Caregivers Have Tears, But Do We Ever Laugh?

I'm on American Family Radio.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How are you holding up? How are you doing? What's going on with you?

This show is like no other. We focus exclusively on those who are pushing the wheelchair, those who are staying up late at night doing laundry or back and forth to the doctor's office, rehab, whatever. There are so many different tasks. There's so many different scenarios, but there's always a caregiver. Wherever there's a chronic impairment, there is a caregiver. It could be that you're taking care of somebody who is aging. Maybe you've got a special needs child. Maybe you have somebody with trauma in their life, somebody with a mental illness, somebody with an addiction or somebody who's an alcoholic.

Whatever the chronic impairment, there's always a caregiver. We're glad that you're with us today. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. The phone lines are open if you want to be a part of the show and we'd love to have you. All right, I've got a couple things today. I'd like to start off with some kind of trivia to test you on. I've found that you guys are a lot faster on the draw than I expect sometimes on these things and that's very cool.

That's exciting that you guys know these things, but I'd like to see if I could push the line even more to see if you could get this. You know I like to play hymns and that's been a big part of my life and I love the hymns. I like to try to update them a little bit and introduce them to a new audience and play them in a way hopefully that the old audience really likes. I pull these things out and see if you can remember what this hymn is, if you know this lyric. There's kind of a two part on this one because I have a psalm that touches base with this. In this psalm it says, when the Lord brought back the captors of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are joyful. Anybody know what psalm that is? If you know what psalm that is, 888-589-8840 and on that same thing, and I love that by the way, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue was joyful shouting. Do we have enough laughter as caregivers? We got plenty of tears. Do you laugh?

Do you cut up? Do you find humor? I'm in my 35th year as a caregiver and if I didn't have laughter, man, I don't know what we do. I've made Gracie explosively laugh at times and that's not an easy thing to do when you're dealing with all the kind of stuff we deal with. I remember when she got the coronavirus, she was the first one in our county out here in Montana where we live.

This was way back at the beginning of March. She had gotten it evidently from going to a specialist to get her legs worked on. She has two prosthetic legs, for those of you who do to the audience.

Gracie's had about 80 surgeries that I can count. We thought she'd had strep and that's what it looked like. We dreamed she'd have coronavirus around the middle of nowhere in Montana. They wanted her to come down to the local community hospital and they said, and Gracie's got like 103 fever. She's pretty sick.

She doesn't feel good at all. We didn't know that this was coronavirus or anything. We didn't know. The nurse was like, do you have a mask? For whatever reason, because I'm just that kind of goofy, I said, well, we have a Darth Vader mask, but that's kind of personal, don't you think? The nurse started laughing.

Gracie started laughing and she had a fever. We're dealing with all this other stuff. I mean, it's just for whatever reason it just, I grew up in a large family. I have four brothers and a sister and sarcasm was our native tongue, it seemed like for us. And my mother, now my dad, I have to, they're listening.

Hopefully I just got off the phone with them, trying to help them stream on the show on Alexa. And I go through this pretty much on a regular basis with them. So I'm just making fun of y'all, mom and dad. But it's, dad loves to laugh and he like, my dad's a minister, he's a naval officer and he loves to laugh, but that's not really his thing.

I mean, he's not known for his witty repartee, but now my mother comes from Irish stock and she is just, we love to banter and it's a lot of fun at my house. And I grew up with that and I think that sustained me through a lot of things as a caregiver that we had this ability to laugh. And when I met Gracie, she was pretty serious young lady and she took herself pretty seriously.

She was dealing with serious realities. Well, you know, again, I grew up rural South Carolina with a large family of boys and my one sister, my sister's just as wild as the rest of us. And we laugh. Do you laugh? And I ended up helping, I taught Gracie how to laugh. I mean, you know, Gracie's got a great sense of, and when she does laugh, she laughs like a drunk Viking sometimes. I mean, she just belly laughs in places and I've seen her do it on live TV and everything else. Do you laugh as a caregiver?

