Rock of Ages -Cleft for Caregivers

Live on American Family Radio, this is Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. More than 65 million Americans currently serve as a caregiver for an aging loved one, a chronically impaired loved one. Maybe that's you. And if so, you're in the right place and we're glad to have you with us.

If you want to be a part of the show, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840, and we'd love to have you join with us. This is the show that is dealing with the heart of a caregiver. Too many caregivers get lost in the weeds of caregiving, and that is not where the battle is. Once you learn how to do certain tasks, you got it. You don't have to be constantly reminded on how to do laundry, to do a wound dressing, or to give an injection, or to deal with a doctor or an insurance company, so forth.

Those skills are important and that's part of our journey as caregivers. But those things are one and done. You learn it, you got it, you repeat it. Rinse, lather, repeat. Or lather, rinse, repeat.

And you got it. But I have found in my 35 plus years now as a caregiver that the battle is in the heart. Where we are troubled, we're scared, we're raging, we're resentful, we're despairing, we're feeling guilty, we feel all kinds of things that are going on and we don't know what to do with those things and they're repeating over and over and over.

It's not like, it doesn't become rote, it becomes relentless. And where's the best place to learn how to speak to those troubled hearts? Well that's where scripture comes in. And that's what this show is all about, is helping us reorient our thinking. Remember what Paul said, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That is extremely applicable to the family caregiver. Are you renewing your mind? Are you rethinking these things?

And please, please, please, never think that for one moment I own this. This is something I struggle with every day. But I'm seeing the path a bit clearer than I used to. And we're going to constantly veer off course and you know those, you know when you're driving down the highway and they've done these things now, at least they do it out where I live, and they grate the road or when they pave the road they put in those little, almost like a tread mark on the side of the road so that if you veer off a little bit your tires start thumping and I know hey I got to get back on the main road here. That's kind of where we are as caregivers. And we're constantly going to hit that thing. And it reminds us okay we got to get back, move back on here to the road.

And this is where I believe that the battle is for us as caregivers. And that's why I do this program, that's why I write books, that's why I do all the things that I do, including the hymns that I choose to play each week to remind us of these things. And the goal is not to see who can come up with, be the cleverest person to come up with a hymn. The goal is for us to reorient our thinking based on these tried and true statements of faith that come through our hymnal that we have all but abandoned in our modern church. We've got people printing off the lyrics in a bulletin or putting them up on a wall but they're not picking up a hymnal and just thumbing through it. And so these tunes that are so beautifully put down with these texts that are born out of great travails at times and certainly with amazing theology, we all but just discard.

And so I bring them back and play them in a way hopefully that makes sense to you and that's what I'm going to do with this one today. I think you'll know it. If you know it, call in, tell us about it, tell us why it's important to you, what it means to you. And every time I play this, I think of a fellow back in Nashville at my church there, Jim Spann.

I'm outing him on the radio. But there's a, and I'll tell you the story about that a little later, but I loved Jim still do, but he's a great guy. And this song was very important to him. But here's today, I met the caregiver keyboard. Here's today's hymn.

O, morning. All right, do you know that hymn? 888-589-8840, and I know this audience, that a lot of you will know that hymn, but I'd also like to know why it's important to you. What does that mean to you?

What is it saying to you, and what has it said to you in difficult times? 888-589-8840, I want to talk about caregiver theft. You know, we talk a lot about in our society of alarm systems and this and that and identity theft and so forth, but you know, one of the greatest thefts that we as family caregivers experience comes from our own hearts.

Did you know that? We steal from ourselves. We steal from the moment because we're romanticizing or regretting the past over fear in the future.

And you know, I know that yesterday's events may have arrived with tears and trauma, but we have an opportunity today to remain calm and deal with the current circumstances, and we as caregivers, we all know this, that tomorrow's challenges will most likely be tough. We get it, but there's also unexpected joys that are coming our way. But if we're so busy looking way back or way forward, we're going to miss what's right in front of us.

And we steal from ourselves. We rob ourselves of joy in the present. Now, none of this eliminates the grief that we carry, okay?

I get that. We all are going to, as caregivers, we're going to carry grief daily. But that's not the point.

