Chasing Healthiness

Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberg and this is the program for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing? How are you holding up? What's going on with you? How are you feeling? How are you feeling? Helping you as a caregiver stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not.

Glad to have you with us. Hopeforthecaregiver.com. I want to start off with saying that on that website you'll see a flashing light that says Caregiver 911. If you are in a Caregiver 911 situation I've got something there for you right on that page.

Just click on that little flashing light. That is a good starting place. If you don't know where to start lets just start there. everything I do is designed to help point you to safety where you can catch your breath take a knee if you have to and then let's start making choices to live a healthier life and we're gonna talk about that today because I labor day is over so put your white shoes up now that's funny I don't care who you are but we're going to go into the fall season and that's where things can get a little dicey for us as caregivers there's a lot of stress around the holidays the days get shorter the nights get longer and we tend to eat more we get a little unhealthier and so we're gonna we're gonna do some preemptive work on that okay now some of you all know that I have been working on losing weight wanted to give you an update on that I weighed this morning I am are you ready is there a drum roll around here somewhere 42 pounds down since the 1st of March 42 let me think about that 42 but I'm going for 50 I mean y'all I had to I mean I came back from Denver when Gracie was in the hospital for two months last year over Christmas over the holidays and I was you know I got big y'all I just they had a chick-fil-a near the hospital and chick-fil-a is my kryptonite we don't have one 60 miles away from us is the nearest one and that's on the campus at Montana State I have to go actually into a place to do it so it's it that temptation is removed I love chick-fil-a why shouldn't I it's beautiful it's a wonderful place but I can't go there and eat that anymore at least not in the portions I was doing so I came back and I you know when you're leaving a footprint in dry concrete you know it's time to lose weight and and I said this is enough and I told you my friend Dale who's been on this program she helped coach me through it and she said your future self is gonna thank you well here's my future self six months later 42 pounds down and I'm keeping it off and I I just I've got to tell you it makes all the difference in the world if you want to see more about how I'm doing it if you want Dale to help you go out to my website and you'll see under the resources there at the top pages click on the resources and you can go and see that I recommend it I the results speak for themselves and I feel better I think I think a lot clearer now I didn't realize how much being overweight was affecting a lot of things you know and I I've not struggled with weight that much over the years I mean I've been able to maintain a lot of I'm very active but you know when you keep going through the hospital and hospitals are not a good place to try to lose weight y'all know that and and you you get bored or you get nervous and you eat they call it comfort food for a reason and so I I just made I just I just made the decision I'm doing this and here I am 42 pounds I mean think about what weight is 42 pounds and carry that around my left knee has given me fits for a very long time and I'm thinner now that I've been in probably decades and I'm going to go even more because I've seen the the impact of my body the impact of my left knee particularly so getting healthy it's been a huge goal I came back from from Denver this year from that long stretch of the hospital with Gracie and I said this is my year and and I told you all this when when I started this I'm no good to her if I'm fat broken miserable and I choose to be none of those things and it's it's not a it's not easy it takes work it takes a team it takes support it takes encouragement but the first thing you got to do is decide I don't want to do this anymore I don't want to be like this anymore and and I'm gonna give you a quote from Churchill you know I love Churchill and a big fan of his it is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything the problems we live with as a caregiver are often so overpowering that it paralyzes us we we just wait till things are better optimal and then we'll try to tackle all these things and that's what Churchill is getting at let's do something today right now today how can I get healthier today not next week that not next Thursday not a seven-step plan to getting healthier what can I do right now that's healthy and if you'll notice I stay with that theme a lot of this program by the way sorry if I sound stopped up we've had a lot of forest fires in Montana and Wyoming and and a lot of smoke comes into our valley and you've probably seen the fires and so forth on the news and it just sometimes wreaks havoc on your your sinuses and everything else but the the snow will be coming to the back country pretty soon and then we'll start putting these things out and our clear air will return so bear with me on that and if I sniff a little bit I'm so sorry but for so long we have been inundated in this culture with what do we need to do to be happy we want to be happy you know I don't even like the word happy has its originations in that word happening happen it's the same root word of happening an event something has to happen to make us feel good