This Gives Perspective and Meaning to the Moment

Live on American Family Radio, this is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, and this is the show for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing? How are you holding up? What's going on with you?

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, we'd love to have you with us. There are more than 65 million Americans right now serving as a family caregiver for an aging loved one, a special needs child, somebody with a mental illness, somebody with a trauma, somebody with an addiction or an alcoholism issue. There's so many different kinds of impairments, and there's always a caregiver. And that may be you. And if you are that person, then you're in the right place. We're glad you're with us. How do you help a caregiver?

What does that look like? What goes on in the hearts and minds of caregivers? This is what we talk about on this show. And I bring 35 plus years now of doing that very thing for a wife with severe medical issues and disabilities. And I've learned a few things along the way, most of it the hard way of how to navigate through this without losing too much of your mind.

I won't say that I haven't lost my mind, but without losing too much of your mind. And also I noticed that it doesn't stop at a cemetery, the trauma for caregivers, the challenges for caregivers. It doesn't stop when the caregiving journey is over when your loved one passes away. And I've talked to so many people about that now. I haven't experienced that personally because I'm still caring for my wife. She's still with me.

But I've talked to a lot of folks who are still struggling long after the funeral. And I remember one lady called in, one of the first phone calls I ever got. And she said the anniversary of her husband's death was coming up. And she didn't really kind of know what to do.

No, no, I'm sorry. It was Valentine's Day was coming up. And she and her husband had been married for years, I mean decades.

And she took care of him with Alzheimer's in the last several years. And she was struggling mightily and didn't really know what to do on Valentine's Day. And so I asked her, I said, what was his favorite meal? And she said it was spaghetti.

And I said, well, how about making some spaghetti and maybe inviting some people over to have spaghetti with you and celebrate the love that you two had. And you could just hear her visibly perk up. And she said, you know what, that's a great idea.

I think I'm going to do that. And she did. And it was a meaningful time for her and friends. And they celebrated that life. And I think sometimes we as caregivers fail to celebrate the love, particularly those of us who are spouses doing this with a husband or wife. And we sometimes get so caught up in the challenges of being a caregiver and the hardship and the drama and all that kind of stuff that we fail to celebrate the beauty and the love and what brought you together. What brought you together?

I'd like to hear from you. We'll get to our song in a minute here, but what brought you to your loved one? If you're taking care of a spouse, how'd you meet? What precipitated this love that has endured so much? How did you meet?

And let's celebrate that a little bit today. I'll tell you one of the non-recommended pickup lines that I've used with my wife, you're going to eat the rest of that sandwich. You know, I don't recommend that.

I'm not going to argue with the results, but I'm not going to recommend that you ever approach a young lady. We were at college when we met. You go eat the rest of that sandwich, but you got to understand I came from a large family, a very large family. I have four brothers and a sister. My sister's the baby, but don't let that fool you.

She'll scrap with the best of you. And dad's a minister down in South Carolina and we didn't have a lot. You know how sometimes you're poor and you don't know it? Well, we were certain of it and we were Army brats, Salvation Army brats.

And you know, the, the concept of, of wasted food was, was just alien to me. And I, I remember taking Gracie home for our first dinner. I mean, first time meeting my family and we're sitting around the dining room table and she puts just the Gracie came from two girls and just, just two girls and they were four years apart. So her house was a lot quieter than mine. And we're sitting around the table, which I'm fairly accustomed to doing.

It's a, it's a feeding frenzy at my house. And Gracie just puts a little bit of food on her plate. And I said, well, baby, don't you want more than that? She said, oh, I'll get it when it comes back around. And I, and I looked at her and I said, baby, baby, it ain't coming back around.

My brother, Jimmy's at the cleanup at the end of the table. I said, it ain't coming back around. You better get it now. And so I didn't have any concept of the word leftovers until we got married. And, and I, that was an alien concept to me. I remember when I was in high school, did y'all see that movie radio? Anybody see that movie radio?