If you don't, maybe today's the day you could start. I did a whole thing. When I started doing the show years ago, Jeff Foxworthy, you all know him and he told me, he said, look, Peter, make them laugh. You know more than most how important it is for people to have that pressure valve release of laughter as a caregiver. Do you laugh?

And so when I started doing the show, I set out to have some fun with it. And I know that what we deal with is serious. Okay. I know that. You're not going to tell me something that I don't know on that one.

Okay. We deal with serious realities in my life, but is there room for laughter? And in this particular passage of scripture, and if you know what 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. When the Lord brought back the captives of Zion, we were like those who dream that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us.

We are joyful. And there's a wonderful hymn that pulls that particular passage out. Maybe you know this one too, because I'm waiting on somebody who knows that particular passage of scripture. Maybe you know this one.

And give him the glory, great things he has done. Do you know that one? Do you know that hymn? Oh, come to the Father through Jesus the Son and give him the glory, great things he has done. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. Do you know that the Lord has done great things for you? Do you know this?

Do you laugh? If you know this, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. It's a two-part trivia. I'll take the psalm. If you know the psalm, I just gave it away. If you know this psalm, I'll give you a hit.

It says psalms. And then if you know the hymn. And if you've got a hymn that you like, by the way, I won't play Stump the Band here this morning, but if you've got a hymn that's particularly meaningful, I'll try to play it for you.

I think I am the only live radio show in the country that has a keyboard hooked up to play. But I love the hymns. I love music.

And I love to also laugh. And Gracie and I live life large. Life is worth living. This is our life. It came to me a long time ago that we don't wait for this to get better before we can start living a joyful, exciting life. This is our life.

So we're going to make the best of it and have joyful moments and laughter in the midst of it. How about you? 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is hope for the caregiver.

If you know that passage in scripture, or if you know the hymn, or if you've got another hymn you want to hear, give me a call. 888-589-8840. We'll be right back. 24-7 Emergency Support. Increasing safety, reducing isolation. These things are more important than ever as we deal with the challenges of COVID-19. How about your vulnerable loved ones?

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

www.mycompanion247.com. Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger, and in my three decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital trying to sleep in waiting rooms, on fold-out cots and chairs, and even the floor. You know, as caregivers, we have to sleep in uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. Do what we're doing in my home by using pillows from www.mypillow.com.

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That's at www.mypillow.com promo code CAREGIVER. Listen to her sing, man. That is my life.

Get it, girl. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. We're glad that you're with us.

I remember the first time we were... She sung that song. This is on her CD Resilient. If you want to copy that, go up to www.hopeforthecaregiver.com. Be a part of the show.

Support what we're doing here. We'll send you a copy of that CD. It's a great CD and you'll love it. But I remember she was singing this at an event many, many years ago. First time I think she sung it live and we had a band up there with her and this is at an event we're doing over at Duke University.

It was a big fundraiser for the Children's Hospital that Jeff Foxworthy and his wife, Greg, had asked us to come to. Jeff came up to us afterwards and Gracie's up there just singing this thing, just wailing on it. This is during the rehearsal and he came up and told Gracie. He said, Gracie, when you were singing it, I was just crying.

I'm not talking tears. I had snot. I just thought that was the funniest thing. Do you laugh?

This is what the show is all about today. Jeff and I did a whole bit on You Might Be a Caregiver If... It was hilarious. I asked him if he'd do it with me. He said, sure. Write out some jokes. I said, these are jokes.

This is my life. One of them was, if you've ever hooked up your dog to your wife's wheelchair, just to see if it would work, which I have done that. I have actual footage of that. Of course, you know, she's a double amputee and Jeff got me on one that I just busted out.

It says, if anybody's ever seriously... Let me see if I can imitate Jeff. If anybody's ever seriously asked you, baby, have you seen my left leg? You're probably a caregiver. It was a lot of fun.

Do you laugh as a caregiver? 888-589-8840. Somebody knew my song this morning and I'm going to go to them because they're from South Carolina, which is where I'm from. So I thought I'd go to... Is it Rhonda? Is it Rhonda? Rhonda, you with us?