well for us as caregivers that cannot be the goal we're never gonna feel good about these things that we're dealing with we're always gonna have this challenge as long as we serve as a caregiver and even after the the caregiving is done and maybe our loved one goes on to the Lord and and then we're still dealing with the aftermath of this so if you're choosing to wait till you're happy well what's that look like how is that going to work and if something can make you happy then something else can make you sad and demoralized and so I've shifted that and I've said let's stop trying to be happy let's start being healthy and I found that if I chase healthiness instead of happiness if I chase healthiness then happiness chases me you think I'm happy about being 42 pounds down yes I am but I didn't chase happy I chased healthy and all of a sudden you know I was happy but I was able to put on some shirts and some clothes that I hadn't worn in a long time and I thought well I got a whole new wardrobe and I was happy about that but that's not why I did it well I did it because it was healthy healthy I could start today I could start right now emotionally physically spiritually financially I don't have to wait for circumstances to be optimal again what a Churchill say it is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything we do not have to wait for circumstances to be ideal before we do something that is healthy you could put down a soda right now and pick up water you could drink black coffee instead of cream and sugar you can say no to a donut and say yes to something that's healthier for you I know it's not fun listen you don't think I want to go to Krispy Kreme wherever two or three are gathered there will be Krispy Kremes I mean you know you don't think I want to do that but I also don't want to have my left knee hurting anymore because I'm carrying 40 pounds I also want to fit into clothes and I want to be able to breathe better and have more energy and a clearer mind and so I gave up certain things in order to grasp better things you could do this too and we're gonna talk about that more on this program day because it's about healthiness and healthy caregivers make better caregivers you know this we've talked about this on the show for the years that I've been doing it healthy caregivers make better caregivers so let's get healthy today today's a great day to start we could do it together and this is Peter Rosenberger hope for the caregiver calm we'll be right back have you ever had to change sheets in the middle of the night you ever had to deal with a spill or mishap in bed wound care issues we've been dealing with that lately with Gracie's legs she's got a wound that just does not want to heal up sometimes that wound just oozes makes it a terrible mess it got to change the sheets I've been looking around for a product to help with this because you know nobody ever told me when I was a caregiver that involves so much laundry but it does guess what there's a company called peelaways p-e-e-l-a-w-a-y-s peelaways just like it sounds they're fitted sheets with built-in layers of chucks you know like liners they put in beds in hospitals but they're built in they're perforated on either side not at the bottom not at the top so in case there's a mishap you just peel it away throw it away you don't have to change the bed it's that easy it's that simple I've tried it myself I slept on them they're very comfortable and you think this is just too easy caregiving is hard enough so let's go with too easy all right peelaways.com subscribe and save they'll send you one every month you mentioned my name Peter put it in the coupon code you get a special discount peelaways.com life is hard enough as a caregiver here's something that's going to make your life a lot simpler it did mine peelaways.com welcome back to hope for the caregiver this is Peter Rosenberger and this is the day the Lord has made it I want to play that song very specifically because no matter what is going on in our life this is the day the Lord has made it we can be comforted strengthened encouraged and our spine stiff and knowing that this day does not catch him by surprise every day that we wake up and experience this day we can recognize that this is the day the Lord has made it we may have to wake up while we're in a hospital we may have to wake up and go to a funeral home we may have to wake up into all kinds of difficult circumstances but by affirming what our spirit knows to be true because of the redemptive work of Christ we are not bound to the craziness of this world and so we are saying no to our emotions that would be cast down within us and we have to remind ourselves of the goodness of God you see this throughout all of scripture go back in Lamentations 3 Jeremiah's like my soul is cast down within me but he said but this I recall to mind and therefore I have hope I'll play that the caregiver keyboard he said that Jeremiah said you know this I recall to mind and therefore I hope great is thy faithfulness and he said every morning I see new mercies there is no shadow of turning with thee thou changest not thy compassion's they fail not as thou hast been for ever you All I have needed, thy hand hath provided. Lord unto me.

Isn't that a great hymn? That's how we do it. That's how we do it as caregivers. We're talking about being healthy today and part of being healthy is understanding where your strength comes from. Where do you draw your strength? Is it of your own doing? Is it something that you manufacture? No. No it's not.

You cannot do this and sustain it on your own. Anybody else tell you that? I don't know. Raise an eyebrow.