Cuba Gooding Jr. started it. Mentally challenged fellow that high school adopted. Well, that was my high school. And I knew radio, all my brothers and my sister and I went to 11th grade with radio because he was perpetually in 11th grade. And he'd come around the cafeteria and want to take food off your plate.

And this was long before his story became famous and became such an inspirational figure. And he's coming up to me that you go eat that cheeseburger white boy. And I said, yes, radio, I'm going to eat this cheeseburger. I'm hungry.

You know, I didn't care if he's going to end up becoming a major motion picture in a statue in the town for him. I was hungry. And, uh, so I, that was my life and it was fun. You know, I remember one time the lights went out, the power went out.

And I think, uh, we were sitting around the table and I think it was Jimmy did this to me, but it was, uh, I got stabbed in the hand, reaching for a pork chop in the dark. So it was, you know, that was my life. And I introduced my wife to that and we had a lot of fun with it. And, and she, she adapted and she's learned to be loud and boisterous with the rest of us. But it was so funny watching her with that, this very, she had, you know, white gloves, party manners kind of thing.

And then she married into a pack of wolves. And so, and then that's, and those, the, those are the kinds of things that I think about, um, of this love that we've had that this, uh, journey that we've been on now for over 35 years that has been fraught with heartache and, and painful things and, and, and sadness and suffering and trauma. If you don't have the anchoring of love in that, how are you doing this? How is this working for you? And, and so that's, um, something I'd like for you to share with us today, if you want to, if you feel comfortable with that 888-589-8840. How did you meet your husband, your wife? Some of you are taking care of very difficult, you're involved in very difficult circumstances.

And how do you sustain yourself in that? Is it okay for you to laugh? I find that it is okay to laugh. I've made Gracie laugh all the time and I, we deal with all kinds of crazy stuff in our life. But if you don't have a sense of humor about this, and there are some people that get offended. I remember when I was doing the, um, you might be a caregiver if, um, thing with Jeff Foxworthy and I, he and I did this some years ago.

And when we launched this, I remember one person was like, it was involved with the company and they were like, you know, I don't think he should take this so frivolously. And then they looked at my resume as a caregiver and they thought, well, maybe he, you know, okay, well, you know, they kind of slinked off a little bit because I think you have every permission to laugh. There is this, Ecclesiastes says, there's a time to laugh. There's a time to cry. Now, what about you?

What about you? Is there a time for you to laugh? Is there a time for you to cry?

Is there a time for you to participate in the joy of a love that is allowing you the strength to keep doing what you do? If so, share it with us. We'll do our song here in a minute. I got to go to a break here, but I've got a song that I think you're going to like a lot. I think you probably know it.

There's a great story behind it as well. This is hope for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're so glad that you're with us 888-589-8840.

We'll be right back. Hey, this is Larry the Cable Guy. You are listening to Hope for the Caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. If you're not listening to it, you're a communist, Peter does. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. We're so glad to have you with us. Thank you for joining the show 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. We're talking today about how you met. I talked to so many spouses who are caring for their loved one and they've been married for years. I think sometimes it's easy to get pulled into a difficult vortex of being so lost in the caregiving that we forget this great love that brought you two together.

How'd you meet? If you want to share that with us 888-589-8840. I am going to go with our song today. I love this song. I'm just going to play the chorus because I think you'll get it so easily. It's a great song. This is a song that Gracie sings quite a bit when she's really struggling. I'll hear her do this.

I've heard it in hospitals and so forth. Her voice just echoes down the hall. It's a simple chorus and there's a great story behind this of the woman who wrote the lyrics. I'm going to step over to the caregiver keyboard here and see if you know this song.

All right. Do you know that song? It's real easy.

The chorus is real easy, but it is such a great song when you can't really focus your mind on a lot of other things. If you know that, it's 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840. The reason I wanted to do that today because there are times that we go through as caregivers where it gets so heavy for us and we forget that there is something greater. I shared this quote a couple of weeks ago and it's worth repeating.

