapolate from Scripture, but we'll get theologians involved in that.

This is just man. He's just in the garden, and then God brings the woman to him as a helper. And then they have fellowship with themselves and with God. And that's the whole point of this, the beauty of this. And so God has already put his stamp of approval on fellowship, on relationship.

And so how does that apply to us as caregivers when so many are struggling with this in those isolating life events? And this is why I do the show. When I went to American Family Radio initially, I've been on the air now for over eight years, and I went to American Family Radio a couple of years ago, and I said, This is what I'm doing.

This is why I'm doing it. And they immediately understood it, because this is why they do everything they do on this network. The Truth Network carries this show.

His radio carries this show. All of them that carry this show understand that this is a way to penetrate into that isolation that so many people have, that loneliness, that discouraged place of solitude, whether in your mind or physically as well. And when you cut somebody off from fellowship, they don't know how to respond normally in situations. When Gracie and I go to Africa, for example, we have work that we do with prosthetic limbs that we can't go there right now. I just sent over some resin to there to help. We treat amputees. We make artificial legs over there. We work with the Ghana Health Service to build and create and maintain prosthetic limbs for their own people. We provide them with equipment and training and materials and so forth.

We also recycle limbs at a prison in Arizona that the parts are recycled off of it like a foot or a knee or a pylon or screw or adapter. We send all that stuff over there. But when we go on trips over there, I'm always amazed when the moment you land and you're in the airport, there in Accra, and the hustle and bustle and you're trying to get to the hotel and all that kind of stuff, everybody is speaking in these different dialects. And you've got all kinds of folks that are coming there from all over the world. And you'll see folks from Asia and Europe and everywhere, South America.

And then, of course, the people there in Ghana, and they all have their own different dialect. But when you hear somebody speak in a dialect that you understand, particularly, you know, being from America, if I hear somebody speak with an American dialect, or in my case, a Southern dialect, if I hear the word y'all in the Accra, Ghana, Kyoto Airport, my ear perks up because I hear somebody that I can understand, that understands me. And we're immediately drawn to each other. And we start asking, you know, where are you from? And I've met people over there that, you know, we grew up in the same area.

And here we are in Ghana. But we heard each other speak. We recognized the sounds of our voices that it was a common language that we had.

And we were able to dialogue and become friends and have fellowship because we understood each other. That's why I do this show. So when you tune into this show, and some of you are tuning in for the first time. We have a pretty large audience. Some of you have been listening regularly. You hear things spoken about. You're hearing something in your own language as a caregiver. Because you're hearing from somebody now in his 35th year as a caregiver who understands the fatigue, the strain, the despair, the rage, the resentment, the heartache, the loneliness, and the walk. And all of a sudden, you're not quite as alone as you were before the show came on. You're why I do the show.

And I want to hear from you as well because you speak my language. And together we can then communicate and bang out ideas, talk about things, discuss things that strengthen us both for the journey. We should not be doing this alone. Caregiving is brutal.

It's impossible to do it by yourself. And that's why we need to have others around us who get that, who speak that, who understand the journey, that can speak to us a kind word in a timely manner, a word of encouragement in those places. It doesn't need to be a lot. We don't need to say often a lot of things. Like I said, if I hear the word y'all in a foreign country, I know where that person's from. I know where they're from. And if they say all y'all, I really know where they're from. And so that's why this show exists is so that you all can hear someone who speaks your language in these moments of solitude. Now, the show airs live on Saturday mornings and then it's replayed several times throughout the weekend. And then people listen to the podcast.

But the same principle applies. But right now, early on a Saturday morning, some of you are driving to work. Some of you are just getting up. You're, you know, you're fussing around in the kitchen trying to get some things going.

And all of a sudden you hear a show for caregivers. You hear somebody speaking to you and your voice and your language and how this works for you. And I just wanted you to understand that as much as I'm passionate about this and I am, God is even more passionate about it. And the Lord God said, well, first off, who is he saying it to? He was saying it to himself, to the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, that Trinity. He was saying to himself, his own counsel, he took it. He said, it is not good that the man should be alone.

I'll do something about it. And I don't think that I am adding to scripture and I don't think I am in any way inappropriately interpreting this. But I would suggest to you that the Lord God also feels that way about you as a caregiver, that it is not good that you're alone.

And you will feel alone and you may not have anyone around you who can help you. But he helps you. You have to understand that was the whole message of the Holy Spirit coming. Jesus said, I got to leave so the Comforter will come. The disciples didn't quite get that until the Holy Spirit came.

There's an old hymn that says, the Comforter shall come, the Comforter shall come, the Comforter has come. And that's what he does. And he uses even goofy, foolish people like me to get on the airwaves, to speak to fellow caregivers who are struggling, who are truly struggling and feeling so discouraged and so alone.

