The Word "US"

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're so glad that you are with us. How are you doing?

How are you holding that? More than 65 million Americans right now are caring for a vulnerable loved one. Maybe that's you. Maybe you are in that place. And if so, then you're in the right place here with this program. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the program. And we'd love to have you with us. I want to start off with a song of the season. And see if you know, I'm not going to play the whole thing because it's not really written as a piano piece. But I want to see if you know this tune.

Step over here to the caregiver keyboard. Whoops, I got to look at my music here. All right, do you know that one? Sorry, I didn't make sure I know that one this morning.

I've never actually played that one. Just sitting at the piano, I've always sung that one many times in many choirs. Let's see if you know that one because it is a wonderful song that has a text that is extremely applicable to us as believers and us as caregivers. And all we do here is to strengthen family caregivers. That is the sole purpose of this program is to strengthen the family caregiver, anchoring us into the Word of God and giving us something more than just our own reasoning in this. Remember what Proverbs says, lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He'll direct your path. Well, if we lean on our own understanding, it gets us into quite a bit of trouble. And we're all there.

888-589 if you know that program. Excuse me, if you hear me cough, I've got a little bit of some congestion and so forth. It's not the Omicron. It's not the COVID.

It's just being around cats, dogs, horses and barns full of hay. And so I've got a cough button here and I try to grab it if I can. I did actually break down and go see the doctor this week and the applause of my wife who fussed at me.

And I kept trying to shake it and it just wouldn't turn loose on me. So I will apologize in advance for any coughs that you hear. What are you doing for Christmas as a caregiver? What's going on with you? How are you settling into this? What's going to be different this year?

This is a hard time of year for a lot of caregivers. And I get that. We feel this overriding sense of we've got to make it special for everybody else. But what about you? And so I'd like to ask you, what makes Christmas special for you? Something that you enjoy doing, something that you like? Are you in a position where you're having to buy your own gift? If so, what do you want? What do you want to get for yourself? There's a couple things we can do as caregivers.

One of those things I wrote about this a year ago in the Chicago Tribune, and it was eight Christmas gifts that you can give to yourself as a caregiver. I'd like to throw out one to you this morning to see if this resonates with you. Do you have some folks that you're disappointed in, that you are struggling with, that you're bearing a grudge, that you are resentful towards?

And it may be recent, it may be a long time, it may be the loved one you're caring for. But if so, would you be willing to write those names down? Every one of them, just write them down.

You don't have to write the offenses, you'll know them, but just write the names down. And then put your hand over that piece of paper. Or if you type it on your screen, whatever, just put your hand over it. But I'd prefer you do it on paper.

I think it's more effective. Then pray over it. And just tell God about it.

God, I don't want to hang on to this anymore. I want to give myself a gift of releasing this so that I don't have to carry it. And then burn it. Let it go.

Just burn it. It doesn't mean that you're going to forget all these things, it doesn't mean any of those things, but it is a tangible way for you to say to yourself, between you and God, I don't want to carry this anymore. I talk to so many caregivers, and particularly at this time of year, where they're frazzled, they're almost grinding their teeth. I've been in that place. I remember a couple years ago, this morning a couple years ago, it was several years back when we lived in Nashville.

And I found myself at the grocery store, and there were a lot of crowds. That year, that particular year, we weren't coming to Montana for Christmas. Gracie and I and the boys decided to start coming to Montana for Christmas, way back in the 90s.

And we did it pretty much every year. It was a way for us to detach from the craziness of traffic and everything else. We would just get out here, and it was so healing for us. It reminded me when I was growing up, at Christmas time, my family would go up to North Carolina. There was a church temp that operated during the summertime and the wintertime, and it was pretty deserted. And I had four brothers and a sister, and Dad would take us up there, and Mom and we'd all just stay at a big lodge. I don't think anybody showered for the week, but looking back, it was pretty rough. But all I remember are great times.

There was always snow, and it was quiet. Dad would rest. Mom would rest.

We'd play games. We'd have this big industrial kitchen that was, everything was easy to clean, and it was a great time just to detach. Well, this particular time in Nashville, I couldn't detach very well. It had been a rough year with hospitals and everything else. I found myself at the grocery store, and there were crowds.

