When Caregivers Fear

Peter Rosenberger. He's not a preacher, but he's got great hair. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here 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?

There's nothing like this show. We are unique in that we are approaching the heart of a caregiver from a strong biblical worldview to help speak directly to the heartache, the fear, the guilt, the despair, the resentment, the rage, the loneliness, the isolation that all caregivers go through at some point in their life, if not for seasons of their life. And we are taking that and going to those places to speak comfort and strength and help you get to a path of safety where you can navigate these very, very turbulent waters as a caregiver with a little more calmness, a little healthiness, and even, dare I whisper it, a little more joy. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. And we love having the calls.

Last week we had a little bit of a call malfunction, so I just answered the calls live on the air. But I think we've got that under control this week, and we look forward to your calls. We always want to start off with some things of Scripture, and that ties into usually our trivia question, which has been lately a musical trivia question, and it's going to affect our topic today. And so I'm going to throw this out to you and see if you know it. And as usual, I like these hymns. I like to pull from these hymns because I think that's a treasure trove for us of things that will sustain us.

So here's one. If you know this, you're welcome to call. I'm going to step over here to the caregiver keyboard, and this is a powerful hymn, and I'm just going to play it slowly. If you know it, you call it, but we're going to talk about what this hymn means today to us as caregivers. Do you know what this is? I know you know the tune. All right. If you know that one, 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. And there's stanzas in that hymn that are going to directly apply to what we're talking about today, and that subject is fear. Are you afraid? What are you afraid of?

What's going on with you? Are you struggling with fear? So many caregivers are.

So many people are. Look at our country right now. Look at the world as we've dealt with this global pandemic. We have a lot of things that are fear worthy that we face in our life. What are you afraid of today? What is going on with you that is causing you to be gripped with fear? 888-589-8840. If you want to share what that is.

888-589-8840. Let's talk about some scriptures about fear. 1 John 4 18. There's no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear because fear involves torment or punishment. Is one translation said in the one who fears is not perfected in love. 2 Timothy 1 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear.

Finish it. But of power and love and a sound mind. One translation says power, love and discipline. Proverbs 10 24. What the wicked fears will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

Proverbs 9 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. And so these are just a sample of many scriptures that speak to our fear. And we have quite a bit of fear issues as just the human condition. That's why the phrase fear not or don't be afraid or be not afraid occurs over a hundred times in scripture. And then it has all kinds of different ways it says that same thing that even goes even further because God knows that we're afraid.

And as caregivers, we live with an enormous amount of fear. You know, what's going to happen? How are we going to get through this? What happens if something happens to me? What if they do this?

What if this happens? And we live in this terrible bondage of fear. And by the way, at the end of this show and all the shows on this network, there's a disclaimer phrase that the views of this program don't necessarily reflect the views of the network, that kind of thing. You've all heard those kind of things just in case somebody goes off the rails, which, you know, liable for me to do. But I think I'm going to get one that for me, this is the views of the host of this program are not things that he owns, but are things that God's working out in his life today, because these are things that I still struggle with. And I think I will for the rest of my life.

I hope I don't struggle with it as much as I used to. And I think experience with walking with God through this gives you that confidence that through many dangers, toils and snares, we have already come. And so when you look back at some of these things in your life where God has sustained you, that gives you the courage to trust him with the things that are still ahead of you. And this is the whole point of being able to anchor ourselves in this. You know, the old hymn, Oh God, our help in ages past.

You know, we're referring back to, OK, this is what he's done in ages past. That's not the hymn I played this morning, but this is what we do for ourselves to anchor ourselves. OK, he's brought us through this. And he's brought others through this. And that gives me the courage to trust him with what I'm facing right now.

Now, my question to you, though, is as a caregiver, what are you afraid of? Now, I've been asking over the last couple of weeks, those you've been listening regular. And by the way, I want to give a big shout out to Jane out in Illinois. We had a lovely conversation this week, and I do appreciate that.