To say to you that he sees this and he has not abandoned you in this and the road is very difficult. I get it. I know it.

Would you do this as long as I have through what I've done it through? You get it. But I want you to imagine right now you're at an international airport and you're in a crowd of people, the signs are all the different languages and you're in a crowd of people. You're overseas, you're a long ways from home and you hear a voice that speaks in your language. That's what we're doing here. That's why we do the show. So that in the midst of that disorientation that you feel, in the midst of all the discouragement that you're feeling, you will hear somebody that speaks in your language.

Somebody who speaks in a way that you can understand to let you know, you know what? You go down this way. Here's the path. Here's the direction. Here's the way we go. People have done that for me.

They still do. And it's a privilege to help do it for you. OK? It's not good to be alone.

This is Hope for the Caregiver, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. We're glad you're with us. We'll be right back. While in the emergency room with my wife as she was struggling with the COVID-19 virus herself, and I looked at her, I said, are you scared? And she said, a little bit.

But I've been through worse. The certainty of mankind's history with uncertainty, an article by Peter Rosenberger. And then as her fever was approaching almost one hundred and three, she started singing in Christ alone. I place my trust and find my glory in the power of the cross. And that's how she has anchored herself in the certainty of Christ through her huge medical journey that has included 80 surgeries, both of her legs amputated, 100 doctors have treated, 12 hospitals, and now the COVID-19 virus.

And so when we live with those kinds of uncertainties, anchoring ourselves in Christ, in Christ alone, that's the only place we can run to where there is certainty. To read this article and more, visit afa.net forward slash the stand. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. I think I got, by the way, the streaming on Facebook fixed. You let me know if you're watching on Facebook Live, just type in the thing and say, look, hey, we're watching. If you want to watch it, it said Hope for the Caregiver on Facebook.

And I think I got it fixed during the break. I just want you to be impressed that I'm doing this all while doing a live radio show and trying to do this early in the morning. So I just wanted you to be impressed. Are you impressed? You better be.

I'm just kidding. We're talking today about the isolation of caregivers. It is one of the toughest things.

I talk about the three I's that every caregiver faces, the three I's, the loss of identity, the loss of independence, and the isolation. And my biblical launching point for this is that God himself said it was not good for man to be alone. OK, so God himself has already weighed into this. And whatever God says, whatever he utters, whatever he speaks, whatever he communicates to himself, that that is our foundation. That's everything.

Everything is on that. I kind of immersed myself this week in watching a lot of documentaries and some movies. I went back and looked at some stuff with the Reformation. We're here at All Saints Day. Last Sunday was Reformation Sunday, but in reality here we are on this weekend.

And what does that mean to us? Well, what happened was is the reason why this thing broke wide open during the Reformation was that the church and the state were so intertwined and they were dictating to people what to believe. And they were using the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, and 85 to 90 percent of the people were illiterate in that. They didn't know. They couldn't read Latin. And so whatever the priest said, whatever the pope said, that was it.

And they didn't have any choice. And then when you started putting the Word of God in the hands of the common man, I mean, that just was appalling to people. I mean, people were burned at the stake for translating scripture. And then they started adding all these things, these indulgences that Martin Luther was just aghast at of how people were being told that their sins were forgiven by something they could buy or do.

And then they came out of these strong convictions saying, no, it is by the Word of God alone. Period. End of discussion. And we're going to make that word available to people. So you have access to this word.

It's not me telling you this. Here's what it says. And you can read it in your own language. Do you ever thank God for people who translated the scripture into your language so that you could understand it? God bless those folks at Wycliffe and these other individuals who have translated the Word of God so that you can understand it and look at it for yourself. And some translations are going to be a little bit more accurate or detailed than others. And that's why it's important that you cross-reference and look at these so you really understand it. I mean, if you really want to understand it, you've got to go back and look at the Hebrew and the Greek.

Well, as caregivers, can I just say studying Hebrew and Greek may be a bit of a challenge for us right now? But there is enough out there. There's so much out there. There's no secret thing that we have to do.

There is no hidden thing to Christianity. It's there, right out there in front. And God says in chapter 2 of Genesis, verse 18, it is not good for man to be alone. And so you as a family caregiver right now who are watching this through the streaming we got, who are listening to it over the air, who are listening to the podcast later on, I understand that loneliness. I understand that aloneness. And if I can't, a flawed, sinful man like me, how much more does our Savior understand it?

How much more? And see, this is the message of the gospel. When he was on the cross and he cried out, why have you forsaken me? He understood that loneliness. He took that isolation. He took that loneliness that we're all destined for without him. If he had not done what he did on the cross, we would have had permanent isolation from God.

But he took that. And so in those dark moments that we all have, I want you to picture that. That he bore all of that so that even during these seasons where we feel so disconnected, we are never disconnected from him if our faith is put in him. Do you grasp what I'm talking about? Are you understanding what I'm saying here?