The traffic was horrible. And I literally said, as I was grinding my teeth at the store, you know, I was listening to Christmas music over the speakers, and I literally said, bah humbug. I was so discouraged. I was so frustrated. Have you ever been that way?

Have you ever said bah humbug? And that was one of the lower points of Christmas for me. And I wanted to push back against that. And I recognize that for many caregivers, we get to that place.

And I wanted to reintroduce some things, maybe introduce for the first time, and share some things that'll go way down to the deep parts of us caregivers that we can hang on to in the midst of this. And that's why I did this song. When you understand the lyrics from that, what it's from, what it means, it's going to get into that deep place, and it gives you something to hang on to. It's from Isaiah, and it's from one of the most famous pieces of music ever written. And when I went back and looked at it, I was looking at Christmas music to do. And I love Christmas music. I do love it. I love playing it. I love Christmas music. But I thought, what's a good Christmas song to do that maybe might be a little bit different? And I thought this was it. And it's going to apply to where we are as caregivers during those difficult times.

If you know that, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840, if you want to be a part of the program. And tell me what you do for Christmas. What do you want for Christmas? What are you looking for?

What stirs your heart? This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg, and this is the program for you as a caregiver.

We'll be right back. According to the latest figures from the CDC, approximately 1 million Americans are injured annually as a result of falling on ice and snow. I'm Peter Rosenberg, and as a caregiver for my wife for more than 35 years, I understand the importance of helping someone with a mobility impairment get in and out of the home safely, particularly in inclement weather. That's why this winter I'm using Heat Track. They're snow and ice melting mats that you just plug in and they provide you a safe walkway to your garage, to your mailbox, to your deck, to your business. Whatever the need, Heat Track has a mat that will fit that need and make sure that you can get in safely during snow and ice. You don't have to plow, you don't have to shovel, and you don't have to worry about falling because you're walking on something that is safe and secure and dry. This winter, let's stay out of the emergency room.

Let's make sure we're safe. Go to HeatTrack.com. Put in the coupon code CAREGIVER for a special discount. At Christmas time or any time of the year, Heat Track makes a great gift.

Go to HeatTrack.com, coupon code CAREGIVER. Because with Jesus, I can take it all as Him. I know I can't stand no matter what may come my way. My life is in your hands. This is the program for you as a family caregiver. We're so glad that you're with us.

888-589-8840. By the way, that's Christy singing from her CD Resilient. If you don't know my wife, go out and take a look at HopeForTheCaregiver.com and see the music that she's performed and her CDs, books, and everything else. She's got a remarkable story. Speaking of remarkable story, we gave a great Christmas gift this year to a young lady who we've been helping and working with now since 2015.

And I'll be putting some pictures up about it a little bit later. She was 14 when she was hit by a car in Accra, Ghana, and it cost her her leg. But she was still growing. And she had the protrusion from the end of her amputated limb of what they call osteophytes, little pieces of bone. And we couldn't put a prosthesis on her because, you know, you've got this piece of bone. So we worked with the teaching hospital there in Accra area at the Corley Boot Teaching Hospital, and we sponsored a surgery, and she was able to get that fixed, and then we put a leg on her, and with our ministry, we started standing with Hope. And this was Gracie's idea after she gave up both of her legs. And we put this leg on her, and she's been going to school and doing everything else, but as she grows, the limb needs to be updated or remade.

Because we go through a lot of limbs sometimes. And so Sandra's mom reached out to me. Her name is Filomena, and she's just a wonderful lady, and said, look, we've got some challenges here.

What do we need to do? And so we got her in. Joseph Thompson, who's a prosthetist we've worked with now for many, many years over there, and he did a great job in building her a new socket, a new leg, and sent pictures of her.

She's 18 now and finishing high school and getting ready to start college. And just an amazing young lady. A very tragic situation, and it's one thing to be disabled in America. It's another thing to be disabled in a developing country.

And the things that we take for granted here, you know, being able to get into schools and so forth, it's just not there, and the value is not there. But she is a remarkable young lady, very bright, capable young woman who now is able to get around even better. She's walking great and living life, and that's what's happening through Standing With Hope. And it's the gift that keeps on walking, and if you want to be a part of that, you can go out to standingwithhope.com today, see a little bit more about what we do, why we do it, and how we're doing it, and get the word out to folks that this is something that is an extraordinary ministry that came out of very difficult challenges that Gracie went through and still goes through. We have a prosthetic limb recycling program we do as well, so if you know somebody who has lost somebody that's an amputee and they don't know what to do with the prosthesis, or a kid that's outgrown it or whatever, we'll take it. Please don't throw that away, we'll take it, because we could recycle most of the parts, and you can find that all at standingwithhope.com.