The point is to be able to deal with that grief in a healthy manner. And by doing that, we live in the present. We're pushing back against that fear, against that rage, against that despair that seems ever present to overtake us in our caregiving journey. But we live in the moment. We live in the present.

We live right now. And yes, our independence, our relationships, our career paths, our dreams, they all will inevitably suffer in our caregiving journey. Anybody that tells you different is lying to you. They will suffer. They will take hits. But our peace of mind remains 100% in our hands. No one has the power to rob us of that composure except us. We're the only ones that can do that to ourselves.

And we do that often as caregivers. And the way we push back against that is that we remind ourselves of these great truths to calm ourselves in the midst of whatever. We're not here to eliminate the storm, okay?

Not going to happen. But we can strengthen, calm, and even find joy for ourselves in the midst of the storm. There is shelter. There is peace. It's available.

And it's available right now. How about it? Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back.

You as a family caregiver, this is meant to strengthen you along the journey. We can't take it away. We can't make it disappear. That's not the purpose of this. The purpose is to fortify ourselves in it for endurance, strength, fortitude, calmness, peace amidst the journey.

And what does that look like? How do we do that? How do we stay calm?

How do we stay out of the weeds on this? And that's what this program is all about. If you want to be a part of it, 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. I usually start off with a hymn that is easy enough to remind us throughout the day when things hit that you'll remind to go back to this tune. So my hope is that at some point today, in the next 24 hours, when you have a challenge, you're going to go back and just hum this to yourself. If you just hum that, let the truth of what this hymn is saying to you get way down in your soul and anchor you, let you start breathing again.

Just breathe and walk through this. Let's go to the phone lines. Jamie in Arkansas. Jamie, good morning, how are you feeling? I'm feeling good, thank you. Well you sound like you're feeling good this morning. What's on your mind?

Well I actually just got off a 12 hour shift and I heard your radio broadcast. I am actually a PCA, I am a personal care associate, I'm a family caregiver by profession, I do that every day. You just worked with somebody through the night, huh? Well how are they doing and what's going on with that, I know you can't talk about personal stuff with the family, but what kind of situation are you caring for? Well I can't tell you about my current person I'm caring for or their situation, but I can tell you about probably past ones, I've taken care of people who have passed on or have been on hospice, I've taken care of just about anything, really. Right now I help them through the night if they need to get up and go to the bathroom or if they can't go to the bathroom I take care of that.

That's one of the things hospice doesn't take care of, that you need a PCA to take care of if somebody needs to sit with your loved one overnight, that's what I do. What do you do in the night as you are sitting there with this loved one, this family member, so the family member can go to bed or whatever, do you have someone else in the home there with you or is it just you by yourself with this person normally or how does that work with you? It's normally just me, sometimes there's other family members in the home, they sleep as well and sometimes it's just them and so I kind of just do my best to stay awake, lots of caffeine and I keep my mind occupied, I'll read my bible and other things and if I hear them call or get up and move around I go and assist. What scriptures do you read in the middle of the night when you're standing guard over someone and watching over them, what scriptures mean something to you during those times?

Well I don't think there's any one specific, so the overnights is my day, I go to sleep and I take a shower when I get home so I read my daily bible reading which can be anywhere, I have read scriptures to clients when they couldn't sleep or were in discomfort so I don't think there's any specific ones. Do you find that, do a lot of your clients like to listen to the hymns and so forth, is that something that's been addressed or I know this with my own family members that we have a lot of hymns that have been played and it just kind of calms them down when they get agitated, do you find the same thing? I've noticed that many of them know the hymns even if their memory isn't good, they'll know the hymns, that's what my grandmother, I call her granny, but when she had heavy dementia she couldn't talk and didn't remember anything but she remembered the words to those hymns, they really stick with them.

Did you know this one this morning that I played? No actually I got saved when I was 30 years old so I don't know any of the hymns or anything like that. Well I'm glad that you called because, and I'm glad that you've said that because a lot of people don't and that's a sad commentary on what's going on in our churches around here because we're missing it but this hymn is, this is an extraordinary hymn that has touched millions of lives and I'm going to let someone else guess it but will you stay on and listen to the show so that you'll know what this is in here in a few minutes because I got a lot of folks that have called in that have said that they know what this is and I'd like for you to know this hymn and I will say this, there's one verse in here that I think may resonate with you, while I draw this fleeting breath, when mine eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne. And I know that you've been there when people have drawn their fleeting breath and that's a sacred moment that I know that you've participated in with folks, that's part of your world. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace, foul I to the fountain fly, wash me savior or I die.