A friend of mine told me this. We live in the moment, but we have the perspective of eternity, which gives meaning to the moment. What does that mean? Oftentimes as caregivers, we're living in fear of what's coming down the pipe. We know what's coming down the pipe for the most part, and we live in fear about it. But if we are present right here, right now, knowing that eternity is settled for us in Christ, then that gives meaning to the present moment that we're in, that we can be free to not freak out about this. And that's our journey as caregivers. This is what we are challenged to do because otherwise what we're going to do is we're going to live in this terrible regret of the past or this terrible fear of the future, and we're going to miss right where we are to be present, right here. And how do we know that we can do this?

Well, that's where our faith comes in, and this is what scripture teaches. That's what this song is about. I spent a lifetime doing this, of struggling with trying to get out of the moment. And I spent a lifetime trying to demand that God free me from this, free Gracie from this.

And all I did was just make myself miserable, and Gracie as well. And when I learned to just be here, and I think the phrase that I have for this year is that we're not there yet. Because I'm learning to train myself to not freak out about decisions that we don't have to make at this point. We're not there yet. And I'm trusting along the journey. We're not there yet. So we've got this surgery coming up with Gracie on top of this broken leg that she's struggling with, which is healing. And she said, well, what are we going to do? We're not there yet. How about you?

Are you struggling with that? Now, the author of this song, the lady who wrote the lyrics for this, she was, she felt called. She was born, I think she was born in the UK, but she came to America and she was at Urbana in, I think, Ohio and really felt called to go to the mission field, but she had frail health. And, but ended up actually being a missionary, but she wanted to go to China, I believe, but she couldn't go. And she got married to a fellow and then he, he drowned while trying to save a boy, I think in New York, that was in the water.

And he tried to get in there and help him and drowned. And it was, you know, she's had some real treasure, but she ended up going to the mission field. She remarried. And I think she ended up going to what was used to be called Rhodesia.

And I think it's Zimbabwe now. And that's where I think she ended up passing away, but she, she was, wrote this amazing song, this amazing lyric that has sustained so many of us for a lifetime. And it, and it helps us give meaning to the moment. So we're free to just be present in the moment. And, and I wrote this song some years ago, it's on my CD and it's called, I can only hold you now.

And the lyric goes, you know, I see where we are and I see all that you are. And when I look at Gracie, I see 35 years of Gracie. That's the, that's the kind of the, the, the mystery of marriage. Isn't it that you, you can, you can see a lifetime together. And, and I, and I celebrate these things and I, and I enjoy and I laugh, and we have the shared experiences of, of all this, you know, journey that we've had.

And so I want to, to honor that and not live in this sense of regret and not live in this sense of fear. I've done that. It's exhausting. It's exhausting.

It's truly exhausting to do that. And so that's why these songs I sing and play here for you. That's why I introduce them to you because it helps remind me of just being here that I can celebrate her in the moment, even with all the things that we deal with.

And it's, it's our faith and our perspective of eternity that helps us do that. So I thought that might be helpful. Let's go to, I think this is David in Tennessee, but I can't log on. So Sherry, I'm going to let you just hit it for me because I can't, for some reason, my software has given me fits here. If you can patch it to David, are you with us? Well, we can't get to David right at this moment.

We're going to have to change some computer settings. So I'll, I'll get David after the break, if you'd hang on there. And this song though, I'm going to hit it for you again, just in case you didn't hear it. All right.

So it was written by Louisa Sneed, uh, Stead, Stead, Louisa Stead. So is David with us? David, are you with us? There you are, David.

How are you doing? What's the song? Well, close. You want to take another stab at it?

Well, you're close. Well, it's Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him over and over. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. It was played a lot when I was a kid.

Well, and it still is. It's a great, it's a great hymn. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know thus saith the Lord. And that's the whole point of that song is to anchor us in, we can trust him in Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him over and over.