The limbs get shipped to a prison in Arizona, and they are inmates who volunteered to disassemble the limbs and help us recycle these parts, so it's a great program that Gracie started, and you can go take a look at it and see it, standingwithhope.com. We're talking about Christmas things that you can do for yourself as a caregiver. The resentment issue is a big one because so many of us as caregivers deal with that reality. We become bitter.

I've seen it many times. You're trying to please someone that can't be pleased, but in reality a lot of times what we're trying to do is please a disease, and we're not called upon to please a disease. I can't count how many fellow caregivers I've talked to who are trying to please an alcoholic parent who's just as miserable, and they're trying to engage with them as if they're normal, but they're not. They are impaired, and the same thing with Alzheimer's, the same thing with dementia. It doesn't mean that they're intentionally inflicting all this pain on you. They may be doing it, but when you're dealing with an impairment, there has to be some allowance for this on how not only you deal with them, but how you deal with you dealing with them.

You tracking with me? Because a lot of times we are looking at the face and hearing the voice of someone we've known for a lifetime, but the cognitive issues going on behind that face and voice are being thwarted by impairments. And particularly if you're dealing with alcoholism or addiction, you're going to serve yourself better by detaching from that to realize they are impaired, and your job is not to make them happy, particularly here at Christmas time. You can do things that are meaningful, but your expectations need to be measured by the amount of impairments you're dealing with. So if you've got somebody who is actively drinking, for example, understand that they're going to cling to alcohol more than they're going to cling to you.

That's what they do. And until they're at a place where they can reach for help and work a recovery program and not only deal with the impact of the addiction of the substance, but the underlying issues as well, it's going to forever color that for you. So for you to put yourself in a position where you're constantly at mercy of an impairment and your heart is being trampled on by an impairment is only going to end poorly. And it's okay to kind of distance yourself from that.

You're not rejecting the person, you're not amputating the relationship, but you have to detach from it because they're going down a path that you can't go down. It's unsustainable for you. And here at Christmastime, I've seen more of this, where the days are darker and shorter, and the nights are very, very long, and individuals just want to somehow mitigate more. And then when you have an impairment like dementia and Alzheimer's and so forth, sundowners is a real thing. And night times can be very difficult.

And then you're trying to have the joy of the season. So these are the things that we as caregivers wrestle with. And so, okay, how do we deal with it? What do we do with it? Are we being disrespectful?

The emotional burden that we put on ourselves to somehow honor our mother and father, but we're misappropriating this. You know, go back and look at the story of Noah. And after they get off the ark, this is kind of an obscure story, but after they get off the ark, do you remember what happened? Yeah, Noah basically planted a vineyard.

So this took some time. I mean, the vineyard had to grow and so forth. Then he ended up having grapes and he harvested them. And then he got, he made wine out of them. Then he got drunk and he passed out naked. And he had three sons. And one of the sons went in there and he saw his dad sprawled out drunk naked.

And he's laughed about it. And he went and told his brothers, you got to see the old man. Well, his brothers were horrified by this. And so they grabbed a blanket and they walked in backwards to cover their father. They didn't mock him.

They didn't do anything to promote his behavior, but they didn't mock him either. They just walked in backwards, covered him up. And then when Noah woke up and realized what happened, he was pretty torqued about it. He ended up cursing the one son.

And it was it was it was a picture of where some people are in their family dynamics. You're not going to fix these things. You don't have it in you to be able to fix someone else's dysfunction in that manner. You could honor them. You can do what is necessary to respect them. But you don't have to get in there and and fix them and scold them. And you certainly don't want to mock them. They have an impairment.

They have something dysfunctional going on. And we as caregivers are involved in that. And we want to protect them. But we also want to protect our own hearts as well.

So understand that you don't this this time of year, please don't appease the disease. OK, there's going to be a lot of sentimental demands. There's going to be a lot of nostalgic demands.