That was a lot of fun. And she's been a longtime listener and faithfully gets up early in the morning, listens to the show. And Jane, if you're baking bread this morning, I know it smells wonderful. Jane gave a great real estate. She's a she's a wonderful cook and and loves to cook and bake bread and so forth, and she's built houses with her husband.

She gave a great real estate tip to me this week. When you put your house on the market, always have fresh bread baking or have just finished baking fresh bread before showing the house, because it really makes the house just seem more attractive and and and people just love the smell of it. I mean, you know, what do you think about Subway? They have all that going all the time.

And I don't even know how good their bread is, but it's the smell of fresh bread makes everybody feel better. So, Jane, thank you for that. But but those you've been listening for for some time know that we've been discussing.

Different things like, you know, humor and what's your favorite song and all that kind of stuff. But today, I want to dig a little bit deeper into what are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? What is going on with you?

How do you feel? And we can speak to that this morning together. We're just going to talk about it.

I'm not here to solve your problems any more than you're here to solve mine. But what I'm hoping and praying and that's the purpose of the show is to dig into the isolation. Of the caregivers life and bring a little bit of hopefully some camaraderie and some some daylight into the dark places, because in our isolation, dark thoughts overtake us. But when we are connected with other people, particularly other people who have walked through these things, it gives us a little bit more strength and courage to face the challenges we have.

I'm bringing 35 years of experience in doing just that. And I've stood by myself in the empty hospital quarters, watching my wife being wheeled off to surgery more times than I can count. I've done these things. I've walked to the hospital parking garage in the middle of the night, sat there in my car all alone, didn't have a show like this to tune into, didn't have a podcast like mine to listen to.

And so I understand those things. That's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to hear your story.

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. In my three and a half decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital, sleeping in waiting rooms, on fold out cots, chairs, even the floor, sometimes on sofas and a few times in the doghouse.

But let's don't talk about that. As caregivers, we have to sleep at uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. We use pillows for MyPillow.com.

These things are great. They have a patented interlocking feel that adjusts to your individual sleep needs. And for caregivers trying to sleep in all the different places we have to sleep, believe me, our needs get ramped up significantly. Think about how clean your pillows are. In the COVID world, we're all fanatical about clean. When you wash your pillows with MyPillows from MyPillow.com, we throw them in the washer and dryer.

We do it all the time. 10 year warranty, guaranteed not to go flat, 60 day money back guarantee, made in the USA. As a caregiver, you need rest. So start by going to MyPillow.com, type in the promo code CAREGIVER. You get 50% off the four pack, which includes two premium pillows and two go anywhere pillows. You'll also receive a discount on anything else on the website when using your promo code CAREGIVER. That's MyPillow.com promo code CAREGIVER. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver and I'm glad that song is in the rotation there.

That is for my friend, Ron. He's watching on Facebook and he loves it when Gracie sings that song. That is Gracie from her CD Resilient and she's saying, my life is in your hands.

And that's it. Can't you just picture her planting a flag with that song and just saying, hey, this is where I'm making my stand. And I know that I can stand. And that's the woman who's had 80 surgeries and both her legs amputated. And she's singing that. She sang that up at Walter Reed a couple of times, I think. And when we were up there, it was wounded soldiers. And she got up there and she wears her legs uncovered. This was right at the beginning when soldiers were coming back from the Middle East and Afghanistan and Iraq and pretty banged up. A lot of amputees, a lot of women were coming back as amputees from these IEDs and so forth. And Gracie got up there and she wears her prosthetic legs uncovered in there.

She walks out on stage and just blisters it with that song. And let me tell you something, the effect it had on those wounded soldiers was, you know, it's hard to describe and you'd have to see it. You'd have to have been there to see what it did to them. And I remember we were doing a thing with the Republican Senate caucus. All the Republican senators threw a dinner for the wounded soldiers there. And Gracie was the closer for that night. And afterwards, this was right at the beginning of this thing. So people really weren't quite sure what was all going on with all these wounded warriors coming back.

