Playing This Song Slower Forever Changed It For Me

Live on American Family Radio.

This is Peter Roseberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. For those of you who are putting yourself voluntarily, often daily, often hourly, between a vulnerable loved one and even worse disaster. How are you holding up?

How are you doing? You may be taking care of an aging parent who is declining quickly and close to going home. You may be taking care of a special needs child who has relentless challenges and it's wearing you down. You may have an addict or an alcoholic in your family who keeps promising to stop drinking and keep failing.

They ask you for money. You get a call that they've been arrested or they've been in an accident or something's happened. You may have somebody in your life who is dealing with trauma and the aftermath of it, chronic pain. You may have somebody in your life who has a mental illness and it's just wearing you down. This is the show for you and we're glad that you're here.

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. Did you know that there are more than 65 million of us here in America alone that are doing this? And to my knowledge I'm the only one that really brings the alcoholic addict component to the caregiver conversation on any kind of national platform. And when you add in those numbers, we're talking a vast amount of people who are in a relationship with someone who has a chronic impairment and the time is even greater now. And as we go into this fall and winter season here, the pressures become even greater.

The holidays bring nostalgia which also brings all kinds of drama for a lot of people. The cold winter months in many places cause a lot of claustrophobic feelings and it is a difficult journey when you are in a relationship with someone with a chronic impairment. I've maintained this for a long time with chronic pain for example. And I don't know how many of you all live with somebody in chronic pain.

I do. Gracie's wreck was 38 years ago. She's not known a day without it since. And when you have somebody in chronic pain, I mean serious chronic pain, not a twitch when the weather changes. I'm talking about pain.

When you have somebody like that in your life, particularly if you're a spouse, you've got to understand that chronic pain is its own entity in the relationship. And sometimes you're listening to the pain and sometimes you're listening to the coping mechanism for the pain and you've got to tune your ears so that you can hear the person. There's a Psalm, Psalm 118, 5 through 6. Let me just go with verse 5. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord and the Lord answered me and set me free. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord and the Lord answered me and set me free. And that's a hard scripture for a lot of people because a lot of people aren't free and they call but they don't understand what is the freedom that he is bringing us to, that he is, when he says he's taken us to a large place in some translations in scripture. What does that mean when you're dealing with these chronic impairments?

When your body is in bondage, can your spirit be free? And the approach that I take on this program is not to talk about caregiving. We will swerve into it.

We'll hit things. I mean, I have people call about stuff with insurance and finances and all kinds of stuff and we'll do it but the principles that we deal with on this show will guide us in those places but we're not trying to fix the problem of dealing with an insurance company because I don't believe that that's where most caregivers live continually. If you have good health insurance and money is not an issue, you're still going to have stress as a caregiver. Now, I won't deny the reality that having financial independence and freedom, if you will, does bring help to the situation but it is not the answer. Caregivers live in this, in what I call the fog of caregivers, fear, obligation, and guilt.

And it can absolutely envelop you and you'll be driving along and you'll head right off a cliff and you won't know it until it's too late. And we live there no matter how much money we have or don't have. I knew of a couple and when we lived back in Tennessee, in Nashville, very wealthy people.

Money was not an object for these people. And this gentleman had a pretty bad event and he was declining rapidly and his wife was struggling because she felt guilty and she felt like she had to do everything for him. And I pulled her aside and I said, no, you don't. You don't need to feel guilty about this.

You have the resources to have people help you. I remember a reporter once asked me in an interview, what would Jesus do as a caregiver? It wasn't a Christian interview. I don't remember all the details, but I just remember that question stuck out and said, what would Jesus do as a caregiver? And I said, I don't know what he would do.

Let me tell you what he did do. And he told John to take care of his mother from the cross. He delegated from the cross.

And if Jesus could delegate, guess what? I can too. This guilt that just rips our souls apart, that somehow this is all up to us and we feel guilty if we just want to take a break, if we don't go visit them every single day. And if you're trying to, by the way, cram for the relationship at the last bit, you've missed the point. And it's really okay to start living today as if today is the last day. Don't wait until you're on a deathbed before you got to go through the inventory to make sure we're all okay.