And as a buddy might say, nostalgia is not what it used to be. You can write that down, by the way. But there there's going to be a lot of things that you're going to feel guilty if you don't do.

But you should be doing. And when you're in a situation where you're a caregiver, when you're dealing with a chronic impairment that is just grinding on and on and on, it's OK for you to forge your own Christmas path on this. You don't have to be bound by the nostalgia, by the sentiment that everything's got to be done in just this way. As I said about Thanksgiving, some people feel so burdened that they've got to make the dressing for the meal the way grandmother used to do.

But, you know, you can use stovetop. It's OK. You don't have to do it in all those kinds of ways. It's OK, because if by the time you get to Christmas morning, you can't open presents with clenched fists. Let me say that again.

You cannot open presents or cards with clenched fists. And it's OK for you to take a breather and slow down, let go of some of these things and not put this overpowering burden on yourself to somehow make the perfect courier knives Christmas. It's going to be what it's going to be. The question is, are you going to be just hacked off the whole time or demoralized the whole time?

And that's what I'd like to see change. Well, we're going to try to get to our phone lines, hear it a bit with our song for the day. And if nobody gets the song, that's all. I may just go ahead and tell you what it is, but it's going to apply where we are as caregivers today. This is Peter Roseworthy. This is Hope for the Caregiver. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Roseworthy. This is the program for you as a family caregiver.

And we're glad that you're with us. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840.

What are you doing for you for Christmas this year? Before we go to the phone lines, I just want to drill down one more thing that you could possibly do for yourself. Maybe you have a loved one who can't do anything for you. But would if they could. And you have to pick out your own card for Christmas. Pick out one that they would give to you if they were able to.

If they were not in the shape that they're in. Mail it to yourself. You still got time. And then put a gift card or a, you know, $10 bill in it for yourself. And don't put it up on Christmas morning. These are things that you can do for you. It's not everything that you'd like. But don't just accept that your desires, your wants, your needs as a caregiver, as a human being are not important.

Because they are. And I'm going to give you this song. By the way, if you have a Christmas song that you would like to hear that's meaningful to your Christmas hymn, feel free to ask for it.

I'll see if I can work it in. And I've got a special song I'm going to do in the next segment because of an event that happened this week. And I was going to play this for you at the next segment that I think you'll like.

But this song today that I'm doing. The tune is written by Handel. And it is from Messiah. One of the most famous pieces ever.

Oratorio Liberato. And the text is from Isaiah 9-6. And all the text from Messiah was compiled by a guy named Charles Jennings, who was a very strong believer. And he actually got a little bit perturbed with Handel over this work. He was at odds with him a little bit. He thought some of it he kind of, he just didn't like it or he thought it was thrown together or whatever.

And can you imagine having that conversation? But this particular song, a piece from it, it's just a beautiful piece. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. That is a powerful text. And it's just a massively wonderful piece. I mean it is a spectacular piece.

You can go out and search it and listen to the whole thing if you want. But I want to drill down on one word. One word in that text.

Do you know what it is? For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. It didn't say for unto Mary, for unto a family, or for unto one, you know, group of people, for unto us. And we are grafted into that us. And that us means that the government shall be upon his shoulder. Our government that he's establishing, that's for us.

And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. All of that is for us. For you and me as believers. We are now grafted into that because faith through Christ so that we're not floundering out as a nomadic people. We're not. And in the midst of all the crazy things in this country and in the world, as you can see the world is not only shaking its fist at God, it's giving to the finger.

Sorry, that's a little bit blunt, but that's what's happening. But this time of year we remember this prophecy from Isaiah, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And we had a, we talked about this last week when we talked about Hanukkah, but when the angels all came out and sang at Bethlehem, when Jesus was born, and they all appeared, the great host, and all the shepherds heard them.

Why is that significant? They didn't do that at the resurrection. They were angels, but the host didn't come out and do that.

Why is that? Well, you go back to Genesis 3.15, and God said, I'm going to send one. Somebody's going to crush this serpent's head.

You're going to bruise his head, but he's going to crush your head. From the woman, from Eve. And then they had two boys that were born, Cain and Abel. Then Cain killed Abel.

Well, what's going to happen there? And then Seth was born. And then the lion kept coming along. You had a guy named Enoch. Remember the story of Enoch?

