"Are you kidding me!?"

Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger and this is the program for you as a family caregiver.

PeterRosenberger.com. If you want to see some more information. I have a spectacular cousin. I have a lot of cousins. This particular cousin, her name is Meredith. Meredith Harris. She lives in Georgia and she recently spoke at her church and shared some of her journey.

And I have blatantly lifted this. I did ask her permission, but I want you to hear my cousin's story. This is Meredith Harris. So like Shannon said, my name is Meredith. This is part of my family. This is my sweet husband, Barry. My oldest son, Matthew, and his precious wife, Katie. And then I have one other son, Thomas, and he is a nurse. So he worked last night and is working tonight.

So he is sleeping. And then I have a sweet baby girl named Emma, who I think is in the very back in the little room. And so we can wave at her, but she's a hot mess.

And so she is back there watching. But so I grew up in a sweet family. I had a mom and a dad who loved me well and they love Jesus. And I have a sister who is way older than me named Melissa Beam.

And some of you might know her and her son Samuel is actually on staff here, but we're actually not that far apart, but I like to pick on her because she is older. But we were raised in just a sweet home, went to a great church, loved the Lord. And when I was between four and five, my dad got diagnosed with a disease called neurofibromatosis, which is where you get tumors on the ends of your nerves. And his was very debilitating. And by the time I was five, he was disabled. And so he was at home and he was not doing well. And so he was in and out of the hospital throughout my entire childhood. And then he had 24 hour nurses when he was home.

And so the hospital he was in, I grew up in Decatur, Georgia. And the hospital he was in had paid parking, which I think is rude because if you're going to see somebody at the hospital, you don't need to be paying money. And we did not have a lot of money. So paid parking was actually a challenge for us. So my mom, who was very resourceful, she decided we were going to park across the street at the funeral home because it was free and we were going to walk to go see my dad.

And so that's what we did. So we'd park across the street at the funeral home. We'd walk over to see my dad. Sometimes we'd bring a picnic and have a picnic on the grounds of the funeral home on our way to go see my dad because that was just practical.

And that's what she did. We spent a lot of time with my dad as he suffered. And he suffered well. And suffering just became normal in our house to watch him suffer. He had a hospital bed when he was home in our dining room. So he was always a part of our family, which I'm thankful for.

So he did not survive that disease. He died when I was nine. My sister was 12. And my dad was simply, he was just 37. And my mom found herself being a, she'd been a stay-at-home mom, a sweet little stay-at-home mom. We did the library.

We did all the fun things. And she was great. And she was always great even after she became a working mom. But she then had to go back to work, not where she saw herself.

But she did it well. And so she decided a career that would make sense for her was to be a teacher. That way she would be home with us as much as she could. So she became a teacher. And I'm thankful for that because we did get to see her a lot.

But she had ways of coping with the hardships of our home. And so she had a cassette tape, which will age us. She had a cassette tape. And she would listen to this cassette tape. And what will really age me is it was Benny Hinn. And I don't know, like, if you don't, if you didn't know Bueller, you definitely don't know Benny Hinn. But Benny Hinn was the pastor who would be like, be healed.

And, you know, people would like fall out and that kind of thing. And so she wasn't listening to that. But she was listening to Benny Hinn read scripture. And it was scripture about healing and encouragement. And that's all it was. And she would just listen to it.

And it was such a great example to me of how to deal with hardship and how to deal with emotions that were challenging. And the other thing she would do, because she is funny, is she would sweep while she did it. She would sweep her house. And so she would go around and she would say, I am sweeping Satan out of this house. He will not have a stronghold in my home.

And so I'm going to sweep him out. So as she listened to Benny Hinn, she would sweep our house. But it was a good solid example for my sister and I of how to, how to seek the Lord when life was really, really hard. So after my dad died, we had a lot of family and friends that would come to visit and see us, of course, because that's what you do.

And people would make the comment, you know what? You look a lot like your dad. You're built a lot like your dad.

And just different things. And for whatever reason, that became, then I assumed, and I harbored this fear that I was going to become like my dad, including his diagnosis of NF or neurofibromatosis. And it became a deep, deep-seated fear, like so much so that any little time I felt anything in my body, I would go into just this panic. And my sweet mama would pray over me. And I had aunts and uncles that would pray over me.

And our church, we were an amazing church. They just walked with me and understood, they saw my fear. So as I grew up, you know, that fear would raise its ugly head and I would struggle.

And, you know, the Lord, I would pray about it with my mom or whoever and kind of find some peace. But it never went away. So when I was in high school, I was a nerd, y'all, like full-on absolute nerd. And I was proud of being a nerd. And so I decided I was going to apply to go to nerd school, which nerd school at the time was Governor's Honors. And I decided I'm going to apply.

And so I applied and I got accepted to Governor's Honors in Science, which if you don't know much about Governor's Honors, Science is like the probably second nerdiest major you could have there, just under math. And so I went in science and I just, I was doing a project and I did it because that's what you had to do. So I was doing a project and I was building something and I needed power tools for it. So I'm up in this room and I'm, this summer, and I'm 16, no, was I 16?