I know too many people that are doing that. It's okay to live today. And if you got things to say, say them today. If you've got things to unsay, unsay them today. But don't try to cram it all in when there's some kind of event, because then you're going to torture yourself with guilt and so forth and that obligation. And that obligation leads to resentment. You've heard me say this many times as you listen to the show regularly. The battle is not in the task of caregiving.

It's not, it's not, it's not. The battle is in the heart from the core out. The problem is for us as caregivers is that we get wrapped up into this scenario and we can't hear very well. And we need to have this message with clarity spoken right down to those places for us. So that's why I bring up hymns. That's why I bring up scriptures.

That's why I bring all these things because that's where we live is in those very, very secret places in our heart. And that brings me to this hymn today. And if you know this hymn, I think I can squeeze it in before the break.

I don't know if I can. Um, I'll give you a little taste of it. If you know that one, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840.

I got it in just before the break. I'll play a little bit more of it in the next segment. That hymn became a staple for me every time I play for a funeral. And I'll tell you the backstory of that, of why I started playing that.

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. The battle is not in the task. I can't say it strong enough.

The battle's in our core, in our hearts. I didn't know what was going on in my life. I know my life was just upside down. I was overwhelmed.

I was just struggling and I couldn't really make sense out of what was going on and what was the reason why. And I just discovered from listening to Peter Rosenberg on Saturday, I was like, man, I actually am a caregiver because I was struggling with the son who had problems with substance addiction, but I never saw myself as being in the role of a caregiver and even in some instances an enabler in his life. And all of that program has just made a tremendous difference.

Sorry, I can't, I can't. I can't listen to that song without getting emotional. I remember the first time I heard it and I, it transformed me. It stuck with me. It just, you know, somehow songs do that. That's why I play a lot of music on this program. And that's Gary Chapman, Treasure. And I love that song. And thank you for indulging me on that. This is Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. This hymn that I played, I, the first time, excuse me, the first time I played this as a piano solo was at the funeral of my uncle back in the eighties. And he had, he had a very, very difficult journey with a tough disease called neurofibromatosis. He and his wife, his young wife, they were, I look back at it, but at the time I was just, I was young, so they look older to me, but I'm far older now than he was when he died. And my aunt and my two small cousins at the time, they've grown up and they're wonderful young ladies. They endured this brutal journey. And that was the first caregiver experience that I had was watching my aunt do this up close and personal. And I think it was my uncle that asked me to play this, but I'm not sure.

I don't remember. I'm sorry. I don't remember who exactly asked me to play this at the funeral, but I did. And it's become a staple now for me, pretty much every funeral that I have played, when I do prelude music and things such as that, I will play this song often as the family comes in, whether they requested or not, I do it because I think it's an important message for all of us to have that perspective. And there's a, there's a, in the second verse is what I particularly like.

And you'll have to pardon me if I get emotional with this. I heard about his healing, of his cleansing power revealing, how he made the lame to walk again. And he caused the blind to see. And then I cried, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. That, you know, I made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see. And then I cried, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. Do you know that hymn?

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. And I love that because I think this is where we are as caregivers. We're at that point where we've heard about these things and then do we cry, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. Is your spirit broken today? Is your spirit broken today? And I know in an audience this large that there are a lot of broken spirits. And I know that there are those of you who are listening even now and big tears are filling your eyes because your spirit's broken. Psalm 118, out of my distress, I called on the Lord and the Lord answered me and set me free. And there's a level of freedom that we can walk in as believers that defies what we deal with every day in the flesh.

There is a level of freedom, of understanding, of perspective that defies this. One of the things I admire so much about my wife, her body is broken and it's not gonna get unbroken until Jesus restores all of this. But her spirit's not broken. She's weary, she's tired, and there are a lot of tears and a lot of sorrow and heartache that she carries. But her spirit's not broken.

Now why is that? None of us are immune from the horrific things in this life, in this broken world that is groaning in anticipation of the full redemption that is coming. All creation is groaning over this. The Holy Spirit groans on our behalf of this.