And you know these are extraordinary lyrics and go ahead, you were saying something there. Yeah, someone's death is their sacred moment, it's their defining moment. For me, what I like to do is I like to step out of the room and make sure the family has that moment, that I'm not a distraction or anything and that's what I've done in the past that I see the person leaving and I just excuse myself and make sure that they get to have that moment all to themselves. That's extremely thoughtful and meaningful that you do that, I know to so many people. Before I let you go, is there something you would like to say to family members in that situation? What would you like to tell them? In the passing situation?

Yes. Well, if you're a Christian, just know that this isn't a sad moment, that they are going to the most wonderful place, that this show was only going to be temporary and now they are with their Lord and that's not a bad thing, that should be something we all desire and to remember that and that will help with the peace. Beautifully said. Jamie, I thank you, yes ma'am, please do.

One thing I recommend all people do is make photo albums and make sure on the back of those photos to write the names of who are in it, if you know the location, write that down, if you know the year, write that down because a lot of people's family members experience dementia and as a caregiver, I can't tell them who's in the photo, but if the name's on the back, I can tell them that and they might remember the name and they might be able to associate that again and so many of them just love those pictures. That's a wonderful suggestion, wonderful suggestion from somebody who does this every day. Listen, I know you're tired, but if you'll hang, I'm going to go to the next caller, but if you'll hang on for a couple minutes, I think you'll hear a little bit more about this hymn and then I hope it will connect with you in a very personal way and I thank you for what you do. It's a gift, it's a calling, it's a ministry that you do and I thank you for it on behalf of a lot of folks.

My family has experienced this with wonderful caregivers who come into the home and do this and you're a real source of encouragement to a lot of people, I know that you are, so thank you, Jamie. Well, thank you. Alrighty, let's go to Geneva in Kansas. Good morning, Geneva, how are you doing?

Well, I'm doing really well, thank you. Your program always cheers me up in a time when I most need it. I just woke up and had my radio on and here came Rock of Ages clipped for me, left behind myself and me. Oh, that's a beautiful hymn.

Rock of Ages. Yes, and it brings back such wonderful memories. That is the song, isn't it, that you play? Oh, it most certainly is, Geneva. Do you have your radio still on? It's way down, I'll turn it off.

Well, there's a little bit of buzz and echo on this. There, is that any help? No, we just got a terrible connection, so I'm going to put you on hold there for a second, but Geneva obviously got the song. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee, let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power.

Rock of Ages. Jamie, thank you for continuing listening as you're coming off the shift. That's a great hymn and there's plenty of people out there who have recorded it and you can go out and download it and play it and let it just kind of wash over you. It is a wonderful hymn and Geneva, I'm sorry, but with that bad connection, I'm going to have to let that one go and I'm very sorry for that because I always love talking to you. I want to remind myself about you Geneva this past week because I know that November 4th was an important day for you and I appreciate you calling in.

I had that come up on my calendar and I wanted you to know that. This is an extraordinary hymn and by the way, we're going to get to the rest of the calls here in the next segment, but this hymn written by Augustus Toplady, I think that's how you say his name. He was a minister and it was written in 1783, this text. There is a legend that says that he was caught in a storm out in the countryside and he found a fissure in the rock and he slipped in there to get out of the storm and he was so taken by the experience that he wrote that line, rock of ages cleft for me.

Now some people doubt that that happened. I don't know. I don't know what's out there, but he wrote this extraordinary text that's been modified a little bit over the years. It was written, of course, so long ago that the language has changed, but most of it has stayed with us and Lowell Mason who wrote, I don't know how many tunes, great hymn writer wrote this wonderful tune that goes with it, rock of ages cleft for me and we'll talk some more about this and what this means to family caregivers here in the next segment. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. 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, and sometimes those high drama moments come internally as we mentally slap ourselves around over things we wish we had done better or wish we'd 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. Welcome back to Hope as a Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're glad you're with us.