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him more. And as a caregiver, do we trust him in this? Do we trust him as caregivers and, and, and why, why do we trust him? David, why do you trust him?

When you look at all the things he's done for us, when here I am 74 years old and he really takes care of me. So I, I trust him. Indeed.

And that's what it says, how I've proved him over and over. Now this, and I, and I share with you the heartache that this woman had. Thank you very much for the call, David.

Appreciate it very much. Uh, and I shared with, um, I mean, as I shared with how she wrote this, you know, this is a woman who watched her husband drown as he was trying to save a little boy who was drowning. And then she wrote this lyric, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him over and over.

So it takes on new meaning when you hear the stories behind these hymns of the faith that, that helped write these lyrics that we depend on. So when your loved one is looking out the window listlessly and they don't recognize you anymore, can you sing this? When they're crying out in pain, can you sing this? This is what Gracie sings when she's in a lot of pain.

And I've heard her many times over it, but she'll change the last line and she'll say, Oh, for Gracie to trust him more. We have the perspective of eternity, and that's what gives meaning to the moment. These are painful things that we deal with as caregivers. And that's why I push so hard to be able to help celebrate and get our eyes lifted a little bit higher.

Otherwise it'll take us down. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. And that song by Keith Green is the whole point of all of this. You put this love in our hearts. And as long as we understand the source of our love, it gives us the freedom then to lavishly extend that as caregivers. That's the whole point of this. But if we're trying to draw on this from ourselves, it's only a matter of time before we're done, where it just depletes us.

And I know this. And when we tap into the inexhaustible love of God through what He's done through Christ, then it frees us up to be able to extend this to others. As Paul says in Corinthians, we comfort one another with the same comfort that we ourselves have received from the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort is the source, not you. So if you're in the throes of this right now as a caregiver, and you feel completely drained, there's a reason for that.

There's a reason for that. And that reason stems from us trying to white knuckle it and do it on our own strength. And we can't.

It's only a matter of time before we fail and just fizzle out. You cannot hold your breath that long. Go back to what they say on airlines, you know, put your mask on first. I call that the Delta doctrine. I was flying on Delta one day and they said, put your mask on first.

And I thought, well, actually that sounds pretty good for caregivers. But if you notice, they say this on every flight, every airline associated entity says this every time. The FAA, the flight attendants union, the pilots, everybody says, put your mask on first before trying to help someone else. Okay. We got that. That's obvious. But now my question to you is why do they have to remind us of this every single time?

Because it's counterintuitive. If you notice something across the board here with what's going on in our country, there's this constant push from certain segments of our society that we're evolving as people, that we're getting better as people, we're becoming better people, we're becoming, you know, our characters improving and so forth. And I don't really, I don't subscribe to that at all because I don't think we've come that far as character. I think we've learned how to sin more efficiently, but not new sin. Billy Graham said that years ago.

We haven't invented any new sins as people. We're not necessarily evolving in our character. And we still deal with the same problems.

And that applies pretty much across the board. Human nature is just what it is. And it's counterintuitive for us to put our mask on first. We rush to things and that's part of that's wired into us. You know, as human beings, we were made in the image of God, even though sin has tainted all of this, we're still made in the image of God. And God rushes into burning things.

That's what he did for us. I remember the, you remember the anthropologist, Margaret Mead. They asked her what evidence she saw of civilization or so forth. And she saw, and her answer surprised her. They were looking for like pots and clay, clay pots and stuff like that.

And she said, no, I found bones where a person had broken their leg and the bone had been set. And that's when I realized that, you know, that people were caring for one another and that's the mark of civilization. And I get that. That's what we do as caregivers. We're doing this, but we have things in us that are just counterintuitive to what we're being told or what the obvious thing is. And that's where this whole put on your mask first. And so when I thought about that, I thought, well, okay, they're having to remind me of this all the time. Why are they having to remind me?

Why can't I figure this out? That's a question for another day. But I took it seriously and I thought, well, what does that look like to put on my mask first with Gracie? I don't even know what that looks like.