There is the now and the not yet. Is your spirit groaning? And if you are a caregiver and if you've been doing it for more than just a passing moment, I would suggest to you that you are groaning and maybe nobody's paid attention to you in a way that was meaningful to you that you could understand. Maybe nobody listened to you. Maybe you didn't even know how to express it. We don't know how to express these things. That's why the Holy Spirit does it on our behalf because we don't know.

I didn't even know what to pray half the time. And yet we hear these amazing proclamations through scripture and through these hymns that I just love so much that help us gain that perspective of what's waiting for us and what's available to us now to sustain us as we wait. Let's go to see if we can squeeze it all here towards the bottom. Chuck in North Carolina. Chuck, good morning. How are you feeling? I'm feeling good. I'm just so thankful for your show.

I can't really call myself a current caregiver, but I've been a caregiver in the past. My two sisters and I shared a responsibility with our parents who have both gone on to be with the Lord. But I heard you play the song and I was riding along and I knew it right off the bat, so I just had to call and I had no idea I was going to get in.

Well, I'm glad you did, Chuck. Tell me what the song is. It would be the one and only of victory in Jesus.

Indeed it is. Like I said, I started playing that at a funeral for my uncle. I'll never forget that when my aunt and my little cousins came into the church and I was playing that at the front of the church and I was playing it pretty much like I was just playing it here.

A little slower, but very deliberate, very, very intentional. And they knew that. They knew that victory.

They still do. And that became an anthem for me to do when I am playing particularly for believers at funerals. And I have played for some that were not, and those are hard ones. But, or at least I didn't know.

I didn't know, but I knew my uncle, I knew my aunt, I knew my cousins. And when I play that, there's that perspective that there is victory. There is victory that we hang onto, the promise of victory.

And we got to walk that out and it's painful. And I love that verse. And I said, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. And I just loved that.

So Chuck, where are you heading to today? It's a powerful song. I just had to go get, you know, doing a little work on the farm today and had to go get some stuff that I needed to do what I need to do today. But I'd also like to say I have a sister that, uh, her grandchild is a special needs child. So there is some care, you know, uh, caregiving going on in the family. And I actually passed on, uh, your program to her. So, uh, you know, I know it would be a help. Um, and, uh, I just really appreciate what you're doing. Chuck, I appreciate you and I appreciate those words and appreciate you looking to your sister and the needs that she's having with that grandchild because it can be a very, very challenging thing for the whole family. And so I thank you that you've trusted me enough with her pain and her, her journey. Um, so thank you for that, Chuck. I really do appreciate it. Yes, sir.

Well, thank you. All right, buddy. Will you be safe and you be safe and go get, go get your work. What are you doing on the farm today? Well, I'm doing, you know, fighting vegetation, uh, until the frost, you know, doing a little mowing and little trimming and, uh, building a shelter and, you know, just, uh, just farms. Well, I, um, I'm done with the mowing where we are. We're up in the Rockies in Montana. And so I'm done with the mowing. We had, uh, last week we had, I had three feet of snow on my deck and it was drifted up.

I mean, it was, it was, but it's pretty much all gone now. And, uh, hunting season starts out here today and I'm watching, we live way up here in the forest and I'm watching, uh, down the, the, the forest service road and going into the forest, uh, I'm watching a parade of trucks going up there. So I don't think they're going up there to farm Chuck.

I think they're going up there to look for deer and elk. So, um, well we, we measure, we measure our snow in inches, not feet, but, um, I know that's a good thing. It is a, we got a little game, we got a little game out here in the winter we play in Montana called, am I still on the road? And so it's, um, it gets, it gets a little bit rough sometimes Chuck, but, but I love it.

And I love this time of year. Um, we had a, we had a thing in our town last night. I didn't get to go and I really wanted to, it's called hunter's feed. And they, all these different hunters put out a big thing to everybody. It's a little tiny town we live in and everybody walks around and you sample things that they've made with their, uh, uh, game that they've hunted and so forth.

