Christmas Message for Family Caregivers

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. 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. And 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. This is the program for you as a family caregiver and we are so glad to get to talk to you and to spend some time with you as we go into Christmas. I do get it that this is a difficult time of year for so many. By the way, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840, I thank you for all the calls and the comments and the letters and the emails and the text and the postings and so forth of all you that find value and meaning in this show. I want to thank you as we go into the end of the year here for just making this an amazing year for the program to grow. We are the nation's largest radio broadcast for family caregivers and that makes us also the world's largest radio broadcast for family caregivers. There are people out there that are talking about this and there are people out there that have podcasts and radio programs and they are all wonderful and I appreciate all that they are doing.

Most of them, however, come at it from a secular point of view and we don't. We go to the Word of God as our authority and as our strength and as what we hang onto to get through these turbulent times as caregivers and the hymns and all these things that we do and I've taken a much different approach. I've been a caregiver now for a very long time in my 36th year of this. I had a friend call me up and they were taking care of a parent for about a couple of months and they recently called me and said, How have you done this?

And I said, Well, sometimes I've done it very well and other times I've crashed and burned and failed miserably. But it really isn't about how I've done it, it's about what God is doing through it. And I'm convinced, after three and a half decades of this, that the battle for us as caregivers is not in the task. That we don't get our loved one feeling better and then we can deliver them to Jesus and then we can go on with our life kind of thing. That we learn to live life in the midst of it and we learn to live life with joy, with meaning, with purpose, but not with fear and angst and heartache like we are so prone to do. And we can encourage ourselves in the Lord, even when it looks so bleak. And I will share this story repeatedly for the rest of my life because it is the defining story for me in scripture of where I feel like I am and most caregivers are. And that's David at Ziklag when he came back from a battle and the Amalekites have taken all of their possessions and all of their family members and livestock, everything. And his own men were going to stone him and it's that David encouraged himself in the Lord. And eventually they dropped the rocks and they went and with the Lord's help they were able to rescue everyone and deal with this.

But David, against all this opposition, even from his own men, and all this loss and all this anguish, he encouraged himself in the Lord. And I think for us as caregivers that's our task and challenge and opportunity and invitation is that can we encourage ourselves in the Lord in the midst of craziness, in the midst of hospice, in the midst of rehab, in the midst of great loss and sorrow, terrible diagnosis, the grind of each day of watching someone you love slip away. Can we do this?

And I say to you, yes we can. And I'm grateful for this network that has taken a chance on me and this message that I feel like God has laid on my heart. And I feel a responsibility to get up and speak these things in a way that makes sense to my fellow caregivers.

I try to introduce things along the way that will make it easier for my fellow caregivers to understand. People didn't do that for me. I had to forage.

And it was brutal. And I don't want you to have to forage. I want to make it as clear as possible of why we can stand firm in the midst of this. And I want you to remind me of that, too.

I'm still a caregiver. So we strengthen one another. That's what it means to bear one another's burdens and to build each other up. We can be like David at Ziklag and encourage ourselves of the Lord. But we also have the opportunity to encourage each other in the Lord, too.

We don't have to be alone in this. We can build one another up. That's what the body of Christ does. And say things and do things in a way that makes sense in the midst of our travails and heartache. So I want to give a special thank you to American Family Radio for several years now. They have allowed me to come to you and share these thoughts that I have.

We don't script the program. Everything is live and we just put it out there. And I just share from my heart on things that have meant something to me and continue to mean something to me. I want to close with a song, a recording that Gracie and I did of Silent Night. And it means a lot to me personally when I hear her sing this.

There have been many Christmas Eve's where it has been challenging for us. But when we come back to these wonderful hymns and sit down at the piano and we trust God with our heartache and our pain, we're comforted and we're strengthened. And so I'd like to leave this with you. You can go out and download if you want to listen to it later.

Another time, wherever music is downloaded. I love her voice and I love playing for her. And I love being able to come to you all each week. I want to do more. I want to spend time with you as much as I possibly can because I know how hard the road is and I know how lonely it feels. And so if we can offer, as Paul said, the same comfort that we ourselves have received from the God of all comfort.

That is our mission, our passion, and our privilege to do so. Merry Christmas. Remember what the season's about. And remember that as far as the curse is found, he's come to... The whole purpose of this was to break every bit of that so that we are not bound to this.

That we can breathe knowing that he who began a good work is faithful to complete it through the day of Christ Jesus. And there are times when things look a little bit bleak. We know.

Gracie and I both know. And there are times when you just, you really hang your head in sorrow and struggle. But it's in those moments we realize that our scared hand is being held by his scarred... That's the whole purpose of all of this, is that he came to rescue us. Merry Christmas. So tender. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace. Silent night, holy night. Son of God, lost Your light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face.

With the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus, Lord at Thy birth. Jesus, Lord. Jesus, Lord. Jesus, Lord at Thy birth. Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.