Somebody's been taking care of a woman who struggles with severe disabilities now for four decades? You might want to pay attention because I have long since exhausted my abilities. I do not have it in me to do this but he who began a good work in me is faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. All of a sudden these scriptures come in a cascade over you when you turn into his will.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full at his wonderful face and the things of earth, the things of caregiving will grow strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace. Paul said the things of this world, the sufferings of this world, the trials, the tribulations, all these things they're not even worthy to be compared. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

Doesn't mean that it doesn't make you cry. Doesn't mean that you don't struggle. It just means that we wrench our will into the truth of the gospel. This is how we stay healthy. If you try to just have a positive attitude that's only going to take you so far. Why have a positive attitude? Think about that. We have to ask hard questions. Just you know squint your eyes real hard and say I'm gonna be better.

Try that for a couple of decades. Now once you've exhausted that come back to the reality of Scripture. The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean on it on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will guide your steps.

That word is a lamp not a searchlight it's a lamp. We only get one step at a time sometimes but he's promised to guide us. Now we either believe this or we don't and if we don't believe it then you know turn off whatever device you're listening to this on and walk away. But if you do believe this and you know this to be true then there's nothing else more important and nothing else that can taint it even the daily struggle of being a caregiver. You follow me on that? Once you wrap your mind around where you're going to stand everything flows from that and if you stand on the Word of God you will never be put to shame. No matter what happens on this earth Martin Luther said the body they may kill God's truth abideth still. Listen to what he said at Vermes. He was addressing the court there since your most serene majesty and your highness is require of me a simple clear and direct answer I will give one and it is this I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the council because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves if then I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture or by cogent reasons if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's Word I neither can nor will retract anything for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience here I stand I cannot do otherwise God help me amen it's difficult to understand how much courage it took for Luther and other reformers to stand up against the corruptness that had overtaken the church to be excommunicated from the church was to be in effect sentenced to hell and it's very difficult in our culture to understand the gravity of this but he was able to do that by the conviction of the Word of God and he stood solely exclusively on that if he could do that could we not do the same as caregivers when we look at the sufferings that our loved one goes through the the frustration the heartache the loss the sorrow the grief the anguish the pain the the all of the above can we not anchor ourself in Scripture to stand firmly in the truth of God's sovereignty that his faithfulness is never changing that he's not abandoned us that his mercies are new every morning can we not do this because of what he has promised in Scripture do we believe this Christian what do you believe and if you don't believe this okay that's your that's your call but if you do and you're standing on this then what are the implications when it comes to being a caregiver do you look at the sufferings that you see do you look at the anguish and you say here's what the Word of God says I don't feel good about this I don't like this he didn't ask me to like it he asked me to trust him why do I trust him and all we have to do is look to the cross once you go down this path intellectually and spiritually you are refusing to allow your circumstances to dictate your healthiness you're refusing to we talked about in the last block you know our bodies being healthy getting healthy I'm losing weight 42 pounds well guess what I've had a lot more than 42 pounds worth of bad emotional baggage and spiritual baggage and that's got to go to that process is called sanctification if your church is not preaching on this kind of thing you might want to rethink your church go back to this text from how firm a foundation it's verse 3 when through the deep waters I call thee to go the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow for I will be near thee thy troubles to bless and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress verse 4 when through fiery trials thy pathway shall light how many of you all feel like you're going through fiery trials how many of you feel like you're going through deep waters well look at the text it says my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply my grace is sufficient for all remember what Paul said that Jesus told him he said my grace is sufficient and then the hymn writer goes on to say the flame shall not hurt thee I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine you know what draw says it's a mass of solid impurities floating on a molten metal or dispersed in the metal or its waste material generated during the welding process but you get the picture it's it's the gunk and in the purifying fire of God's sanctification of our lives that gunk gets burned up more and more and more until we are what filled with the purity of Christ when we stand before him that's the whole point of this sanctifying us and have you noticed that God is interested in sanctifying his people go back and look at the Old Testament the elaborate way that people had to approach the tabernacle the mountain of God the temple of God there's an elaborate cleansing ritual that they went through as a picture of what is necessary to approach a holy God