They didn't know quite how to respond as a nation. And Gracie was there and she got up there and just let them know that there's a place that you can stand solidly on this. And she pointed them to Christ. She pointed them to safety. And afterwards, all these wounded warriors were clustered around her. I mean, some of them had their IV bags and prosthetics, some of them wheelchairs. They were all just clustered around her, men and women. And I watched two U.S. senators, you know who they were if I told you their names. And they were trying to get to Gracie just to thank her for coming. And they couldn't get through the crowd of wounded soldiers to get to Gracie.

And they looked at me and both these senators said, don't worry about us, we're not important. She's right where she needs to be. I always love that story and that was one of those great moments when I saw somebody who had trusted God in her great wounds being able to offer strength to others in their great wounds. And that's the whole point of the show.

That's the whole point of the Gospel. And Paul says that in Corinthians, we comfort one another with the same comfort that we ourselves have received so that we can extend that comfort to others from the God of all comfort. And that's why we're doing what we're doing this morning and as a caregiver I understand the fear that grips you. Financial fear, emotional fear, physical fear.

There's all kinds of things out there. What happens if they wander off? If you have somebody who you love that has some type of cognitive impairment, whether through disease such as Alzheimer's or a special needs kid with autism. What happens if they wander off in the middle of the night and you live in that fear? What happens if they choke? All of those things that go on. You've got a loved one who's an alcoholic or an addict.

What happens if they hurt themselves or someone else? These are real fears that caregivers deal with. And we're speaking to that this morning. I've got some folks who are calling in and they say they know the song. Let's talk to, the song was this.

Let's go back over here at the caregiver keyboard. Here's the chorus of the song. All right. Elaine in Louisiana. Thank you very much Ursula. Elaine, good morning. How are you feeling? I'm feeling pretty good. How are you?

Well, I'm just lovely. You knew this hymn? Yes. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood. No, that's on Christ the solid rock I stand. That's the chorus.

And I told them I did not know that. No, the chorus is not my hope is built on nothing less. That's a different song. That's my hope. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. That's the chorus of this one.

My faith is found to rest upon you. They're very similar hymns. Well, they're very similar hymns.

They sound a lot alike and they are very similar hymns. There's a verse in this one that I wanted to get to specifically on this and it talks about our subject matter today. And our subject matter today is fear. How are you with fear today, Elaine? Are you doing okay? I'm doing great with fear. I learned the hard way to not fear. And what was that? How did you learn that? Because there are a lot of people right now that are struggling, Elaine.

So tell them what you learned. My husband had a brain bleed. They gave him 30 days to live. The Lord woke me up with a song standing on the promises. And I said, that is not a grieving song. That's a working song. He's not going to die.

And nobody took my word for it. I buried him on the first day of the eighth year. How about that?

Thirty days to eight years. The Lord walked with us every step. We could see his movement.

It was just, it was phenomenal. One time Gracie and I, when you had that hymn standing on the promises, one time Gracie and I were on James Robinson's show out in Texas. This was many years ago and Gracie had just become a double amputee earlier and she wanted to make a point. So right there on the show, she took her leg off and wanted to make a point on this. And I was trying to hold it so it wouldn't fall over. And James was sitting there kind of looking at her and Betty were looking at her kind of odd. And there was a Bible right there on the table and I put her leg, I bounced it on top of that Bible. And I said, look James, she's standing on the promises. And I thought it was funny.

I don't know. James and Betty were kind of like, who are these people and why are they on our show? Well, you know, a lot of people don't understand that song really talked to me that morning. He was in NIFU.

He had brain surgery and you know, they were saying he couldn't live. And that's how the Lord woke me up. My pastor even went back and told my brother, he said, Miss Elaine's in denial.

I don't know what we're going to do with her. And God had assured me right there. What does your pastor say now? He was amazed.