He said he walked with God and was not. Enoch had a grandson, and the grandson was living a long time, and the Lord told Enoch before he took him to heaven. He said, look, I'm going to destroy the earth, but your grandson is going, he will not die until that's ready to happen. And he lived for a very long time, and he had a grandson. And his grandson's name was Noah. And the year Noah got on the boat was the year that his grandfather died, at the ripe old age of 930-something, and his name was Methuselah. But God promised him, you're not going to die until this is ready to happen.

I'm not going to destroy the world while you're living. Noah gets off the boat, we just talked about Noah, and then God made a covenant with Noah. He said, I'm not going to do this again. Andre Crouch had a great song that he did, and I remember hearing it. The first live concert I ever saw in Columbia, South Carolina, and Andre got up there and he says, God told Noah by the rainbow sign, no more water or fire next time.

And I always thought that was a great song. And then the promise went to a moon worshiper down in southern Iraq, Kuwait, named Abram. God pulled him out and said, come over here and we'll give you the slanting and we'll make nations of you. And they went through Isaac and then Jacob, and it just kept going and kept going. And then he saw this little shepherd boy, and he was his appointed king, and he said, the throne's never going to depart from your house.

And it kept going until you get to this young girl in this backwater country of Israel, part of the Roman Empire at that point. She said, you're going to have a baby. She said, how can this be?

He said, don't worry about this. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. And she had this child and the whole host of angels came out.

Why? Because God said he was going to do it, and he did it. He did what he promised. For unto us a child is born. This was hundreds of years before Jesus when Isaiah wrote this. Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Unto us, so we, like those angels that came out, can all rejoice and sing the promises of God in the midst of the bleakness of our life, which it can be very bleak. Some of you are experiencing your first Christmas without a loved one.

I know you called and I put the dates down. Some of you are experiencing your first Christmas in a hospital this year, or maybe separated because the loved one's in the hospital and you can't get to them. Some of you are experiencing your first Christmas with a disability, with a tragedy. There are all types of different things, but it says right here in the text, For unto us a child is born, unto us, that you and me, a son is given, and the government shall be at his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. Jesus said, I came that you may have life and life more abundantly. And yet he was saying this in the context of great sorrow and suffering and affliction.

So what's he talking about? He's the Prince of Peace. How can we have peace? Look at all the confusion. You can have peace right now, right this moment.

So can I. And it's a mental shift of how we look at these things and how we do it. What are we saying to ourselves every day? Are we just grinding our teeth? We just got to get through this? Do we even want to deal with Christmas or whatever? Is that what this is about? So that we can go out and just kind of get in the Christmas spirit and watch a couple of Hallmark movies and call it a day? Is that what we're doing here?

No. We're commemorating something that is extraordinary that goes back beyond anything. I mean, Jesus wasn't born on December 25th.

I mean, let's be real. It's almost an appropriated holiday, but it's a day that we have chosen as believers to set aside to recognize that God did what he said he was going to do. He promised something and he delivered against all odds. And if you look at the scope of what that took to invade this broken world with redemption, that it strengthens our hearts just a bit more, I think, to recognize that he's doing that same thing in our life as well with our challenges, with our heartache, with our pain, with our sorrow, with our loss.

He who began a good work in you is faithful. That's what this means for unto us, a child reborn. This is Peter Roseburger. This is Hope for the Caregiver.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Roseburger. This is the program for you as a family caregiver.

It is the unequaled Keith Green. Do you see? How can you? But you know what? We have a God that does see, and that's the whole point of everything we're doing here today to try to encourage you to see that he does see you. For unto us, a child is born. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840.

I'm going to do something special. I promise I'll do the D block here of the program, but this week, just two days ago, we lost a friend. He had a stroke several years back, and then we moved to Montana. We weren't able to see him. He was a wonderful singer in the Nashville area, studio singer and all kinds of things that he did.

Just an extraordinary gifted man, but also an amazing heart, and he and Gracie had a chance to perform several times together. A while back, I wrote a song, and I was contemplating some deeper truths, and I heard a lot of people singing about, you know, I want to go to heaven, I want to go to this, that's why I want to be a Christian, I want to go to heaven. And I thought, is that why we're doing it? And I go back to what Thomas did and said when he saw Jesus after the resurrection. Because Thomas said, I'm not going to believe it until I see his scars. And Jesus showed up and condescended to Thomas. He said, hey look, here I am. And Thomas's reaction was, my Lord and my God.