888-589-8840. You just heard our Your Caregiver Minute. We do that a lot and we've got more of those out at our podcast and you can go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com and see them and our podcast is free. We have almost 600 episodes of the program, of the Your Caregiver Minutes, of bonus stuff, all kinds of stuff. It's a free podcast. Please take advantage of it and it's wherever, whatever podcast service you use, whether it's iTunes or Apple or whatever.

It's available on every platform, Spotify, whatever and it's free. Take advantage of it. Share it with people you know and we put these things out there to hopefully provide just in time help as we journey along this very difficult road of being a caregiver and anybody that tells you it hasn't done it long enough because it is. It's very challenging. All right, Joseph in Virginia. Joseph, good morning. How are you feeling? I'm doing well.

Thank you. I tried to call you earlier and I transposed one of the numbers and got the wrong number but I finally got to you. I knew Rock of Ages the minute you started playing. Well I'm glad you did. Did you tell the other number that you called that you were calling about Rock of Ages? Because that probably caused them a little bit of confusion.

Yeah. Well tell me why this song means something to you, Joseph. Well there's so many verses to it.

Rock of Ages, collect for me, let me hide myself indeed. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure saved from wrath and make me pure. Those words resonate for me as a growing Christian and my mother used to tell of her mother singing in the sweet by and by to her and then when grandmother passed, mother used to sing which has a similar melody, Rock of Ages, and I heard that message of the verse. I quoted water and blood from thy wounded side which flowed. Whenever we have difficulty and things seem to be oppressive and that happens quite often in caregiving, we must look to Jesus, we must look to our Savior, our precious Savior, and that picture on the cross on thy pierced side and the water and the blood came flowing down. The writer of the hymn captured it so magnificently I believe and he said we have seen the double cure. What it speaks to me is the water and the blood from our precious Savior is a double cure, it's a true power cure for whatever our ailment or whatever our sadness is. No one has gone through the pain and the agony that Jesus did on the cross. That because he bore on his shoulders my sins and everybody else's. No one has gone through that but he did and if he did the ultimate in bearing the troubles of the world, we've gained strength in saying he's my Savior and what he did he offers to me and when he said come follow me I am the way I learned that word way is a Greek word hodos is also the word for road and Jesus our precious Savior is telling us to get in the road and follow him. I've done that in caregiving for my mother and she's passed and gone on to be with God now and my sister for whom she was a caregiver was born with multiple sclerosis and she was not able to express herself, her mind is good but there's a separation when she tries to move or speak and she was unable to say what she wanted to say or move like she wanted to but she improved over the years and I was her caregiver for 10 years after mother passed and my sister's in the nursing home now because I'm too old.

I have difficulty taking care of myself at times but I'm still doing it. I'm past my 80th birthday but my sister's 89 and in the nursing home and she used to sing with me and the two of us together with her interrupted expression of melody and vocal expression we in one way canceled each other out trying to sing but we looked at each other and we knew what we were doing but we smiled and we kept on singing. Well Joseph let me ask you a question real quick was your sister was she able to sing even though she wasn't able to speak very well or the words didn't come did the music come easier to her just out of curiosity?

No the music didn't come it came to her easy but she was not able to project it correctly and so it was off key and not harmonious with what was written but we looked at each other and smiled because yes. What was one of her favorite songs? What is one of her favorite songs?