Rhonda. Yes. Sorry about that. Hey. Sorry.

I got to wear my glasses. Where are you from in South Carolina? Flat, flat Florence. Florence. What county is that? Is that Marion County? It's Florence County. Florence County.

Yeah. I was born and raised in Anderson. You know where that is? Upstate. Yes, sir. Upstate. Yes. Up there near Clemson.

Everybody knows where Clemson is. Stop it. Well, how are things in Florence today?

Well, I just want to connect with To God Be the Glory, which I know those words and love that upbeat, all those old hymns. Thank God my grandmother, my mother's mother was a graceful, believing person and my mother claims to be, but she's having a terrible time because of the lack of joy in giving care to my dad, who is a sweet little four, four and a half year old type, heavily into Alzheimer's. And my mother is refusing all help, all help. So she's backed in the corner and sticking to it.

And that is the way that a lack of joy happens. Well, let me ask you a question. Anybody?

Let me ask you, let me ask you a question. By the way, you know the hymn. Do you know who wrote the hymn? Oh no.

Maybe Fanny Crosby or somebody. I'm driving. I'm sorry. I would have looked it up. No, don't look it up. You got to know these things off the top of your head. Anybody could Google it. Keep your hands on the wheel, by the way, 10 and two.

Yeah, I'm good. But Fanny Crosby, you can't go wrong if you guess Fanny Crosby. She wrote 10,000 hymns, so you can't go wrong with trying it. But that may be my all time favorite hymn. And I love this. The vilest offender who truly believes the moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.

I love that. The vilest, I can't even hardly get through it. When I'm singing that song and playing it, I can't even hardly get through that line. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.

And when you've seen your own vileness, that man, that hymn grabs you. Do you think your mother would accept some help maybe from me? I would be shocked if she did. If I sent her a copy of my book, if I sent her a copy of my book, do you think she'd accept it? She has a lot of books. Does she like music? She won't turn the Fox radio station off. She will not. Well, that's not music, but cause I have a CD. She is a hard case.

You know what? I would still like to send her a copy of the book. She may, it's very easy to read. I, I, um, uh, you know, I don't even know a lot of big words, so it's, it's a real easy book to read. I mean, you know, if I, if I'd known I was going to be, well, render, if I'd known I was going to be a writer, I would have probably paid a little bit more attention in, in, uh, in class. Um, I graduated, thank you, Laudie. And, uh, I remember the first, the first book I did, I turned in the manuscript and a sucker came back with so much red ink on it.

I thought it had been stabbed, you know, and you know, we're going to do some work here with you, buddy. So I tell you what, I'm going to put you on hold and I'm going to send you a copy, get to your address and I'm going to get, um, I'll get you a copy of my book. It's called Hope for the Caregiver and just give it to your mother and tell her it's from me and say, look, here's this knucklehead. Does she live in South Carolina too? She does. We're two miles apart.

Yes. Well then she, we speak the same language. If I could, I'd send her some bull peanuts, but it's, um, just tell her it's a knucklehead from South Carolina who's been doing this a long time and wanted her to have a copy of this book in which you just take a moment to read it. It's, it's, it's episodic. It's not, uh, linear that you've got to sit down and read the whole thing in one stretch. You could open up to any page and there's something on it and there's things that are hilarious in it and they're saying, but it's not, it's not a how to, because I don't tell you or anybody else how to take care of their loved one.

But what I do point to is what gives us that, that anchoring so that like the scripture says, then our mouths can be filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting, even in the midst of great sorrow, even while tears are flowing down our eyes. So I'm going to put you on hold and we're going to, and she's going to get your information here if that's okay. Is that all right? Thank you. That is very good.

And you just, well, we, you know, we Carolinians, you know, South Carolina born South Carolina bred when we die, we'll be South Carolina did. So thank you for calling and just sharing this with me. And I'm glad you, you love this hymn and forget that I'm gonna put you on hold. So don't go away and we're gonna get your information. All right.

Let's see. Linda in Texas, Linda. Good morning, Linda. Did you know the scripture? No, sir.