do we hear teaching like this a lot in our churches are you hearing teaching like this if not you might want to rethink where you're going to church because God is interested in a holy people and that's going to come through the sanctification process and the sanctification process more often than not is very uncomfortable for us and God uses suffering and things in this world that are very painful and heartbreaking to sanctify to burn that dross out of us that gold to refine as the hymn writer says part of being a healthy caregiver is being spiritually healthy and that comes from digging into the Word of God chewing on it meditating on it thinking on it and then applying it in our daily lives even as we are changing an adult diaper you get it he's interested in refining gold this is Peter Rosenberg this is hope for the caregiver we'll be right back before you say anything that ain't me playing but I'm learning all right I aspire listen to this text right here walk in the life I love this I love I'm working on learning how to play like this I've got a long ways to go you've got to peel an awful lot of Presbyterian off of me to play like that but give me time I'm working on it welcome back to hope for the caregiver this is Peter Rosenberg and this is the program for you as a family caregiver and I am so glad that you are with us walk in the light that's one of the things I want to transition to in this block we're talking about being healthy today and I want to give you an update on something that has been for me a challenge for many years I started notice this I was in Africa many years ago with our work with standing with hope with our prosthetic limb ministry and I had a couple of prosthetist and orthotist with a CPO certified prosthetic prosthetist an orthotist now prosthetics course build prosthetic devices legs and arms and so forth orthotist do back braces and inserts for your shoes knees things such as that orthotics and I had him looking at my feet and something was pinching on my left side of my foot and you there was putting pressure there when I walked well this persisted for some time and then I saw a podiatrist when I got back to Nashville a friend of mine is a podiatrist there said what's going on with me with this area of my foot and it was on my little left foot of it left toe and he said well you got a bunion well I said well I know I got a bunion but that's on the right side of my foot he said no that's what's causing your problem you have a deformity that's creating pain on the other side of your foot because if you're walking gait and I've gone through a series of stuff with this and got over time put some inserts in trying to do some things to mitigate this bunion I don't want to have surgery because I'll be on crutches for some time and when's a good time for me to be on crutches as a caregiver so I've gone to you know several avenues of trying to what I what can I do to mitigate this and the general consensus was is I have a on my left leg the way my foot walks it's lower it there's a it kind of dips down and what was happening is my big toe was floating a little bit and it kept going over and over and over and that's what gives this bunion this pronounced deformity there and that knuckle of your your big toe and then it throws your whole walking gait off your knee everything everything's hurting so I had special orthotics made how to get a prescription for them they're kind of expensive and I had them made and what it does is it does not solve the problem but it halts it it arrests the problem and it lifts me up a little bit on my left side so that I'm walking straighter and it takes all the pressure off of that bigger toe so that my bunion doesn't hurt and then it gives me even greater arch support now why am I telling you all this when he sounds like an old man talking about his bunions well these are only feet that Gracie can count on okay or mind she has two prosthetic legs I mean so and she can't wear them all the time so she counts on my feet and if my feet are hurting how effective am I at being a caregiver I mean think it through that's why I played that song at the beginning walk in the light because first off I really want to learn how to play like that and number one number two it's a good text but how effective can I be if I can't walk very well she remember the last block we talked about that great him how firm a foundation well how firm is my foundation if I can't walk very well and if I can't stand if without pain and all these things and so I took action to it and now I didn't solve the problem because I really can't go back and do a surgery I mean it's six weeks on crutches give or take and it's kind of iffy whether or not they work but what I can do is not let it get any worse and arrest the problem and then have better posture and walking because of it so my question to you is then what about you how are your feet how's your health in general we talked about in the first block about losing weight I made a decision look I'm a caregiver I'm a caregiver for four decades so I get the journey I get the stress I get the challenges I get the time constraints I get all of that but I've had to make some hard decisions when I was doing martial arts I was able to keep the weight down I was very active had been able to do martial arts since I moved out to Montana and I miss it but okay here I am so what am I gonna do about it and I also let myself eat things well if you only gain three pounds in one year but every year you gain three pounds guess what in ten years that's 30 pounds and that's what happens that's why they do inflation by the way well the inflation was only up by 2% this year well yeah but it was up 2% last year the year before the you know that's you know that's how they spin things and we you know that's the human condition we're gonna always spin things but as caregivers can we really spin it I mean think about it the the extreme demands that we have as caregivers are going to force us to have an honest conversation are you overweight first step is admitting that you got a problem that you're overweight what do you want to do about it okay how is this helping you be a better caregiver how is this healthy what is it contributing