And it's, it's, it's a, it's a great community and I love a small town. And when you go get your farmer done, I do have some fences I've got to look at and I may get to them today, uh, Chuck, and I'll be thinking about you while I'm doing it. Cause I'll be, I got some barbed wire fences that I really don't want to get out and mess with as a pianist. I could tell you, I don't want to use my hands around barbed wire, but things have to be done Chuck.

Make sure you have some good gloves. I'll do it buddy. All right.

Thanks so much for the call. I appreciate that. Victory in Jesus. And if you find this song meaningful to you, you know, the goal is not here to, to, to, to stump everybody and figure out what the hymn is.

The goal is for, to remind you of what this hymn is. And if there's a special story for you about this, you know, I'd love to hear it. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. I heard about his healing of his cleansing power, revealing how he made the lame to walk again and cause the blind to see. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing? How are you feeling?

What's going on with you? 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. I want to give a shout out to a couple of people. I got some beautiful notes in from the website. You can go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com and send a message in. Oh, sorry about that.

I talk with my hands. Send a message to me. And you could also see our podcast, everything that we have out there. Our podcast is free.

We got, you know, well over 500 episodes and you can go out and download this, share it with other people. I've got some more features that I'll be putting out on the podcast soon, but I got a beautiful note from a woman who is caring for her. She's been caregiver 35 years for her special needs child and how much the show meant to her. And I just wanted to thank her for those comments. And another fellow that was out weed eating, he was a weed whacking and as we call it out here and, and working and listening on headphones and was very moved by the conversation with Geneva that I had last week who had been married for 71 years and took care of her husband with Alzheimer's the last seven years.

And it was, and if you want to hear that, you can go out there and listen to past episodes and hear these. I do something different on this show when I, when I talk with callers because I'm not in a hurry for you all to, to leave. I like, I like, I like callers. Some people on shows, they want to get, get in and out real quick. And I remember producers telling me, you're different from other hosts because you're not in a hurry to get these folks off the air. And I said, well, I'm not, they're caregivers. Now some, some callers, I am in a hurry to get off the air because that's when they start preaching and they're not caregivers. And I have, that's not the purpose of this show is to provide a platform for people to come in and just bloviate. The purpose is this show to find caregivers, people who don't get hurt, don't get listened to, don't, don't even know how to communicate sometimes in their own voice.

And I want them to share their heart, to share their story. And I love that. And so those of you who listen to the show regularly can see that thread that goes on here, but it's about the family caregiver, period. That's what this is about. I get, I've said this over and over and over and I'm going to keep saying it. I can't count how many people have asked about Gracie over the years, but I can count the ones that ask about me.

And I bet you can as well as a caregiver. So that's why that's the guiding principle of this show, just a little inside baseball. But when I hear from these individuals that write me and share what the show means to them, I treasure those things.

I really do. It is a, when you're, when you're speaking and I called and left both of them messages and I'd got their voicemail, but that's, hopefully they got the message. But I, when I'm speaking, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm here by myself in this room, way up in the Rockies in Montana. And I have, you know, no idea who was listening. And when I hear back from the individuals that are going about their day, struggling with this or doing this or just living their day, it's very meaningful. And, and because as a, as a caregiver for lo these many decades that I've been, there were times when I didn't think anybody was listening.

I think anybody saw me much less listened. And you know, and that's when these songs came out, these scriptures out of my distress, I called on the Lord and the Lord answered me and set me free. Psalm 18. And then this hymn today, and then I cried, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit.

And somehow Jesus came and brought the victory. And when I play this, I don't play it real, you know, you know, I don't do that. I mean, why would I do that? I don't even want to be around people that play it that way, because this song doesn't mean that to me. It means a somberness, a respect for how much battle was involved to understand the victory. And that's why I play this at funerals a lot. Because there's a, there's a somberness to it. There's a, there's a soberness to it. There's a, there's a ceremony to saying this. If you go back and look at the, when, when Japan surrendered on the deck of the Missouri, you know, there wasn't this, everybody just dancing around and partying. There was a somberness to this. The battle was over.

The victory had been won. And there was a, there was a somberness to it of reflecting this so that it just seeps down into your soul. And that's, that's, that's just the way I think about these things. So, uh, let's see, this is Linda in Virginia. Linda, good morning. How are you feeling? I'm doing okay today.