Because there are going to be times as a caregiver that you're going to wake up in the middle of the night, or maybe you hadn't even gotten to sleep yet, and you're just going to be so discouraged and you're going to be so alone. And I want you to understand that God himself gets this in ways that we can't even possibly understand. And he's made a provision for you in it, and he's promised to speak into that for you and never leave you. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Now the valley of the shadow of death may be a very long valley. For us as caregivers, we get that, don't we? I mean, you are living with the specter and the grimness of death for a long time, some of you are.

I get that. And that's why that scripture means something, because he's saying he's with us. See, he came to us because he knew that's what it was going to take.

There's no way we could do it otherwise. And so that's why I'm so grateful that I get to come on the air here and say these things to you as a caregiver in a way that you can understand now. I would never presume to think that I could even come close to what these reformers did, but what I want to do is be able to help you understand the gospel in this, in your own language as a caregiver. Because somebody helped me do this. And this is why we do this, because we know how alone that you feel in this.

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberg. Have you ever helped somebody walk for the first time? I've had that privilege many times through our organization Standing with Hope. When my wife Gracie gave up both of her legs following this horrible wreck that she had as a teenager, and she tried to save them for years, and it just wouldn't work out. And finally she relinquished them and thought, wow, this is it. I mean, I don't have any legs anymore.

What can God do with that? 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 can designate a limb. There's all kinds of ways that you can 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 can be a part of that at standingwithhope.com. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio.

I am Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. And by the way, you heard our story.

We just purchased a bunch of resin that we're sitting over. We cannot go in person to Ghana to work on these prosthetic limbs, but we can send supplies and we can send more equipment. We can sponsor patients. And you can be a part of that if you wish to do so, and also part of this show.

And you can go out to standingwithhope.com, standingwithhope.com. And if you've liked Gracie's music, we'll send you a copy of her CD. And by the way, Gracie wanted me to say that there was a lady last week who called in, and I cannot remember her name right off the top of my head, and I'm so sorry, but she said how much she loved Gracie's music. And Gracie said, well, why didn't you send her a copy of my CD? And I'm like, I'm sorry, Gracie, I will do that. But if you give any amount to Standing With Hope to help sponsor the show or the Prosthetic Limb Outreach for the wounded or those who care for them, that's our mission. And if you sponsor it with any amount, we'll send you a copy of Gracie's CD. That I promise you. It's called Resilient, and you can hear the songs, a lot of them that you hear on the bumpers and coming back.

And I love that song from Russ Taft and the Imperials right there, and Gracie's got a duet with Russ Taft on that CD that you'll love as well. We're going to go through the calls kind of quickly here because we're at the last segment. Jim in North Dakota, good morning, Jim. How are you feeling, Jim? Well, right at the moment I'm feeling nauseous, but I have a pill by me, if I happen to throw up. Well, I hope you're not feeling nauseous because you're listening to my show. It's always nice when a caller, the first thing they say is, I'm listening to your show and I feel nauseous, but I have a pill.

So that's that strong note of encouragement to start off with, Jim. What's going on with you and your friend that says you've had legal ties with for over 30 years? I've had no legal ties with. Okay, you've had no legal ties with. All right. So you're not legally obligated to take care of this person, is that correct?

Correct. All right, so what's your issue today? That I'll be going into assisted living eventually and I'll have to leave him. Well, does he have resources to take care of himself other than you?

Yes. Okay, well then you can rest assured that he's going to be okay, and you make sure you take care of you, Jim, okay? You make sure that you are safe. I've been told that, but it still makes me feel sad and I'm almost in tears because I will have to live over 30 years. He's my best friend for all these years. And once I see you, may I receive my brother's love from you. Well, I appreciate that and I respect that and I understand that, and it is sad and we grieve with you. You have done a great service to this man.

You've been friends with him for a long time. You guys have had great fellowship, and if you have to go to a place where they can better take care of you, that's going to make it hard, but at the same time, he's going to be okay. And I know you feel guilty about that, but he's going to be okay, Jim, and so will you to make sure that you are in a good place, and I don't want you to be nauseous on my show, so I'm glad you've got a pill there beside you in case you feel nauseous.

That's the first one, by the way, when somebody calls up, the first thing they say is, I feel nauseous, and I'm thinking, well, okay, I'll try to make a better show. But, Jim, I do appreciate the call very much. Make the decision, Jim, to care for you to make sure that you're strong and healthy, okay? The friendship can still continue over the phone.