And I thought, well, let me think about that. How do I see to my own safety so that I can better help her? Well, first off, I better help her when I'm safer, when I'm healthier, when I'm stronger, when I'm able to breathe. Because I was holding my breath, trying to help her. And you can't hold your breath that long. You're going to black out.

I know you cannot do it. So I had to accept the wisdom of others and trust that they knew what they were doing. The collective wisdom of every person associated with the airline industry said this to me and I've had to trust it. As caregivers, who do we trust?

And that's what I did this morning. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus, how I've proven over and over. Just to take him at his word.

And then once we realize, oh, okay, this is the path we're going to go on. I'm going to trust him with this. Well, what does it look like to trust your loved one to Jesus?

And a friend once gave me a great piece of advice. He said to me once, he said, Peter, she has a savior. You're not that savior. She has a savior. You're not that savior. And I thought about that a lot too. That's why I tell myself and my fellow caregivers, look down at your hands. If you don't see nail prints, this isn't yours to fix. We have a different role to play than if we have a different role to play in this.

What is it? And we're stewards. We don't own it. I didn't do this to Gracie. I can't undo it.

Your loved one maybe has a disease that you'd have no control over. And you can't undo this. So what's your role? We're stewards, not owners. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord. I have found in my life that when it gets gnarly, and I think this is all up to me, that is the time for me to be still, stand still, because it cannot be all up to me, and it cannot be all up to you. If we discount the work of God in our situation, if we somehow try to exercise a level of control that is not possible for us, it's only a matter of time before we cause more damage. There will be sadness in this journey. There will be sorrow. And as I wrote in my song, I know there will be sorrow. We'll face that somehow, but my hands can't hold tomorrow.

I can only hold you now. We live in the moment and we trust because we have the perspective of eternity. And that frees us up to be in the moment. And sometimes that moment requires us to cry, to mourn. But how in the world are we going to be comforted our mourning? As Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. How do we get comforted if we're so busy raging out or despairing out? If we're flailing around, how do we experience comfort if we're demanding that God fix it? Sometimes we have to look at it and mourn.

But scripture says we don't grieve as those who have no hope. And that's why I want to introduce things to you throughout this program and throughout the year when we talk about these things of celebrating things that have beauty and joy in it. How you met, what drew you together, what joy do you find together? What joy do you hang on to in those dark moments? These are things that are important to us as caregivers because they're sustaining things in the dark and lonely moments.

I was talking to someone this week going through this very thing of losing their spouse. He said, she's fading away. And I re-anchored him in the truth that I knew because I know his faith. I said, no, he's moving to Jesus. And he took a deep breath.

He said, you're right. We mourn, but part of mourning is looking at it honestly. And if you look at it honestly, you see the sorrow, you see the pain, you see the suffering, you see the heartache, but you also see the beauty and the joy. It's there.

It just may need a little bit of help to see it sometimes. There's a song I wrote years ago for Gracie. She inspired me to write it. And I was watching, she was out with our son when he was just a little boy. And she was outside, you know, with him. And this was before she lost her first leg. And she said this line to me, she said, sometimes the pain each day can bring clouds the joy that's there.

She was trying to stand on a damaged leg, on two damaged legs while watching her son play. And it was so painful, but she was trying to push through that to see our son and enjoy him as a toddler. Sometimes the pain each day can bring clouds the joy that's there. And in moments like that, we don't want platitudes. We don't want somebody to come along and say, it's going to be okay, or it's going to be this, it's going to be that. Sometimes we just somebody say, I know, and I know this is painful, but here's the perspective of eternity.

And that gives meaning to the moment. This is how I do it. May not work for you, but this is how I do it. You may not want to do this. This is how I do it.

This is how I've done it for a lifetime. To live right here in this moment. In this moment with you. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, we'll be right back. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? 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. I'm Peter Rosenberger and this is your caregiver minute in the caregiving journey. We daily encounter high drama moments and they can really wear on us. Some of those drama moments may be from our loved one.