Isn't it great when you amaze your pastors? My husband could no longer speak at all because he had a church. He could move his right arm just a touch and it could give a slight nod to his head. That was all of his moves for the whole seven years. Yet he witnessed to the people in ICU with that hand and his inspirational television. If they turned his inspirational television off, put it on football or something, everything he was hooked to, alarmed. Everything. And as soon as they put his TV back right, everything would shut up.

I mean, it was amazing to watch him in the Lord for seven years. I love that. I love that, Elaine. Gracie would do the same thing when she was in the hospital. She would be worshiping. She'd have some type of program on where there was just worship and prayer going on. And I've watched her and she'd sit there in her hospital bed. Her hands were just lifted up and she was just praising and worshiping, tears coming down her face. And nurses would come in and check all of her monitors and so forth while she had her hands up. She didn't even know they came in and out. They just kind of worked around her as she was sitting there worshiping and praising in her hospital bed. It sounds like your husband did the same thing.

That was the same thing. And I will say one thing for these caregivers. An EMT told me that with a brain injury, you think, be quiet. She said, that is not it.

You never know when their brain is working. She said, 24-7, have music playing. Well, I chose praise music. And 24-7, for the next complete seven years, we had praise music. And it was amazing what it was doing.

He loved the gators on the video. That is great advice to do that. 24-7, you praise God, and He is right there in your midst all the time. For the Lord inhabits praises is what it says. Elaine, thank you so much for that call. That is a great word to hear. And when you're in the hospital and so forth, make sure that you're playing praise music. There's plenty of people speaking fear and death and all kinds of things around you, but you don't have to be that one to do it. Speak life to yourself with music.

We'll be right back. I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and 26 years ago, I walked for the first time on two prosthetic legs. I saw firsthand how important quality prosthetic limbs are to an amputee. This understanding compelled me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana in West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I'm standing with hope. We're here on the American Family Radio.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We also want to welcome all of our affiliates that are carrying the show, the Truth Network. When you come onto the show, when you log in to AFR, right at the beginning of the show, you'll hear the tail end of Stu Epperson's show with my friend Robbie Dilmore and Stu Epperson. They do a great work, and he is over at the Truth Network, and they're on this network as well.

We're all partnering together, and you'll hear their show and great teaching that they offer. And I like listening to it just as I'm getting ready for doing all my show prep. And I do prep a little bit for the show. I never script the show, but I do have some level of prep that goes into it. At least turn on machines. But I do want to thank them and his radio network and other affiliates around the station.

There are over 200 stations now carrying the show. And this is a real testament to you all as an audience and the need that is there for family caregivers to be able to have a place where they can hear words that speak life in the midst of their situation. I speak fluent caregiver.

My 35 years have helped me understand what the challenges are for a family caregiver. But more importantly, our Savior, that's His native tongue. He speaks caregiver. That's His native tongue.

That's who He is. And we want to address the needs and the heartache and the challenges that caregivers have in that context. And if you want to be a part of the show, 888-589-8840. And also we have our podcast.

Everything's available. You can go and download the past shows and other things that I do. I do other interviews I have on our podcast. We put out several a week. And it's out at HopeForTheCaregiver.com. HopeForTheCaregiver.com. We're on every podcast platform out there.

Apple, whatever, and Amazon. And it's a free podcast. We've got over 500 episodes. And sometimes I put up bonus stuff of music with Gracie or me or both of us. And usually if Gracie's involved with it musically, I'm usually at their piano somewhere. But she does a couple of things acapella or some other bands and so forth that is really quite moving. She's got duets. She's done with our friend Johnny Erickson-Tada that'll just move your heart. So there's all kinds of stuff that's out there. Please take advantage of it. Caregiving's hard enough.

It's harder when you're alone. And so this is the purpose of the show. Let's go to Stan. We had a trivia question for the last half hour for those of you now just joining us. And it was a musical trivia about the topic of fear. And I played a hymn and Stan knew, he knew what the song was.