The friendship can still continue through letters and e-mails and so forth, but it's not going to do much good if both of you are sick and unable to care for yourself, and I thank you so much for the call, Jim. I really do. This is Shirley in Mississippi. Shirley, good morning, Shirley. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling great, and I love your show because I've only known about it for less than a year, but I'm a hospice volunteer. Well, listen, Shirley, do you have a radio on? Oh, yeah, I do. Yes, ma'am, it would be best if we turned that off. It's off, it's off. There you go. There, I can hear you now.

Okay. I've often thought about calling but never have. But this person that is over the hospice that I work with, which of course now is very hard to do because you can't get in any place because of the situation, but he himself now has a problem, not a problem because it's his wife and he loves her, but she has more problems than I've ever imagined. She just got a feeding tube put in yesterday.

She's already had surgery on her tongue. She has cancer, and she's in the midst of all of these different things, and he has a job to do. And are you taking care of her? No, she's all right right now. I talked to her last night, but she's getting ready to go into 30 episodes of treatment, and that requires a lot of, well, you know all those things.

What's going on? How is this connected to you, though? I'm a very good friend, and I knew about your service, but I didn't. I mean about him knowing, but see, he wasn't able to come, so I thought, well, okay, I'm going to call today. But I know about being a caregiver. I mean, we were married 57 years, and my husband died of Alzheimer's after six years of that miserable thing. But I took care of him the whole time. No one else took care of him, so I do know about caregiving.

Yes, you do. At this point, this isn't what she needs, really, but information might be. I don't know, because she's, like I say, next week she's going into these treatments for, you know, further to try to... Well, the cancer is supposed to be at bay right now. There are lots of different support groups that she could participate with the cancer, but what about him? Well, that's what he does for a living. I mean, he's the head of the hospice, and I have to be real careful, because hospice is very careful about what is said about their, you know... Well, so he has access to people who could care for him. Well, he doesn't need any care, except to be, you know, I'm one of his... If he's a caregiver, he needs care. Well, yeah, but he doesn't... Yeah, but I'm going to get him to call you, but he just couldn't do it today.

Well, that's okay. You have him call me anytime he wants, and certainly he can listen to the podcast 24-7. We've got... We're the world's largest podcast out there for caregivers as well.

We've got 500-something episodes, I think, or close to it, and there are resources out there. But if he's a caregiver, he definitely needs care. I mean, if his wife is getting ready to go through this thing, even if he's the head of a hospice organization, he may know all of those things, but it's still, like I said, to hear a voice who speaks in his own language in those lonely moments, and that's why we do the show. And, Shirley, I do appreciate you calling on his behalf, and I appreciate what you went through with your husband. You understand the journey, and it's very endearing to hear somebody with such a rich marriage, and then you faithfully cared for your husband all the way to the end, and now you're caring for other people in hospice, and that's a wonderful thing, Shirley.

And thank you for listening, and thank you for being a part of this show. I'm going to take one more quick call before we run out of time here. Joseph in Virginia. Joseph, how are you feeling?

Yes, sir. How are you feeling, Joseph? I'm feeling good.

I'm feeling better, I guess, than I deserve, but I'm doing well. I was listening to you talking about it's not good for a man to be alone, but I want to join that passage of Scripture and Genesis with another passage a little bit later on in Isaiah, when Isaiah was found himself into the temple, and he looks up and he said, Woe is me, for I am undone. You remember that?

I do remember it. I need you to get right to it, Joseph. Tell me how those two connect in your mind. Well, sometimes it's easy for those of us who are caregivers to feel undone or to feel alone, and we need to remember that as human beings, our eyes are placed so that we can see in front of us, but we can't see behind us. Now, I've got a bunch of chickens in my yard, and they've got eyes on the side of their head, and they don't miss anything, but I miss a lot of things, but somebody can tell me, another faith-giver or another caregiver can tell me when they look at me, that behind me is the hand of God and the presence of God, and those of us who are caregivers, if we ever get down or undone and say, Woe is me, we need to recognize we are not alone, and I thank God for that song that we sang in the church.

He promised never to leave me, no, never alone, and that's the truth of it. God is with us always. We don't always recognize His presence, but at those times when we feel alone, we need to look up and share a moment of worship with other people, with the church or with the pastor or with somebody in the congregation, give them a call, and just say, I wanted to touch base with you.

I've got friends that I do that with, and they know when I say I want to touch base with you. Well, Joseph, I appreciate those good words. We are out of time, and I thank you for that. We are not alone, and thank you for what you're doing for those friends that you're reaching out to. This is Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. We've reached the end of the show here. We've got to go, and that was an interesting concept about the chickens with the eyes on the side of their head.

They don't miss a thing. You know, chickens are the only animal, I think, that don't die of natural causes. What a life chicken. You never see a chicken laying by the side of the road, so they missed that one. We are glad that you joined with us. That was just a bizarre piece of information I just wanted to throw at you. Hopeforthecaregiver.com, Hopeforthecaregiver.com.

Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. We'll see you next week.