Are you sure? Um, yeah, yeah. Uh, good days, bad days, but, um, tell me about your husband. Well, he passed after a fight of over 10 years after a battle, um, with Alzheimer's, he finally got his reward in September. And, um, so now I'm still, you know, getting over, not getting over, getting through, um, all that that entails.

And, uh, I've been listening and finding my mouth, trying to work on finding my melody from a few weeks ago. And, um, all of these hymns have been really helping me through all of this, but I have to tell you that victory in Jesus was a little surprise today because I, um, at one point, if somebody had talked about victory in Jesus, I would have felt it was a platitude and that, yeah, I know eventually we'll have victory in Jesus, but as you played it today, it was like, no, we really do have victory in Jesus that, um, I mean, he's the one who's gotten me through. He's the one who got us through. He's provided everything we've needed. He, um, it really has been victory in Jesus and because we had Jesus. And so that the attitude that you played that with, um, just took me by surprise.

And so I had to call and just say, yes, I'm glad you did. And that's very moving and this is why I do it because if we slow it down a little bit and we realize the implications of what we're saying, we understand that we do. And there's a, there's a great, we don't diminish the journey. Um, and how painful is we respect the journey.

We respect the journey you had with your husband and Alzheimer's. That, that is, that is a traumatic event. There's a, there's a line, uh, in the Chronicles of Narnia in the line, the witch in the wardrobe where Edmund is, uh, he betrayed him. He, the white witch kind of seduced him and he betrayed him. I don't know if you remember the story and there's a scene where Lucy, his brother is petitioning Aslan, the great lion who represents Christ. She said, Oh, can, can, can, can, can anything be done about this?

Cause she, the white witch laid claim to Edmund and Aslan looked at her and he said, all will be done, but it may be harder than you think. And I think this is where you stand, Linda. And I think we, we as fellow caregivers are with you in this. It was, we think, and the victory that comes is, that's why I don't play it like I'm at a pep rally. You know, I play it with the sense of, of, of reflection of just how traumatic it is and just how difficult the battlefield is.

If it was, you know, if it was easy, it would, it would diminish the value of it. And so when I've played that, every time I've played that hymn at a funeral, starting with my uncles, every time I've watched the faces of people listening and they, and they're, you can, I can always tell the ones that get it on why I'm doing it. Just like you are right now. It took you by surprise, but the more you reflected on it, the more, Oh my goodness, that's exactly what happened. And that's exactly what is happening. And all it, all I did was slow it down and play it a little, little differently with the, you know, a little softer, but it doesn't diminish the power of it because now from, from now on, Linda, every time you hear that, this is going to stick with you. I believe it does with me. And I think it will with others.

I just got a text from my friend Betsy, the moment she heard it, she just boom, you know, and it just hit her because that is because it's, it doesn't diminish the power of it. In fact, I think if you slow it down and have a little bit more respect for the battle, then you can appreciate the victory. But I don't think that a lot of us have respect for the trauma and the battle that we've gone through. You've took your care of your husband.

He dealt with Alzheimer's for what, 10 years? Yeah, at least. That is trauma. That is trauma on a level that people just cannot process unless they've been there. And respecting the trauma helps us better embrace the victory. And we understand and we recognize, Oh my goodness, this is exactly what's going on. So Linda, I just, I thank you for that.

And I think, I think, I think I speak for pretty much the whole audience right now that we're all deeply moved by your, your reflection on this. I got to ask you, Thanksgiving's coming up, Christmas coming up. Do you have, what are you going to do to prepare yourself for this? I'm going to have knee surgery. Well, that'll do it.

What else? Something that I've been putting off. Well that I'm glad for that. I had knee surgery last, last fall and um, and I had to do it and it's just gotta be done and you're right.

And I'm glad you're doing this. When's your, when's your knee surgery? The day before Thanksgiving. Oh, that'll be great. So you're going to say, well, I assume then you will not be preparing the dinner.

No. Well, Linda, listen, we've got to go to a break here. Thank you. Thank you for this precious call and I treasure it. Linda, I really do.