So Stan is in Illinois. Good morning, Stan. How are you feeling? How am I feeling? I'm a little tired this morning.

I've been up since, oh, five o'clock doing some laundry. Well, I'll share that with you. I'm still a caregiver. My wife, even though she's in a nursing home, I'm still her caregiver.

I go every day. I've been going for 365 days to her window. But my greatest fear because she's been through a lot. She's got Alzheimer's. She's bipolar. She's schizophrenia.

She's got a cleaning disorder all mixed in together. But my greatest fear is her forgetting my name, her forgetting who I am. You know, and in this earth, I just want to give you a little bit of space on this. But in this earth, that's probably going to happen at some point.

In fact, it will happen. However, Stan, this is the promise that we have in Scripture. And that is, God will never forget your name. In fact, he says in Isaiah that it's engraved on the palm of his hand. And I think we can all say with a reasonable amount of certainty that that Scripture is a foreshadowing of what happened with Christ because of what happened with his scars on his hand. That is a picture of how much he knows who you are and he will never forget who you are.

And as she goes through these things and as this disease takes more and more control of her life, my prayer is that you'll hold on to that and that he will bring her home. With all my strength, I'll hold on to that. And you knew the song today, didn't you? You knew the song today.

Tell me what the song was again that I played. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' hope and righteousness. Well, that's on Christ's solid rock I stand. This song was My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. And I'm going to read to you one of the stanzas of this. This is why I selected this hymn. They're very similar hymns.

A lot of people get them confused here. But here's one for you, okay? Enough for me that Jesus saves, this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I came to him, he'll never cast me out. I need no other argument.

I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. And I think that's a great thing for us to all lean on. That it ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I came to him, he'll never cast me out.

And by implication, that means you belong to him. And as well as your wife. Through all of her illness, his grace and his mercy and his compassion and his salvation is greater than bipolar. It's greater than dementia. It's greater than Alzheimer's. It's greater than nursing homes.

It's greater than COVID-19. And you have to stand at the window and look at her, but he doesn't. Yeah, but I love my wife so much and I know she's going to be alright. And believe it or not, I'm disabled myself. I've got a type of muscular dystrophy.

And I walk with a walker and take care of things around the house still. But hey, my strength is built on him. And he gives me strength to get up every day and do a few things and take care of my wife's things that she needs. He gives me strength for that. Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow.

You ever heard that phrase? That's from Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow. I'm going to read one last verse for you on this, Stan.

My great physician heals the sick. The lost he came to save. For me, his precious blood he shed. For me, his life he gave. And that's very personal, Stan.

That means you personally. That's what the hymn writer is saying there. And we serve a personal God. He died for all of us, but he died for each of us. And that is what strengthens us through these dark days, these long valleys of the shadow of death.

And that's where you are. But he says, what did he say about the valley of the shadow of death? I will fear what? I will fear no evil because he's with me, even to the end of the age. I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

And he is, Stan. Listen, do you like to listen to the hymns? Yes, I'm going to tell you a story about that. I've been in the contemporary church for years and now switched. And regular hymns have just changed my life for the better. I started listening to regular hymns again, and it's a shame that I've forgotten some of them.

But I'm getting back to my roots. Well, would it be okay if I sent you a copy of my CD that has a bunch of them on there? Would that be all right? I would love it.

Well, I'm going to put you on hold. It's called Songs for the Caregiver. And I just set that on the piano and played several of them. I got Gracie to sing a few things.

I got some friends of mine to join with me. There's one on there that I did, an arrangement of the old rugged cross with Jesus keep me near the cross. That's the name of the hymn. And a friend of mine is playing the violin on it.