I thought it was a one 49. You're close. You missed it.

You've missed it by just a couple of dozen. You're close, but how are you doing in Texas? We're doing marvelous. I'm going in for some surgery here a little while, but who's going in you or somebody you love or take care of? You are all right.

Are you able to share on the air? What kind of surgery it is? Oh, I have, I have a lot of problems with my mouth. Well, tell the oral surgeon, you're looking down in the mouth.

He'll like that joke. I'm looking up to the Lord while they're working on it. Well, hopefully you're going to be asleep while they're working on you or at least knocked out. I won't. I'll be aware of everything, but I won't be able to do it.

I don't want to be aware of anything when I'm doing, but I got people digging around in my mouth. Oh, well, you're, you're braver than I am. And I'm, uh, but I, I tell you what, it's going to be all right. You're going to get it all done and, and you're going to move on and hopefully your mouth, as it says, our tongue with joyful shouting in this scripture. But, uh, thank you so much for calling in.

I'm sorry to get it right. Listen, let us know how the surgery goes. Uh, you go get this surgery done. Read a Psalm. I'm trying to think of what's a good Psalm to read before oral surgery. Uh, but I am victory in Jesus. That's a good one to read right before oral surgery.

I heard an old, old story. Listen, I've got to run here. Thank you so much for calling in.

Sorry. Didn't get the right on the song, but it, you're close. You're very, very close.

Uh, Nancy in Louisiana. Good morning, Nancy. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. I don't know the Psalm either, but I know that I knew the title anyway, but to God be the glory. But I was wondering, do you, um, is Psalm 91 in a song? Is Psalm 91 in a song? Yeah.

Cause I read it every morning. So I don't get the Corona virus and I don't get another hurricane. So, um, well, I don't know if reading that Psalm will stop the Corona virus, but, um, but, but you can, uh, uh, but I'm glad that you haven't gotten it yet, but you could all, you could look at, um, uh, whoever dwells at the shelter of the most high rock of ages cleft for me, thou, you know, uh, that would be one that would be inspired by that.

I would think so. Um, a mighty fortress. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and fortress by God in whom I trust.

Well, I would imagine Martin Luther probably had that in mind when he was writing a mighty fortress. So how about that? Does that help?

That sounds good. Yes. Thank you very much. I do the, I do the best I can with what I got there, Nancy. I do the best I can.

And you do have God. So that's the best. Anyway. All right. Well, Nancy, thank you for listening and thank you for giving a call to the show here. Um, Jason and Arkansas, Jason, we got to go to a quick break.

Can you, can you stay on the phone for, through the break? Yeah. All right. Don't go away.

We'll be right back. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is hope for the caregiver. 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, do you laugh as a caregiver? Do you laugh? You're going to laugh. If you stick around to this show, the next segment here, all right, at some point in here, you're going to laugh. And, uh, I want to leave you better than a family. Cause people have done that for me.

888-589-8840. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I have. I'm Gracie Rosenberger and in 1983 I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. Welcome back to Hope with Caregiver. This is Peter Roseberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver.

That is the intro to another track off of Gracie's CD. She and Joni Eareckson taught us singing Because He Lives. Listen to Joni there. Isn't that wonderful? That is a powerful arrangement there. I remember when I arranged this out, y'all don't tell anybody what I'm about to tell you, okay? Y'all just keep this twixt us.

But when I arranged this out, I did it because I wanted to slow it down, just get it unpacked a little bit. And Joni called me up. She said, Now, Peter, is this a little slow? And I said, Just sing the song.

I've already got one woman in a wheelchair that argues with me about the song. I don't need two. Y'all don't tell anybody I just said that, all right? Y'all just keep that twixt us.

Nobody has to know. That just stays on this show, okay? Don't say it. I've made Joni laugh a couple of times, and she doesn't know what to think of me sometimes. But let's see, I want to go back to, is it Jason? Jason in Arkansas. Jason, how are you feeling? I'm feeling good. How about yourself?