And that was his only thought. And so I wrote this song out in a buddy of mine named Hank Martin, who will be with us next week on the program, because he's got a great Christmas song that you're going to love. Hank and I have written several songs together. Hank was a jingle singer in New York, sang a lot of commercials and so forth, and we'll tell you about that next week. And Hank, of course, knew this man that passed away this week.

His name was Scat Springs, and he was just a tremendous individual. And so I asked Richard this morning, he's working the board, and I asked him if he'd play this song in its entirety of Gracie and Scat, singing this song that I wrote with Hank. It's called Heaven's Not the Reason. So Richard, if you go ahead and hit that for me, I thought you might enjoy this, and I just want to do this as a tribute to a wonderful man with a wonderful voice, who is now ringing out that voice in all eternity with Christ. All my life I've heard the story of a place some call glory, where every tear will be wiped away. A city so fair, nothing here compares, and I know that's where I'll be someday. There's no doubt that heaven's lovely, but there's a greater treasure for me that stirs my heart like nothing I've ever known.

A love that's redeemed me and changed my life completely, for that love I'll give all that I own. Heaven's not the reason I fall down on my knees. Streets are cold and not compared to what Jesus did for me.

A million angels singing can I shine like Calvary. Jesus is all the heaven I need. When I think of all He suffered and His life He gladly offered, I know my sins pierced His holy inside.

But the nails are not what held Him. It was love that compelled Him to give His life so that I might live. Heaven's not the reason I fall down on my knees. Streets are cold and not compared to what Jesus did for me. A million angels singing can I shine like Calvary. Jesus is all the heaven I need. A million angels singing can I shine like Calvary. Jesus is all the heaven I need. He's all the heaven I need.

That is Scat Springs and my wife Gracie, and that is from Gracie C.D. Resilient. This is an extraordinary performance by these two, and I'm very grateful to have known Scat, and he is with the Lord now.

We miss him very much. I hope you enjoyed that as well. I remember when they were in the studio singing and Gracie was on crutches. It was one of the first times she was getting back in the studio after some very difficult journeys. They just did a great job, and I just loved it. It was just a treat to do that with them.

I hope you enjoyed that. These are principles and things that I hold onto that anchor me in this. As I care for Gracie in my journey at Christmastime and everything else, I don't do this so I can just go to heaven. I have things to do here on this earth, and he'll take care of that when that time comes. I have no doubt. He said, Do not let your heart be troubled. I go to a prepared place for you, and I get that. So I have work to do now as I keep my mind focused on where I am right now and knowing that all the stuff with eternity, he'll work out.

I can trust him on this because I know that he is able to do far beyond anything we can possibly imagine. I hope that you can hang onto that as well during this. I don't dismiss how difficult this journey can be for so many. I really don't. And that's why I wanted to leave with something to hang onto.

The line that Gracie sings in there, there's a greater treasure for me that stirs my heart like nothing I've ever known. And as you go through this time of year where sometimes it can be very, very difficult, extremely difficult, remember that text, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And I think we can all look at what's going on in the political landscape of this country and around the world and we see people who refuse to recognize authority greater than the state. That's part of the problem we have. King Louis said years ago in France, Le Tassez-Moi, he said, I am the state. And that's what tyrannical leaders do.

We are not qualified to carry those things. But there is one who is and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Because he is the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is not us. So when I see political leaders basically establishing themselves as the highest authority because of their ideals, versus the highest authority because of the Word of God, that's when we go down these paths that are incredibly destructive and painful. But it's into this destructive, painful world where we have leaders who say, you know, I am science, or I am the state, or I am this. To remember that we have the one who says, I am that I am. And the government shall be upon his shoulders. And as you care for someone with impairments and as you care for someone who is struggling, please remember that there is one who invaded this world, this broken world, to build his kingdom. And the gates of hell, he said, are never going to prevail against it. As painful as this is, for those of us who are in Christ, this is as close to hell as we have to get. I know this is kind of a hard message here at Christmastime, I get that, but this is a hard journey for caregivers. And so I wanted you to hear something that would hopefully strengthen you today, and that is hope for the caregiver.