to high blood pressure are you pre diabetic all of the above you say well Peter you don't understand my circumstances really you really think so okay you can go out to my website check on the resources tab get a free conversation with my friend Dale who she coached me through this she can do the same for you doesn't cost anything to ask her talk to her see kind of where you stand swallow your pride instead of your food instead of a donut swallow your pride and say you know what I need some help I gotta get healthier I'll tell you what Dale told me your future self will thank you all right six months 40 pounds not bad huh and I'm gonna keep it off this is my new lifestyle I don't want to ever go back I don't want to buy fat clothes okay then I went and saw podiatrist I got my foot checked out then I spent the money to get some orthotics to make sure that I can walk properly everything I'm doing is to quit me to stay strong and healthy while taking care of somebody who is not how much water do you drink I'm trying to drink about a hundred ounces of water a day I drink a lot of water and you drink to think I'm a child of the south I like sweet tea as much as anybody else but I've had to change I started buying the soda waters no calories no sugar nothing I drink that plus I drink regular water but if I feel the need for a soda then I'll drink one of those it gives me that fix so that I don't have that soda but I drink something so it's just water just carbonated water I used to drink way too many sodas way too much sugar and I've had to cut that out I drink black coffee and you know no cream no sugar and I give myself perks every now and then you know because I don't want to live like a Nazi with it but at the same time the goal is for me to be healthier okay and that's just that's just working for me and I think it would work for you but you have to make that decision then you got to see your doctor regularly gotta get checked out what's your blood pressure like do you want to wait a year to find out what your blood pressure is like do you want to wait a year to find out if you're pre diabetic or your cholesterol is real high let's go ahead and get that checked out when's the last time you got a physical how about your colonoscopy all these things can you really afford to put this off until you stop being a caregiver I'm four decades into it how long can I put off see my doctor should I wait 40 years no I'm gonna start being healthy today we take good care of ourselves it's called stewardship your body is the body that your loved one is counting on I remember being at the doctor's office one time and I saw this woman checking out they called her to the front desk and her daughter it found out it was her daughter pushed her up to the counter in her wheelchair the woman was very frail and old and looked I mean she looked ancient and very very sickly but the daughter was morbidly obese I mean really big and I thought wow how dangerous is this that this woman is responsible for taking care of this frail woman and yet neither of these women are very good health we can't eliminate everything that's going to happen to us but we can be better stewards of where we are right now and do the best we can to be healthy starts with getting into your scriptures I talked to more caregivers whose minds are just besmirched and they can't think clearly best thing you can do is dig into your scriptures if you don't know where to start start with the book of Proverbs read one every day for that corresponding day of the month there's 31 chapters in Proverbs that's God's MBA and if you want to get wisdom that's where you start and then I'd spend some time in the Gospel of John and then when you're ready take over to the Paul to Paul's letter to the Romans go through it slowly you're not in a hurry you're retraining your mind and then you retrain your body and you start like I said drinking more water clear in your mind that the more weight you lose the less processed foods and sugar that you're putting in your body the better you're gonna think by a show of hands how many would agree that we need our brains to function at peak capacity as a caregiver we're constantly problem solving having to remember all kinds of stuff and have to pivot on a moment's notice do you do that if you're overweight overburdened overstressed overtired no that is that's a recipe for disaster so if your foot is hurting go get it looked at if you feel like you're even starting to get a bunion go get it looked at and maybe even get an orthotic you won't be long before it's gonna affect your knee and then your knees go and then I mean it's just it just compounds how firm a foundation let's get our foundation let's go to the the core of the foundation of the Word of God and now let's start with our feet and just work our way up and start getting ourselves healthier and we're going to talk about this more throughout the fall but I wanted just to review some of these things today we're unhappy okay a lot of us are caregiving is very taxing and very tiring but we don't have to be unhealthy and the more we focus on being healthy the more happiness will chase us healthy caregivers say it with me make better caregivers and today is a great day to start being healthy this is Peter Rosenberg this is hope for the caregiver we'll be right back welcome back to hope for the caregiver this is Peter Rosenberg I went back into the groovyard to get that one from Russ Taft I've always loved that song remember the first time I heard it and it just amazing song and Russ has got an amazing voice and story he and Tori have been on this program a time or two and he and Gracie did a duet some years ago you can hear that at the website and hopefully caregiver.com just go check out some of our music and I would also recommend you going out there to look at Russ's story they've got a lot of things he's put out there on YouTube and his book I Still Believe movie it's hard it's hard to listen to they've had a tough journey Russ has really struggled with a lot of things he's very candid about it I watched a video with them recently with with Russ sharing more of his story and it was I just texted him and said I just want to hug you guys I mean I just