You know, for a man of my age and limited abilities, I think I'm doing all right, Jason. We got brand new snow here. We got several inches of new snow overnight, and it's beautiful outside. It's still a little bit dark here in Montana, but we had a full moon, and then we got all this bright snow around, so it's going to be a beautiful day.

What's going on in Arkansas? Well, I wanted to tell you a joke that my wife told me, and then I'm going to ask you for some advice for her. I love it when callers call in and tell jokes. I had one guy called in, and he told a joke, and he was a little bit belligerent. I remember this was on this show a while back, and it really pushed the line a little bit, but it wasn't a funny joke. I mean, he thought it was funny, but it really wasn't, and I told him, I said, this doesn't offend me as a Christian.

It offends me as a comedian. So tell me your joke. Well, my wife came in and said, she said, so what's the best part about being a 104-year-old lady? And I said, what?

And she said, there ain't no peer pressure. Okay. That has merits. You're in the ballpark.

I'm not so sure that you're up at bat right now, but you're in the ballpark, so that's pretty good, Jason. All right, well, tell me what's going on with your wife. I tell dad jokes, and she tells mom jokes, and they're not bad jokes, I would say, superior to mom jokes. But anyways, my wife, she's got the biggest heart that I've ever known anybody to have, and she goes into work every day as a CNA, and she's the only one that truly cares about her patients, it seems like, because they're there for the money or they're there for school or something like that, because they want to be a nurse or something like that in the future, but she's there to provide for her family. So she takes it seriously, and she'll go in there and she'll joke around with her patients and everything. Well, sometimes she'll find her patients laying in a pool of urine, or they're deaf almost, and they can't hear, so she'll get right up in their ear and talk to them and then back up so that they can see that she's truly listening. And most of the patients that come in there mad, she changes their whole attitude just by her attitude, and I think that that's awesome. And nobody actually takes the time to get on a personal level with these patients. I was just wondering if there's any kind of advice I could give her about not letting that get to her because of those patients, you know, they're not being treated as well as she would treat them if she could do it all the time.

Two things come to mind. One of them is, first off, I spent a lot of time in hospitals, and I am very familiar with the work of CNAs. They used to be called orderlies, and Gracie was hurt back in 83, so we've been dealing with hospitals for a very, very long time, and we've had some of the best care. And then we've had some that were coming in that was kind of, you know, whatever.

I had to kind of monitor some of these things, and it didn't go as well as I'd like. So you can imagine how many nurses, how many CNAs, how many doctors. She's been treated by over a hundred doctors, so I get the journey. I have a great deal of regard and respect for CNAs because it is such a difficult job to go in day after day of people who are suffering or people who are needy, and you're doing very menial tasks. Now, if she sees somebody that is not doing their job, certainly there is a path for that to say, okay, look, we need to bring this to the attention of the appropriate people to make sure that people are being treated properly, that they're being cared for with respect and dignity. But as far as other people being perfunctory on it and doing their job, really, that's kind of out of her area, and I would recommend that she just focus on what she's called to do and what she's supposed to do, what her job is, and what she feels in her heart the Lord has her do. You know, she can go in and be a huge source of blessing to so many, and it sounds like she is.

And I get that. I've come in many times into my wife's hospital room and seeing her praying with CNAs or singing hymns together. I've done this many times, and those are deeply rewarding things. You'd be amazed at what just a, as Scripture says, you know, a kind word, the heart is made merry from this sort of thing, and you'd be amazed at what people can respond to. And even if they're not responsive, I mean, she's going into rooms where the patient is probably not responsive very well, but you'd be amazed at what their spirits can hear, and I can bear witness to that with Gracie. So if we had a CNA that had a lousy attitude, for example, we would have them moved. We spent too much time there. This was not a one and done thing with us. This was something that we were back and forth, back and forth, or Gracie would spend sometimes months in the hospital.

So I think that I would, if you ask me my advice, I don't like to give advice a lot, because I don't know your situation as well, but I would say this. You fill up your wife with as much Scripture and joy, and try to get some better jokes, Jason. I'm just kidding.