Others might be from friends and family or the medical community. But sometimes those high drama moments come internally as we mentally slap ourselves around over things we wish we had done better or wish we not done at all. You know, we're not going to eliminate all of those moments, but we can reduce them by asking one simple question. How important is this?

See, that's the question. When we ask how important is this, it gives us and others an opportunity to prioritize and even detach from the circumstances so we can determine, is this really a crisis or maybe this is something we can just let go. How important is it for us to be calmer caregivers?

And we can answer that one right now together. It's vitally important. This has been your caregiver minute with Peter Rosenberger brought to you by standing with hope.

There's more information at standingwithhope.com. Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care?

Don't you care? Are you going to let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come?

You close your eyes and pretend the job's done. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter.

I can't even speak this more. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

We're glad to have you with us. 888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show, Sharon in Texas. Sharon, good morning. How are you feeling? Sharon? Yes.

There you are. Hello. How are you feeling, Sharon? Go ahead. I'm feeling pretty good.

We look forward to hearing your program on Saturday morning here in Texas and I've been listening for quite a while and I just thought I'm going to try to call today and tell Peter Rosenberger how much I appreciate his ministry and his show and the help and the courage that it gives me. Dealing with feeling really, really sad because my husband's birthday was October the 17th. He passed away just a week after his 75th birthday and it's still, it seems like every year I miss him more and it hurts more to remember that he's not with me anymore. I know. I know it does and I think we all hurt with you. I think I can speak for the audience. We hurt with you and that pain is an ache that will not go away.

Some pains are just not going to be cured this side of heaven. What are you going to do on October 17th? Well, I heard you talking about talking to a previous person in a previous show about celebrating his birthday, fixing dinner with his favorite food and I think maybe that sounds like a great idea.

I have wonderful children, five kids and they are a great support to me, but I just sometimes feel like nobody feels my pain, but then I realize they do. What was his favorite meal? Well, he loved chicken and dumplings, but... And who in their right mind doesn't? Well, I don't.

You don't like chicken dumplings? No, and it was always such a joy for me to fix it for him though, but I don't ever fix it now because he's not here for me to fix it for. What movie did he enjoy? Oh, he loved series more than movies and he loved a program called 24. Well, I would say I would recommend watching that, but I don't know that I could do that myself.

That would be too much of a commitment I think to try to watch a whole series. Yeah, I just watch one program every now and then just to remember about him. How did you guys meet? Well, I was dating his brother.

Oh, well, the plot thickens here. Yeah, because we had a mutual friend and she knew that I was looking for the perfect guy and he was not committed to anyone at that time, and so she thought she'd just put us together. And I mean, that was how I met his brother. And so then his brother had been in a relationship with a lady and for whatever reason, they broke up and he was trying to fill the void. And then after we had dated, I can't remember, maybe once or twice, he realized that he needed to get back with her. So he knew he had a brother that was looking for someone, and so he put us together. And the rest is history. We just fell hard for each other. And we were married 47 years when he passed away.

And something just told me. He didn't have a serious, serious illness, but he was a heart patient and he, but he was real diligent about falling through with his heart checkup every year. And so any time he'd have problems, well, we caught it early. And we just lived for each other. And of course, after we'd been married like three years, well, I met the Lord first through his precious mom, who was like another mother to me. And then a year later, he finally joined me attending church and he got saved. And then a year after that, he surrendered to the ministry. And the rest of our lives, we just had blessing after blessing, serving the Lord, him preaching. And I played the piano and we just had a joyful life, pastoring small churches. Well, I assume that you played the hymn that I played this morning. Is that correct? Oh, yeah. I recognize that right away. You still play the piano?

Jesus is why I trust him, sir. You still play the piano? Yes. I play it mostly just for my entertainment. But there have been times that I play and sing. I play for my own self when I sing. I really like to do that. But I have had the opportunity to play for different opportunities in the church.