What's a favorite song that she used to sing or still sings? What's one of her favorite hymns? We tried the short ones the more simple ones and we got together closer on Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so and that was the closest we could harmonize. Now I'll never be able to play this song Jesus loves me without thinking of you and your sister. And then you said your mom liked you in the sweet by and by. I love that hymn too I love in the sweet by and by Joseph that's a wonderful hymn. He's on that beautiful shore. Well Joseph I thank you for sharing this with your sister I thank you that you love this hymn I love this hymn as well and I'm hoping that fellow caregivers if they remember nothing else from this program today and from this time together is that rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in the when it gets so difficult when it gets so gnarly for us as caregivers can we remember those just those two sentences rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee and that is a that's a great hymn and I'm very moved about how this has meant something to you and your family through your caregiving journey which has not been easy and here you are 80 your sister's 89 and these are difficult things and yet you have endured you have strengthened me and many others today listening to you to show this is what fortitude looks like so Joseph thank you for that I really do appreciate it okay. Yes sir I thank you for doing what you do and doing it in the way that comes through clearly to those of us who know what you're talking about. You know that's that's that's very moving to hear and I appreciate that very much I'm going to go to Roger in Arkansas thank you Joseph Roger in Arkansas good morning Roger how are you feeling I'm feeling great sir I bet you are I come up to the church early in the morning before daylight usually and I read and so forth and I listen to the radio and I listen to you about every Saturday morning and that's what thank you reminds me of Moses on top of the mountain when he went to get the 10 commandments and God met him up there and he put Moses in the cleft of the rock because we can't look on God's face and live so that makes us following Christ not following God not going ahead of him but getting behind him and he protects us you know he puts us in that protective place in that rock where nothing can get to us you know and it's a it's a wonderful uh song about God's protection you know he he puts us in a place of oh he can he's the guard he's the one out front and he was a wonderful savior I thank you God well indeed and and I think that this is where for me as a caregiver when I hear this hymn it recognizes that there is a place of safety for me it doesn't mean that these things are going to go away that we deal with it means that he's going to sustain us and care for us in it and the the greatest place of safety is when our hearts are at peace knowing that he's sovereign over all of this and and I love this second uh stands and not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands could my zeal no respite no could my tears forever flow all could never sin or raise thou must save and save by grace that's a great text and we'll talk some more about this in the next segment roger it's always a pleasure to hear from you thank you and you be safe out there today all right hey this is peter rosenberger have you ever helped somebody walk for the first time i've had that privilege many times through our organization standing with hope when my wife gracie gave up both of her legs following this horrible wreck that she had as a teenager and she tried to save them for years and it just wouldn't work out and finally she relinquished them and thought wow this is it i mean i don't have any legs anymore what can god do with that and then she had this vision for using prosthetic limbs as a means of sharing the gospel to put legs on her fellow amputees and that's what we've been doing now since 2005 with standing with hope we work in the west african country of gana 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 could 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 and i know that so many of you are are weary sometimes when the show airs live on saturday mornings you're just getting up your loved one's not up yet and it's just your time to be quiet and to kind of reflect before the day gets away from you a little bit and i'm grateful that we just have this time to hang out together just to talk a little bit and strengthen one another for the journey because it is a very painful journey it is a very difficult journey but it doesn't have to be a miserable journey i i've learned a lot of things over my 35 years of this and one of them is that this is just not all up to me i i have done things on behalf of gracie that are extraordinary and i haven't even slowed the journey down i have fought with insurance companies and one i've never lost an appeal with an insurance company i've interacted with well over a hundred doctors now in 13 hospitals and all of her 80 plus surgeries that i can count i can't even count really all of them more trips to to clinics and hospitals and doctor's office i remember one time i was sitting in a doctor's office we were waiting to meet with the surgeon uh over in billings montana uh where we've been back and forth with them and doing this as we're preparing for some things with gracie and we hadn't we had not met this doctor yet and as i sit there and i looked around the room and i realized how much that room looked exactly like the rooms i spent countless times in in nashville at st thomas hospital at vanderbilt hospital at southern hills hospital at trust at centennial hospital all these different hospitals i've spent time in and all the exam rooms start looking alike and i was sitting there looking at gracie and i just kind of reflected how many moments like this have we had and it just kind of hit me that the longevity of this journey and what this means for us as caregivers and so many of us are in that same pathway where we just it's that repetition of the caregiving world and so when i started reaching out to my fellow caregivers somebody asked me you know what what separates your program from others and i just i don't get into the task of caregiving i get into the weariness of the caregiver's heart i get into the broken places of the caregiver's heart that is is struggling to find solid ground in the midst of the craziness and i stay out of the weeds there's no need for me to go there i can't tell you how to take care of your loved one anymore than you can tell gracie what i can share with you are things that i've learned along the way and what i've learned along the way