it's it's really meaningful to hear people process out what has happened to them but in the redemptive work of Christ understanding their relationship with Christ now in ways that they didn't before and I think that's for us as caregivers that's very meaningful because we're in the throes of it we want to hear people with real life you know I when I helped Gracie write her book many years ago Gracie's standing with hoping and I would recommend it it's it's a good book we're very proud of the book but we put some things in there that are not too flattering to me Gracie had a car wreck I had a train wreck and I remember calling up Johnny Eric santata helped me write this she helped mentor me through some of these things and and another friend of ours Jeff Foxworthy and you think that's an unusual combination to bring to this project but if you know Gracie and me at all that makes perfect sense to have Johnny and Jeff be a part of this but I I was writing this is in Gracie's voice but I was writing it and I I caught up both of them I said look there's some things about my life that we're going to divulge in this and you think we ought to put it in there and of course they both knew the story and and they and they both said yeah in fact Jeff said it's real life Peter and people need to hear real life Jeff went on to say he said I got a friend of mine who's right all the time but he's never real and and I think that was a real turning point for me that was before I started doing this radio program and everything else and so when I approached the program and everything I do for caregivers it was with the intent of let's talk about real life I'm not gonna give platitudes I'm not gonna be a Christian Hallmark card with the Jesus veneer on it we're gonna we're gonna get down in the nitty-gritty of some things even if I have to talk about you know bunions but Russ and Tori laid out his journey and I'm not gonna spoil it for you go out and do it I'm not gonna spoil Gracie's book for you go ahead and get that book if you want to read it and she's working on something right now that she's been wanting to do for some time she's talked about this for several years just it's very difficult for her to write and so she's asked me to kind of help shepherd her through this a little bit and I'm glad to do it but every month in our e-letter that we have through standing with hope you can and you can subscribe to that today go out standingwithhope.com and subscribe to that she is talking about chronic pain and how she deals with it Gracie's dealt with severe pain since 1983 she had known a day without it now for a very very long time and and it's not insignificant pain it's not like a dull ache or anything like that it it's sharp and it's tough for her and it's never gonna go away until Jesus decides to make it go away there's nothing here on this planet that's gonna be able to fix this how does she cope with it how does she deal with it how is her faith changed how has her theology changed and I I have some thoughts on that with theology I feel very strongly about this and I am persuaded that the further away we are from affliction either ours or someone else's the weaker our theology becomes I've seen it over and over and over over and I've never seen it go the other way the people that have strong doctrine and theology that is a vibrant faith are usually involved in very painful things either with their own life or with the lives of others and they candidly deal with them ministering the gospel because it forces them to lean more on Christ because you would you think you could lean on your own understanding why do you need a Savior it's hard to cry out to a Savior you don't think you need but when we're faced with the afflictions of ourselves or others we see our great need and we call out to the Savior and we start to explore the riches and the depth of God's mercy his grace his forgiveness his redemption his sovereignty his purpose his decrees all of those things start to come into better focus more often than not in the light of suffering Corrie ten Boone said it beautifully you never know how much you need Jesus till he's all you got and so as Gracie writes about this with pain she's you know what what what sustains her what gets her going what's able to keep her from going into despair what does she do when she does go into despair and these are hard things but if you'd like to be a part of that and see that every month I would recommend you go out and sign up for it and while you're out there at standing with hope calm and go to the giving page and you'll see a thing for the caregiver calendar it's not too late we're doing 20 25 calendars and I took pictures of where we live in Montana I've just got all these different pictures with quotes that I have from a new book I just signed with my publisher Fidelis and they picked up two new books of mine and they'll be coming out next year in 2025 effect next September a year from now and I one of them is a children's book and the other one is this other caregiver companion book I call it and it but the calendar there are pictures that I took just of our place throughout the year various times a year and I made it into a calendar and I put a quote on that calendar that replies for us as caregivers and I give these out as just gifts to say thank you folks that support what we do at standing with hope we have two outreaches we have the caregiver outreach of which you're listening to and part of through this program and then we have the prosthetic limb outreach where Gracie wanted to provide quality prosthetic limbs to her fellow amputees and point them to Christ and we feature a patient every month in our newsletter as well there's a man this month named Barnabas who's retired he was a retired teacher I believe and he lost his leg to diabetes and now we're helping him to live a much more active retirement life and enjoy life and it's it's a great work and it goes on and I I love to get the feedback from the clinic director we work with over there he's ready for us to come back I haven't been over there in a while because of COVID and then because Gracie's been so sick and I'm trying to go over there next year Lord willing I will and take a team