And that's always a blessing. I'm going to give you two assignments. Is that all right? Okay.

Can I give you two assignments? Yes. I want you to go and play this hymn later on today. It's your convenience that we talked about this morning. Just play it a little slower, because oftentimes people will try to … Now, don't play it that way.

Play it slower. Okay. Okay. Just … Okay. About that speed, okay?

Okay. And you can throw in some of those chords, too, if you want. Those are some of those high-dollar chords there that they throw me out of some churches for playing. But play that song a little slower and sing along with it, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. And then there's another hymn. Well, there's another hymn that I'd like for you to play. And I'm looking for my hymnal here. Sharon, where's my hymnal, Sharon? Anyway, I can't find my hymnal. But there's another hymn I want you to play, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. Do you know that one? O Love … I have heard it. I have never played it.

Go and play it again. O Love … O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. And if you'll go and just … you have a hymnal, I assume. Yeah, well, careful.

Yeah, I would imagine so. I've collected some great hymnals from a lot of churches over the years. Don't tell anybody that. So is it in the hymnbook? I didn't know that. It's in the hymnal, in sanctified hymnals.

No, I'm just kidding. But go and look for that one. O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. And I think that you'll find that this hymn will mean something to you. I rest my weary soul in thee, I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer fuller be. O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. And just slowly … let those lyrics just … let them bask over you.

There's one verse on there. O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be. And it's just recognizing that right now there are tears. And October 17th, you know, there's going to be tears that day.

Sharon, you know this. But there is that promise, and it's not in vain, that that morn that waits us, M-O-R-N, that morning shall tearless be. But in the meantime, we cry, and we weep, and we mourn. But we trust in that process. And there are so many individuals listening to this show right now who are unsure what to do with this sorrow and this grief. And this is where we anchor one another with this, and we say, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. How I've proved Him over and over, and you have 47 years with this man, and you proved Him over and over in a marriage that lasted 47 years, where you all minister to who knows how many people.

And you've proved this. And so in those moments, when it gets bleak and lonely, God gave you a tremendous gift of being able to go to the piano. Go to the piano, play it slowly. Just play it slowly. Slow it down.

And however slow you think you're playing it, slow it down even more. It's like, it's like a, it's like a soaker hose. You know, you ever water your garden with a soaker hose? Yeah. Well, that's what, that's what these hymns can do for us. And all too often we use it like a fire hose. And that's just not cool.

We don't want to go, Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. No, let it soak into your spirit. Okay? Yeah. Yeah. And from one piano, from one church piano player to another, just take a leap of faith that that will mean something to you. And you know what? On October 17th, I'll be playing that song for you myself.

Okay? Oh, thank you so much. Well, you are to me as well. Thank you so much for sharing a great love that you and your husband had. This is Peter Rosenberger.

This is Hope for the caregiver, hopeforthecaregiver.com. We'll see you next week. 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.

Everything. 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. 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 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, 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 them? Oh, please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle, standingwithhope.com slash recycle.

Thanks, Gracie. Say what would you do if you were a new Christian and you didn't have a Bible? It's Michael Woolworth, by the way, from Bible League International, and you'd probably say, well, I'd hop in my car, I'd go to a Christian bookstore or have one shipped to me.

What if those weren't options? You'd say, well, I'm new to the faith. I mean, I need to know what it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

You know, you would pray that someone, anyone would bring you a Bible. And that's exactly the way it is for literally millions of Christians around the world. They're part of our spiritual family. They're new to the faith.

They want to know what it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. But God has them planning where it's very difficult to access a Bible. And that's why the Truth Network and Bible League have teamed up to send God's word to thirty five hundred Bible believers around the globe.

Our campaign is called The World Needs the Word. Five dollars sends a Bible. One hundred dollars sends twenty. Every gift matched. Make your most generous gift by calling eight hundred. Yes word. Eight hundred y e s w o r d. Eight hundred. Give a word or give at Truth Network dot com.