is that it's just not up to me gracie has a savior i'm not that savior and as i often say on the show to look down at your hands i look down at my hands i don't see nail prints and nor do nor do you this is not ours to fix and so what is our role our role is to care and to minister as best as we possibly can and to trust that god is working in this in ways that we cannot see nothing in my hands i bring simply to thy cross i cling naked come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace foul i to the fountain fly wash me savior or i die that's our hymn for today rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee once we understand that concept it reorients are thinking as we go to this that is somehow i we're not projecting ourselves to our loved one or to anyone else is their savior that we recognize that nothing in our hands that we bring to this but we get we get the privilege of being used by our savior to minister to one that he loves knowing that also he loves us as well one of the reasons i put jesus loves me i just played that for joseph he and his sister saying that and she couldn't sing very well because of her condition but i put jesus loves me on my cd on songs for the caregiver and uh it's out there at our website you can go out and check it out and see where you can get it you can listen to most of it for free and i think or download it whatever it's it's out there but i put that on there because a lot of caregivers are so busy carrying their loved one to jesus they forget that he loves me too i was so busy trying to get grace to jesus i didn't realize that he loved me too remember how many times i've talked about on this program of our loss of identity that we caregivers are so busy speaking in third person singular or first person plural we us our he she that we forget that it's jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so and i and i use these old hymns to remind us of of these great truths people wiser and sharper than me took the time to write these things down and i get to stand on their work i get to benefit from their journey and incorporate these things into my life to sustain me along the way and i want to pass that on to as many people as possible rock of ages clef for me let me hide myself in the augustus topland he wrote this and by the way just as a side note he uh he and john wesley evidently had a what they call a pamphlet war they were basically putting out materials they can't do it on twitter back then 1700s so they did it with pamphlets and they were back and forth over uh calvinism versus armenism and i will i will not get into that particular debate today but i think it's funny that these guys i mean you know what they're doing it on twitter now but this has been going on for forever you know when people they'll find ways to communicate and argue back and forth i mean that's the human condition we are going to find ways to argue um but they they got into um a rift over that line be of sin the double cure uh and and there's all kinds of drama that was going on but the hymn has prevailed through all these years and it sustains so many around the world rock of ages clef for me well in just that one sentence we're saying that the rock the solidity of of god and but the ages the the the you know you know that old hymn um oh god our help in ages past but it also refers to the eternalness of god of ages he he's over all of this the sovereignty of god over all this and then it says cleft for me a hiding place for me a safety place for me then it makes it very personal so we talk about this massive concept of of god rock of ages and then he makes it real personal cleft for me what does that mean to us as a caregiver in those moments when we're so afraid we're so despairing we're so discouraged that the great i am the king of kings lord of lords the rock of ages has a hiding place for you psalm 91 in the shelter of the almighty the shadow of his wings these are things that mean something to us in this caregiving journey that can be so disheartening and lonely and frightening yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear what no evil for what thou art with me why why he's with me didn't say he's taking it away didn't say he's taking me out of the valley said he's going to be with me do you do you do you connect with that this morning some of you are getting ready to face very difficult things just today and probably within the hour do you understand that there is a cleft for you that there is a as the hymn writers the legend says that he found that fisher in the rock in the midst of the storm that he was able to get shelter do you understand that that shelter is available to you right now you don't have to bring anything in fact he said he goes on to say this not the labor of my hands there's nothing i can do to earn that if if i i can't fulfill all the laws demands the law was beyond my ability to do that if his zeal knew no respite if he had no rest for his zeal if his tears never stopped flowing over his sin it still would not erase it thou must save and save by grace and that grace is what we're we're we're we're falling into when we accept that there is a cleft in the rock for you nothing in my hands i bring simply to thy cross i cling you heard joseph talk about that naked i come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace foul i to the fountain fly wash me savior or i die these are things that mean something to us as we deal with the harshness of this world and as caregivers we seem to have a relentless opportunity to see the harshness and the brokenness of this world but it's not all up to you it isn't it never has been and he's not abandoning you to this he's not leaving you to this figure this whole thing out by yourself instead he is assuring you of his presence in it right now and offers comfort strength calmness peace and dare i say it even joy along the journey that is the hope for the caregiver this is peter rosenberger this is the show for you as a family caregiver and we're glad you joined us healthy caregivers make better caregivers there's more at hope for the caregiver.com we'll see you next time 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 envision 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 core civic 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 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 a 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 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 core civic 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 are it's 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 please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle standingwithhope.com slash recycle thanks gracie you