Those are fine. But you fill up your wife with as much joy as you possibly can. When she comes home at the end of the day, you let her know how important what she does is and how important she is to you. And that's going to give her the wherewithal to draw deep to these people that need to hear joy and ministry and care from her as she does these things.

And as long as you keep putting more Jesus into her, she's going to be able to distribute it better to the patients that she sees. And I think that's your job as husband. That's your calling as husband. That is your great blessing as husband to be able to do that. That's how Christ loved the church. That's how Christ loves us, so that we can go out then and extend this.

As Paul said, we give thanks to the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may go out and give comfort to those who need comfort. And I think that your wife is going to come home and you know this, she comes home after tough days and she sees tough things. And as long as she is coming home to a husband who recognized that and is able to pour into her strength and encouragement and even jokes and laugh and fix her a nice meal, make sure the house is cleaned up. The more you make it so she doesn't have to come home and be a CNA in her own home, I think the better off she's going to be able to do with that.

Is that track? Yeah. How about that?

Well, thank you for the call on that, Jason, and try that and see what happens and just let her know that from somebody who has been the recipient of a lot of care from CNAs, thank her. I thank her. Okay? I've got one more question for you.

Sure. How can I get a hold of your book for her? Because she loves to read and I'll bet she will. Well, does she like audiobooks? No.

You don't really have a way of loosening them. Well, that's okay. Well, I've got the audiobook. It's wherever books are sold. Wherever books are sold. Okay. And it's called Hope for the Caregiver.

I've got another one called Seven Caregiver Landmines. You can get the Kindle version of it. You can get the print version. It's wherever books are sold.

Go out Amazon, whatever. And you get that copy for her. And then the audiobook is out there as well for those who like that. And I read the audiobook. I read the whole thing. And if you want to hear me reading the whole thing, then that's for you. If you don't, I could have done it. I should have done it with different impressions reading the book.

That would be awesome. Well, you're from Arkansas. I could have done it. I remember I was on Mike Huckabee's show and I was imitating Bill Clinton.

And Mike just put his head down on the desk and he said, I've known him for 45 years and you hooked him. And I could have done it. Hey, have y'all been reading my book?

This is Hope for the Caregiver. And, you know, but I probably better not do that. So listen, see, some of you guys are already laughing out there.

Some of you guys are already laughing. I'm telling you, I'm going to leave you better than I found you. But Jason, thank you so much for the call. And you know what? I tell you what, just the heck with that. Today, I'm just feeling that way to do it. I'm going to give you a copy of it to give to your wife. All right. So hang on and Sherry's going to get your information and I'll just send you one. And it'll come from Nashville and we'll have it sent out to you because I don't have any of them out here. Hold on a second. Yeah, I don't think I have any of them out here in Montana. And Gracie and I live in a very tiny little cabin out here where we're trying to figure out what's our next step.

And I mean, it's so small you have to eat a large pizza outside. It's cold outside today, so I don't want to do that. But hang on and we'll get you information. I just send you one. All right, hang on just a second. All right. Is it Sherry in Arkansas? Sherry?

Yes. Good morning. Good morning. Now you said I have to speak slowly because you're having a difficult time processing what I'm saying. Sherry, in my life, I don't think anybody's ever told me to speak slower.

I'm from the south. Well, I have early onset Alzheimer's and my husband is laying in bed with me and I wanted to call you. I will speak slowly. I've got to go to a quick break.

Do you know what is that obscure Gaither song that you like so much? It's called Let Me See Jesus Only by W. Dale Oldham. Okay, let me see Jesus Only. We've got to go to a break and Sherry, just for you and your husband, I'm going to speak very slowly. Does that help?

Yeah, and I've got the best husband. Just as sin came into the world through one man and death through one man, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. My name is Abraham Hamilton III and this is the Hamilton Minute. A popular effort in social revisionism is happening where racism, which is better described in biblical terms as skin color based partiality, is a crime of which only people of lighter skin color can be guilty. Let's be clear. Factions, divisions, and dissensions, including those based on skin color, are the fruit of the sinful flesh. The root cause of partiality is sin. Every person, regardless of the quantity of melanin in their skin, is capable of partiality. The only remedy for sin is the blood of Jesus Christ. Listen each weekday from 5 to 6 p.m. Central for The Hamilton Corner with Abraham Hamilton III, public policy analyst for the American Family Association.