And I appreciate you very much. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is the show for you as a family caregiver. We'll be right back with more of your calls.

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

What can God do with that? And then she had this vision for using prosthetic limbs as a means of sharing the gospel to put legs on her fellow amputees. And that's what we've been doing now since 2005 with Standing with Hope. We work in the West African country of Ghana, and you can be a part of that through supplies, through supporting team members, through supporting the work that we're doing over there.

You 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 to go out to standingwithhope.com and see how you can give.

They go walking and leaping and praising God. You can be a part of that at standingwithhope.com. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. How are you feeling? How are you doing? 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. Our hymn today was Victory in Jesus. And I play it a little bit different than probably most that you've ever heard it played by, and I do that intentionally. This is a song that has deep meaning for me now for many, many years, and it started when I played this at my mom's brother's funeral. And from then on out, it changed the way I approached the song, and I really resist any version or performance thereof that does it differently.

It doesn't do anything for me when I hear people plunk it out. And there's a lot of gospel hymns that people play like that, and I'm not dismissing the style of playing, but it's amazing. There are a lot of hymns that talk about getting out of here, old gospel hymns. Just I'll fly away and mansion on a hilltop. When I heard mansion on a hilltop, you know what the first thing I thought about?

People say, I got a mansion on a hilltop. And it's a great song. I mean, I love it.

People love it as far as for what it is. But it doesn't really resonate with me in that sense, because I'm thinking, who's going to clean that mansion? As a caregiver, that's the way I think. I don't know that I want a mansion on a hilltop.

Who's going to clean this thing? And I just don't live in that place where a lot of people do, where I just want to just escape out of here. If you'll notice, there's a lot of old gospel songs that just talk about getting out of here. And I appreciate that, but there are other songs that reflect me trusting God in this, that sustain me in it. And for that, that's where I'm drawn to. I have work to do.

I have a disabled wife who needs me to have my head in the game, not to always be thinking about getting out of here. And so I look for songs that sustain me in this. And then I cry, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory.

That's why those songs mean something to me. This is Anna in Oklahoma City. Oh, Anna, good morning. How are you feeling? I'm doing okay. Well, what's on your mind?

Well, um, I tuned in, just turned on. I usually listen to AFR and so I woke up and I thought, turn on the radio and there you were. And, uh, it's what you're talking about sort of resonates me with me, but in a different way at this particular time in my life. Um, I'm, I'm a caregiver, I guess you would say, uh, to my 13 year old granddaughter. Her father passed away and her mom had been in the picture. Uh, but before that, uh, I had a son who was in a very serious, uh, automobile crash, a senior in high school and, uh, lived in constant pain after that.

And two years ago he passed away. Um, so when I, when I think of myself as, you know, being a caregiver too, as you know, as I've tuned in, this is about caregiving. And I think for me, it's, it's difficult because I am 79 years old, almost 80 years old. And, uh, at this age, most people are the one being taken care of and God's given me a good health.

And I, of course I praise him for that. Um, but it is really a challenge, uh, to meet the needs of young person, especially when my own days as a young person was so drastically different being raised up in the forties and fifties on a farm. We, we had a crank telephone on the wall. It's just a whole, a whole different ball game. And the other day, my grand, my granddaughter and I were talking about, um, um, uh, interchange that we'd had. And I kind of realized I was acting like, you know, more in the pattern of, of what my mom did. And, and it's, it's, um, anyway, it's just a challenge. And when I think about people caring for all time or patients and, um, people that are like my son who had the, um, constant pain and also became addicted and coped with medical system.

Oh my word. It was just such an awful time. And I have some guilt because during that time he was married. Um, and I, um, I, I just don't think I met all his emotional needs that possibly I could have. And, um, so that's, you know, I'm, I'm sure there's a lot of caregivers who struggle.

Did we do what we could have, should have and all that kind of thing. And so that's kind of what's on my mind this morning. Well, you know, those are, those are very poignant thoughts that you're having because there are a lot of grandparents that are in this situation and there is that drastic difference. I mean, you had a crank phone on a farm. I love that.