It'll break your heart. It was live. We were doing it during communion at church. And you could even hear some of the communion trays clanking around at the beginning. I'm leaving that on there because I thought that was just so appropriate. And I thought you might enjoy that. So I'm going to put you on hold, Stan. And we're going to get your information. We're going to send you this CD and we'll get that to you. And I hope it will be a source of blessing to you.

It's called Songs for the Caregiver. I've got to go to some other calls here. Diana in Texas. Diana, good morning. How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. Well, you sound great, Diana.

You sound great. Tell me what's going on very quickly here. I'm sharing. I'm a caregiver.

God chose me to be a caregiver of my family and my friends. My quickest and easiest to tell others, it is faith over fear. I have no fear. I have sometimes used the wrong words and worry. Oh, you say I'm worried about my kids, my grandkids, this world, of course. But there's a difference between just not having the fear of the worst. And as long as you stay negative, you're going to have the worst. But when you're with God, you have no fear because he opens every door and you just walk behind him and you don't leave his sight. And I just don't know how to plain explain. It works 24 seven.

It's not technology. It's in our hearts. It's just life is simple with God.

I have a special need brother. He's had COVID twice. And I stayed in that parking lot for two weeks. And he had the second round, I couldn't have access to him, but I had God with me.

I was not alone. And he's confined to a wheelchair. He's young. He's only 55 years old. But he is fine. He had a seizure.

The last one caused additional brain damage. But he knows who he is. He knows who we are. And that's what matters.

The wheelchair doesn't matter to him. Because he's with us. And he is my guardian angel. They all say, oh, they're so blessed to have you. But I feel the other way around.

God chose me to be his sister. And there's no other way to put it. Well, I think you've said it just exactly how you needed to say it. And I appreciate you calling on that very much. And I appreciate you listening, Diana. Thank you very much for those strong words. And we've got to go to a break here. This is Peter Roseburger.

This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're talking about fear today. Are you afraid? What are you afraid of? What are you dealing with? And how can we take that together to Scripture to see what the Lord says about this? He's addressed all of these issues for us as caregivers throughout his work.

Not necessarily the circumstances we live with, but the issues. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Roseburger. 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. Hey, this is Peter Rosenberg, and in my three and a half decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital, sleeping in waiting rooms, on fold-out cots, chairs, even the floor. Sometimes on sofas and a few times in the doghouse, but let's don't talk about that. As caregivers, we have to sleep at uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. We use pillows for MyPillow.com.

These things are great. They have a patented interlocking feel that adjusts to your individual sleep needs. And for caregivers trying to sleep in all the different places we have to sleep, believe me, our needs get ramped up significantly. Think about how clean your pillows are. In the COVID world, we're all fanatical about clean. Can you wash your pillows? With MyPillows from MyPillow.com, we throw them in the washer and dryer.

We do it all the time. Ten-year warranty, guaranteed not to go flat, 60-day money-back guarantee, made in the USA. As a caregiver, you need rest. So start by going to MyPillow.com, typing the promo code CAREGIVER. You get 50% off the four-pack, which includes two premium pillows and two go-anywhere pillows. You'll also receive a discount on anything else on the website when using your promo code CAREGIVER.

That's MyPillow.com, promo code CAREGIVER. He will be strong, and he will never be saved. And the joy of the Lord is my strength.

The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord. Welcome back to Healthy the Caregiver. This is Peter Wells, and this is the show for you as a family caregiver.

Healthy caregivers make better caregivers, and part of that journey for us to healthiness is understanding the strength and the presence of God in the midst of our difficulties. That's Gracie with Rust Half from HerCD Resilient. If you want a copy of that, go out to HopeForTheCaregiver.com. Just click on HerCD cover and whatever you want to do to help. If you like what you're hearing on this show and if it's meaning something to you, be a part of it and help sponsor the show through our organization, Standing With Hope. You've heard Gracie's story on this, and you can sponsor this show directly. We'll send you a copy of her CD. I think you'll love it. She's some kind of singer, and I do okay on the piano.