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. 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 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. Jeremiah 29 11 says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. I know, I know the plans I have for you.

I love listening to Gracie sing. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing?

How are you holding up? If you want to see more about this, go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com. You see the CD from Gracie.

If you want to click on the book tab for the books, for Gracie's book, my books, the CDs, my CD, Gracie's CD. We've got all kinds of stuff out there, and I'd love for you to take advantage of it. Listen to it. We've got a podcast. The podcast is free and the blog. Our podcast, by the way, we podcast not only this show, but we do other recordings of it. It is the number one podcast for caregivers in the world. Go ahead and subscribe on any platform, whether it's Apple or Google Play or iHeartRadio, whatever the platform is. You can podcast our show.

We have all kinds of bonus stuff. I put out stuff from Gracie on there. We'd love to have you be a part of this because we need to be hearing reinforcements to ourselves. I listen to my own show because I got to hear from somebody with my level experience because this is the journey. I'm still a caregiver. I don't tell people how to do it right.

I tell people what I've learned through the process, mostly through failure, and keeping a sense of humor is a big part of it. We went to a break and I had to cut off Cherie in Arkansas, but Cherie, tell me again, what was the name of that Gaither tune that you were talking about? Let Me See Jesus Only. Let Me See Jesus Only.

I have to go look that one up. Well, listen, you hugged your husband. I can sing it for you. Well, go ahead. Sing it for me.

Just a little bit because I got other colors I got to get to, but just a little bit. Okay. All right. I'm just going to sing the first verse. I'm dead to every worldly pleasure, dead indeed. I sin am I, but my heart... Oh, I messed up.

I'm sorry. Is that it? That's it. Is that it? Let me see Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus only, let me see Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus only...

I'll have to work that up for you. But, listen, thank you for introducing that to me, and And I heard your husband in there, and you two have a fabulous day. Behave yourselves.

See, I told you, I mean, look, I'm going to leave you better than I found you. And I want you to laugh, because I want us to understand that when the Lord brought back the captives of Zion, we were like those who dreamed, that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are joyful. You know what? We've been already set free.

That's the whole point. That's what this song that you just sang is all about. We've been set free.

And so I really do appreciate you bringing that to my mind this morning, and thank you so much for sharing. And we've got to take another call here. Shirley in Mississippi. Shirley, good morning. How are you feeling, Shirley? Oh, I'm feeling great. But I talked to you one time, only one time, because I accidentally found this program, and I love it, and I've told all kinds of people about it. But today, and I've done lots of it. By the way, Shirley, we're used to people accidentally finding this program. We're used to that.

Yeah. Well, it's because I'm a hospice volunteer, and, well, I've done all kinds of volunteering. That's been my life. I'm 84, 85 years old, and I'm still doing that kind of thing, except for hospice now.

You can hardly go in any place because they got it all locked up. But my husband died several years ago with Alzheimer's. That wasn't a pleasant thing, but I did do the caregiving for six years.

But anyway, that's not what I want to tell you. I want to tell you about my pastor and his wife. And she has just finished, I don't know how many months of therapy. She has cancer, and it's supposed to all be gone. I've never seen anyone that had to do so many things to try to get rid of something.

But what it is, is she's now supposed to be in remission, and hopefully it won't come back, hopefully. And my pastor, well, he would just have a fit if he thought I was saying this on the radio. Well, we won't tell him.

No. He is the best. And I've tried, he lives over in, I don't know where, not too far. But I've tried to get him under. Better not say that on the air.

Oh, okay. We won't out him on the air. Because I'm trying to get him to, because you would like him, and he, funny, oh yes, he has lots of things to be laughing about.