And, and today, you know, we can't even figure out which bathrooms to use for kids. And you know, and so it's, it's a, it's a much different world. And you, I can, I can tell that there's this underlying sense of you feel under qualified to be able to do this, but you're not, you're not because, you know, your granddaughter, um, for whatever reason is with you.

And I think that's a marvelous thing. And I think that, that you bring a wealth of insights and I know you don't feel up to the task. I mean, you're, you're almost 80 and I know that it can be daunting, but I hope that if anything, that you'll leave this program today, feeling a little more bolstered up, realize that, wait a minute, you have a lifetime. You have a vast lifetime of experience to offer this young girl in a world that desperately needs it. One of the things that kids today don't really have is this connection to anything other than the moment and their telephones. And you can bring things to this young woman who is, she's grown up with all the confusion that is around her.

You could speak with clarity that you may not be able to keep up with her and go all the games and events and everything else that you would probably like to do if you're a little younger. But that doesn't mean that you can't speak with clarity into the unsettledness because I have a, I have a thought that I've been kicking around on this show for some time and in my life, you know, the, the world is convinced that we as human beings are evolving in our character. And I'm convinced that we're not and scripture seems to back that up. Um, that we are, we haven't invented any new sins. Billy Graham said that years ago, we've just invented better ways to do it. Uh, but we haven't invented any new sins. We're still the same flawed, sinful people. As the Psalmist says, in sin, I was conceived.

We don't know any other way, but to, to exist in our sin nature apart from Christ. And that is lost on today's youth. They don't even have a concept of that precept.

They're, they're, they're, they're, they keep thinking if we throw enough money at stuff, if we do this, if we do this, if we change our identity, if we do this, if we do this, we can be better people. And I'm saying, what, what makes you think that what evidence do you have to support that? Because we have the breadth of, of, of scripture to show that, no, you're not. And you have this life that you've lived, Anna, that reflects wisdom way beyond the pale of what this young girl can appreciate at this point. And, and so I would, I would, I would hope you won't sell yourself short and recognize that God, God has ordained this.

He's, he's, he's not caught by surprise on this. And you may not have everything that you think you want to have to, but you have everything you need to offer to her. And she may not quite get it. And you may not see the, the, the fruit of this, uh, maybe not even in your lifetime, but that doesn't mean that it's not there.

And there are a lot of grandparents that are stepping into the gap for whatever reason. And, and I would hope that they would all take the same thing that your life, your life experience, your life journey has immense value. And, and please rest on that. Sometimes I, I think if I had, you know, I've been doing this for seven years now. And if I had started when I was 60, you know, I just had all this energy and, um, but, you know, probably especially because, uh, since six, well, part of my journey, uh, or, you know, with my son, I started before 60, but a lot of things happened after 60 and he did eventually take his own life, which of course is tragic, um, but just reflecting it. And, um, oh, sometimes I think I have difficulty just expressing to her, um, what, what I need to say, sometimes I'll listen to somebody else and I'll go, oh yeah, that's what I need to say. Um, anyway.

You know, we're, we're up against the clock, Anna. So I don't want to, I don't want to cut you off at all. I really don't because what you're, what you're talking about is so important. And I hope that we can continue this conversation, but I would, I would suggest to you this, if you could hang onto this in the last 30 seconds, we have, it's not about what you have to say.

It's about who you are and who you are is enough because of what Christ has done in your life. And he'll make up the gap for anything that you feel like you might need to say, just be, Anna, just be. And that he is faithful if I wasn't even ready to hear anything God is.

Indeed he is. And just rest in that, just rest in that. Okay. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We've got to go. We'll see you next time. hopeforthecaregiver.com.

Thanks. 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, 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 that these men are so glad that they get to be doing, um, as, 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 the supply 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 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 them? 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 3500 Bible-less believers around the globe.

Our campaign is called The World Needs the Word. Five dollar sends a Bible. One hundred dollar sends 20. Every gift matched. Make your most generous gift by calling 800 YES WORD. 800 Y E S W O R D. 800 YES WORD or give at truthnetwork.com.