She says I do okay on the piano. And that brings us to our final block here today for the show. At the beginning of the show and at the beginning of this half hour, we did our musical trivia, which is the hymn, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Not in device or creed. I trust the ever-living One. His wounds for me shall plead. Enough for me that Jesus saves. This ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I came to Him.

He'll never cast me out. My heart is leaning on the Word, the living Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through His blood. And the last stanza is, My great Physician heals the sick. The lost He came to save. For me His precious blood He shed. For me His life He gave. And then the chorus is, I need no other argument.

I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. And that is a great hymn of the faith. A wonderful hymn to lean on in those dark places when we get to as a caregiver.

That's why I love these hymns because they've been around for a while. They've seasoned out. Any of you all cook with an iron skillet? I cook with an iron Dutch oven, a skillet, little sauce pans, whatever.

I mean, I got it all. I have all kinds of iron out here that I cook with here in Montana. And I like cooking with iron. But the key is when you cook with any type of iron skillets and so forth, they need to be seasoned.

They're not much good if they're not. And that's what our faith needs to be, seasoned. And these hymns reflect the faith of people who went through seasoning and that's how they're able to write these things. That's why these hymns have been around for so long. And I'm not knocking the music that's coming out today. I think there's some wonderful songs, but there's something about congregational style hymns that anchor us deeply. And the way I look at it is, what is the song that you want played at your funeral? And these hymns come to mind more than anything else. So that's why I address them. I think we have a doctrinal treasure trove in the hymnal that we've gotten away from.

And I'm determined I'm going to bring it back and I try to play them a way that makes sense to folks and is meaningful to them. Let's go to Teresa in Kansas. Teresa, good morning. How are you feeling?

I am feeling fine. I loved hearing your Keith Green songs. Oh, I love Keith Green. He had passed away, had his plane accident, maybe just a month before we were saved. But he was very popular. I think it was 40 years ago this summer.

Well, that's when we got saved. I called in Peter because I have a very close friend. She's about 30. She has a six-year-old boy. She's been taking care of her mother-in-law with end-stage Alzheimer's and wheelchair found.

And now her husband's been diagnosed with multiple metastasized cancer. And she asked me if I could find a book or something to help her explain what's going on to her six-year-old boy. Well, I don't know that I would be able to give a book to her. I've been thinking about doing a book for children on this, and I may still. I've been a little bit tied up with stuff, and I haven't gotten to it.

It's on my list of things that I want to do. But I think that I wrote my book simply enough that she'll be able to extrapolate for it and give information to her son. And I tell you what, I'm going to put you on hold, and I'll send a copy of you.

We'll get her information, and I'll send her a copy of my book. And it's called Hope for the Caregiver. And it's very simple. It's easy to read. And that's the name of the show. That's the name of the book.

That's the name of everything I do. And as I tell people, it's so easy, you can read it in the bathroom. I know because that's where I wrote it.

Oh, I'm just kidding. But I wrote it for caregivers, and specifically trying to delve into these things and help point caregivers to safety. Some of it may be a little over a six-year-old's head, even though I look at my writing style, and I think, nah, it's probably not over a six-year-old. But I think that it will be meaningful to her and give her the vocabulary to explain it to him. And at some point, I'll be glad to, you know, and they're welcome to call in together to the show. And we can talk about things on the air, whatever they have, issues going on. Even her little boy, huh?

Yeah, it's fine. I'd love to have him call. He's quite a character. You know, I remember when my son, oldest son, was nine years old. And he looked at me, and this is, Gracie had been going through surgery after surgery, surgery. And he looked at me at nine years old, and he said, why should I trust God with my pain when I see what he allows Mom to go through? And I know a lot of pastors and theologians who probably wouldn't want to answer that question from a nine-year-old. And I looked at my son, and I said, I don't know why your mom has to suffer. I don't understand it.

I don't know why God allows this. But here's what I do know. That he stretched out his arms, and he gave his life for us on the cross.