with me we send regular supplies we send used components that we recycle through our prosthetic limb recycling program inmates at a prison down in Arizona receive all these it's run by CoreCivic they're out of Nashville they've been partnering with us for 13 years we've done over a thousand prosthetic limbs now that we have recycled and we can take the components apart you know all the down to the knee the feet the pylons the screws the adapters all that kind of stuff and you could go out to the website and see what we can use and then we ship all those raw materials over to Africa then we purchase things such as resin acrylic resin and so forth that we used to laminate the sockets and carbon fiber you can't recycle that so we purchase that and provide that to them so they can build limbs for their own people and it's an amazing work prisoners that help us do that I'm just I'm still overwhelmed by that and I appreciate all the folks at CoreCivic that have helped make that happen the inmates volunteer to do this and the reports that I get are consistent that they all find great value in the work I remember one guy said I never did anything positive with my hands until I started doing this another one said I never thought about crippled people until I started work with your program how about that God used a woman with a broken body to reach broken lives with the help of broken lives in prison to take parts from broken people and we're all doing this to point to the one who was broken for us and that in that extraordinary and this is that's such a picture of the redemptive work of God so these are things that we're doing and I would encourage you to check them out I would also again remind you that if you go out to the website you'll see the caregiver 9-1-1 and and take advantage of that part of my own journey of being healthy is to be able to tell people what has happened in my life things that I've learned and every time I say these things I get stronger it reinforces these principles so that they're constantly in play in my life the healthy caregivers make better caregivers and that's my hope for you as well that as I say these things that you're not only going to get stronger in dealing with what you deal with as a caregiver but that you're going to go out and talk about these principles with others and lift them up and as you do that you'll find that it it just blesses you more and more strengthens you more and more equips you more and more to do what you are called upon to do as a caregiver more importantly what you're called on to do as a believer so today's time I just want you to reflect on things we can do to be healthier I I pushed myself intellectually spiritually physically financially every which way we didn't get into finances today we'll get into that another show but I pushed myself engaged in life and remember what I said at the beginning the program what Churchill said it is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything I'm not gonna wait I'm gonna do something today that is going to equip me to be a healthier caregiver because we all know say it with me healthy caregivers make better caregivers this is Peter Rosenberg and hope for the caregiver hope for the caregiver calm check it out we'll see you next time you've heard me talk about standing with hope over the years this is the prosthetic limb ministry that Gracie envisioned after losing both of her legs part of that outreach is our prosthetic limb recycling program did you know that prosthetic limbs can be recycled no kidding there is a correctional facility in Arizona that helps us recycle prosthetic limbs and this facility is run by a group out of Nashville called Core Civic and we met them over 11 years ago and they stepped in to help us with this recycling program of taking prostheses and you disassemble them you take the knee the foot the pylon the tube clamps the adapters the screws the liners the prosthetic socks all these things we can reuse and inmates help us do it before Core Civic came along that was sitting on the floor at our house or out in the garage and when we lived in Nashville and I had tools everywhere limbs everywhere and feet boxes of so forth that I was doing all this myself and I'd make the kids help me and it got to be too much for me and so I was very grateful that Core Civic stepped up said look we are always looking for faith-based programs that are interesting and that give inmates a sense of satisfaction and we'd love to be a part of this and that's what they're doing and you can see more about that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle so please help us get the word out that we do recycle prosthetic limbs we do arms as well but the majority of amputations are lower limb and that's where the focus of standing with hope is that's where Gracie's life is with her lower limb prostheses and she's used some of her own limbs in this outreach that she's recycled I mean she's been an amputee for over 30 years so you go through a lot of legs and parts and other types of materials and you can reuse prosthetic socks and liners if they're in good shape all of this helps give the gift that keeps on walking and it goes to this prison in Arizona where it's such an extraordinary ministry think with that inmates volunteering for this they want to do it and they've had amazing times with it and I've had very moving conversation with the inmates that work in this program and you can see again all of that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle they're putting together a big shipment right now for us to ship over we do this pretty regularly throughout the year as inventory rises and they need it badly in Ghana so please go out to standingwithhope.com slash recycle and get the word out and help us do more if you want to offset some of the shipping you can always go to the giving page and be a part of what we're doing there we're purchasing material in Ghana that they have to use that can't be recycled we're shipping over stuff that can be and we're doing all of this to lift others up and to point them to Christ and that's the whole purpose of everything that we do and that is why Gracie and I continue to be standing with hope. standingwithhope.com