We're always laughing about something. But he's a dedicated man, if ever I have known one. And I won't tell you his name, and then he'll be safe. You know? Well, there you go. Well, you asked him if he wants to, he could feel free to call in.

Yeah, and I need to do that. I mean, because I've told him two or three times. And like I say, she is just going, yesterday, he told me, he said, well, she's a school teacher, but of course she can't teach school right now. But he said, oh, he said all her friends brought her all this stuff. And because this has gone on for like five months, well, I mean, I know you know about that kind of thing. And so one of the things...

I have a little experience in that. Yeah, I think so. One of the things they brought her, though, was a puzzle that had a thousand pieces. And she said, oh, she wasn't too impressed with a thousand piece puzzle. But I mean, she gets around and everything, but she's still got a feeding tube and she's got to gain her weight back. But these are two people that I mean, I've known... Then I could give her some tips on gaining her weight back because Lord knows I haven't struggled in that area of gaining weight back. I mean, at one point, I mean, and I've really tried to, because that's the chapter, one of my books was excessive weight gain.

We caregivers gain a lot of weight. And I got so big one time, my picture fell off the wall. I mean, you know, it'll happen. But it's, well, you let him know about the show, tell him you've talked about him on the show, but you didn't mention his name, but he's welcome to call in. And I'd love to hear from him. And surely you would love him. He's your kind of man.

I guarantee. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, Shirley. I'm sorry to hear that. And I mean, he is a dedicated man, if ever there was one.

And so, okay, well, I don't need to take any more of your time right now. You are a delight and it means a lot that you're out there listening and keep, you know what, if you can't volunteer at hospice, like you've been doing all this stuff, these callers that call in or dealing with all kinds of different things, Shirley, would you just remind yourself and please just keep praying for them because I know that that's on your heart and you know the journey, you did it and you have the heart of ministry and just keep praying for them by name as they call in. And because this is the whole point of us doing this show is to build this community so caregivers know that their names are important too.

You know, we lose our identity as caregivers. When my husband was living, we spent part of 40 some years in Southeast Kentucky and he was a builder and that was a life changing time. That's beautiful country over there. That's beautiful country over there. It is. And my friend has both of her legs amputated. She has 10 children and they're all 10 still living.

But okay, you have a great day. You're telling me about that. But by the way, make sure that your friend knows that the family knows that we recycle prosthetic limbs. We've heard Gracie's story and we have an outreach over West Africa. So if they have an older limb that they don't use, we'll take it. I think I mentioned that, but I will because I'll probably talk to her today. But I mean, her grandson said, let's go for a walk. She said, well, I only have one leg. He said, no, there's another one in the other room. These are familiar conversations to me. And I remember when there was a deer out in our yard one time when we lived in Nashville and our oldest son was a little boy and he comes running in there and says, mom, get your leg out.

This one, she was a single empty. Mom, get your leg out. You got to come see this. You know, you learn to just, it's just life.

It's just life. But thank you so much for calling that and if anybody wants to, Shirley, I appreciate your call. If anybody wants to donate a used limb, it's very easy. Go out to standingwithhope.com, standingwithhope.com and you'll see the tab there for the Prosthetic Limb Outreach.

It goes to a prison in Arizona where inmates disassemble the legs for us and we take the parts that we can use and recycle them and send them over to West Africa and it goes to helping someone else walk. You give the gift that keeps on walking? How about that? All right. Did I leave you better than I found you?

Did I leave you better than I found you? Psalm 126, one through three, when the Lord brought back the captives of Zion, we were like those who dreamed, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. They said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them, the Lord has done great things for us, we are joyful. Give him the glory, great things he has done, as Fanny Crosby said. He has done great things and we can be joyful even in the midst of very difficult, painful things that we live with as a caregiver.

That's the whole point of this show. Only caregivers make better caregivers. Go to Hopeforthecaregiver.com for more information.

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

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for and they're disassembling, you see all these legs, like what you have, your own prosthetic legs. And arms.

And arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know what it is to be locked some place where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out. Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled?

No. I had no idea. You know, I thought of peg leg. I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that. I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there.

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

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

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

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

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