And he took all of this on himself. If he loves us that much, I'm willing to trust him with this stuff with your mom. And maybe that's a good starting point for this six-year-old boy, because I think six-year-olds can understand that. And we don't have to have answers.

Yeah, I was telling her, I said, you know, I think he probably understands more than you really think he does. Well, I don't think we have to have complicated answers and make ourselves feel better about it. I think we go back to what do we know?

What do we know? And that's why on my CD, I put, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.

And sometimes it's the simple things that anchor us. And I wanted people to know that, that we get so wrapped up in trying to get to these, you know, well, yeah, I know he died on the cross for our sins and for the world. No, no, he loves you. He knows who you are. He knows who this six-year-old boy is.

He knows. Oh, yes. I mean, there's miracles with the child too. He was born in October and he wasn't due till February.

So he was a miracle in itself. Well, and that's your starting point. Well, that's the starting point. I'm going to put you on hold and we're going to get the information for this lady and I'll send her a copy of my book and we can start from there. And then she's certainly welcome to call on the show with her son. We'll have a conversation on the air.

We don't have to give out any personal information. We just, whatever's on their mind, whatever's on their heart, okay? So hang on.

We'll put you on hold there. Let's go to Jeanette in Louisiana. Jeanette, good morning. Good morning. How are you feeling? Good morning. I receive you.

I'm feeling great, praise the Lord. Did you get what I sent you? I said I received your CD.

Yeah, I received it about three weeks ago, but I have been sick with this fungus infection that I have where I had cut my finger and it had turned black and then I rubbed some antibiotic on it and it went through my body and spoiled me all up and my father was also, and then I had been sleeping in the morning. But I woke up early today and I want to tell you all the songs that I know that's on this CD. Number one is Near the Cross. Near the Cross. Jesus loved me through it all. I learned to trust in Jesus.

I learned to trust in God. Wait till you hear Gracie sing through it all. Oh, it's gonna, it'll tear your heart out.

She does a great job with that. I didn't listen at the whole, I listened at the whole CD. The next one is Sweet Hour Prayer.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus need thee every hour. Oh, rugged cross, it is well with my soul. So I know all those from that. Did you hear her sing Balm in Gilead?

Yes, I listened at the whole CD. I love it. Well, Balm in Gilead, I think I put Gracie's version of that up against about anybody on that one.

And that is, she really brought it to that one. And Be Still My Soul. So I'm glad it's been, now are you feeling all right now with all the medical stuff going on with you? You feeling okay?

No. You got a ways to go? The infection went in my, the infection went in my body, so it's like I'm taking nystatin 500 milliliters three times a day. But it's very painful still. But through it all, I learned to trust in Jesus.

Yes, you have. And God has taken care of me since 14. Are you doing what the doctor tells you to do?

Are you resting properly? The doctor has not really treated me as taking care of religious more. He just gave me the medicine, the medicine that someone had told me about. So God is just ministering to me and letting me know how to take care of myself.

Well, drink a lot. You have a blessed day and love you. You too, and drink.

Love you and praise you. Well, thank you very much. And I appreciate for the call. I appreciate you giving the call.

You rest up, drink a lot of fluids and rest. And thank you so much for the call there. This is Peter Rosenberg. This is Hope for the Caregiver. If you want to know more, go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com. Take advantage of what I put out there for you. The podcast, share it with folks that you know. It's a free podcast.

Take advantage of it. We'll see you next time. This is John Butler, and I produce Hope for the Caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife, Gracie. And recently, Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you 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, too.

And arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry. Because I see the smiles on their faces, and I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out. Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long.

And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled? No, I had no idea. I thought of peg leg. I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that.

I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there, what does that do to you, just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there. And I wish that I could be able to go and say, this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time, you know, you always make me have to leave, I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them, and I feel like that we have a common bond 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 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 limb, whether from a loved one who passed away, or somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Where do they find it? Oh, please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.