17, I was 17 at the time. And I'm building this little thing and I'm, you know, doing my little power tool thing. And this boy walks in the room and he's like, you know how to use power tools? I was like, uh, yeah. And so I wasn't sure if it was a compliment, like, oh, you know how to use power tools.

Or if it was like a criticism of like, you're a girl and you know how to use power tools? I don't know. But his name is Barry. I got to pause. I got to pause. Was it a compliment or was it a criticism, Barry? What was it?

I'm not answering that. He's a wise man. He's a wise man. But I met Barry and we obviously started dating.

And not long after that summer, and we went to all kinds of proms together and all that kind of stuff. And then, and I would tell him about my fear and he wasn't real impressed with my fear. I was real impressed with my fear.

He wasn't real impressed with my fear. And he would just kind of be like, okay, you know, and we'd pray about it and we'd move on. So we met Barry. We met Barry.

We'd pray about it and we'd move on. So we went to college or I went to college a year ahead of him because I was a little bit older. And he followed me because I was a good catch. And so we ended up, we went to Georgia Tech together. I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud?

We might not be great at football, but come on now. And so we went to Georgia Tech together and graduated. And shortly we got married. And when we got married, those fears absolutely intensified in my heart. I don't know if it was the reality of thinking about having children and thinking like, oh, you know, do I want to have kids?

What if I'm sick? Blah, blah, blah. I don't know what it was, but probably that.

But all these fears began to really, really get the best of me. And so now Barry would come alongside me and he would pray with me. And like I said, he wasn't real impressed. He was in medical school and he was just like, we're good. We're good.

Move on. So then we decided, you know what, let's have kids. And so I was like, okay.

And that was a huge fear for me. But we had children. And so my first was born here, Matthew, and he was a healthy, beautiful baby boy. And then my second was born, Thomas, two years later, healthy, beautiful kid.

And then I had my daughter, Emma. And Emma was two years after Thomas and she just wasn't quite right. She didn't feel right. She didn't seem right. She just wasn't right. And I knew she wasn't right. And so I took her to the doctor and the doctor's like, ah, she's a lazy girl.

I'm like, no, this is more than that. Well, at four months old, they finally, we had some testing done and it became very evident that Emma had a profound brain malformation. And so we were told that she would never see, she would never talk, she would never sit up, she would never walk, she would never eat by mouth.

I mean, you name it. She wasn't gonna do anything. And to take her home and love her. And she would live to be three to five years.

And so what was so interesting, all these fears I'd had of this disease, then I have this daughter and her problem is completely unrelated to this disease. She had her own set of deals. And so we took her home and we loved her. And she is, that three to five years is now 20. And she is hilarious.

Exactly. Praise the Lord. She is, she's funny. That's why she's in the back because she doesn't know not to talk. And so she would sit there and just be like, hey, you know, you know, she, she hoodie who's Jesus. And she, she tells me, we went to be quiet.

That's my sweet family, my middle and his sweet girlfriend, Kelsey. But the Lord had to, had to work on my heart during that time. When I had her, I was absolutely crushed. As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed and I was sad and I was praying. And very, you know, we were pleading with the Lord to heal her, just to heal her.

And the Lord very, very clearly told me I, within days of her diagnosis into that December, that I didn't need to pray for healing. That that wasn't the prayer that she was created exactly how he had intended her to be. And that my job was to love her. My job was to really heal my heart and allow him to, to show me who she was and that she had a purpose.

It wasn't, my purpose wasn't to help her. She had her own purpose. And so she has her own D group and her D group, I think they have a picture of her D group. I don't know if they've already shown it, but her D group, well, y'all look, look at that D group.

That's a solid D group. They take, they hang out with her every Sunday. And then they, that day was her birthday and they took her on a walk and they loved her well. And they teach her scripture and they, they sing with her and they honor her. And that is how they honor the Lord, by giving her that, that experience. And it's beautiful.

And I'm so thankful for that. So we'll fast forward two years ago, I did what all women need to do if they're after 40. And so I'm going to give a big shout out, go get your girls checked, get them smashed, get them whatever you got to do, because it's October and it's breast cancer awareness month. So go do it if you have not gotten your mammogram. So I went and got my yearly screening because I'm a yearly screening girl married to a physician.

You get them every year. You're in 10 days after my last one, I got a screening and got called back. So I went back and did my second one, which is even more intense than that first one. And they sent me then for some biopsies very quickly and said, you know, we think this is a cancer. And I was like, well, that's not what I anticipated, but got all the test results and did all those screenings.

And so let me just tell you, when you go do all those screenings, there's a lot of paperwork because you got to do a lot of tests. And so I got really tired of paperwork and I'm a little sassy when I'm tired of something. And so I decided to annoy my husband who is real straight laced, as y'all can tell, and I am not, that I would put down for my occupation, which I'm a homemaker or caregiver, whatever you want to call it, that I would put down married to a sugar daddy. And he was like, why would you do that? And I was like, why wouldn't I? You know, because it's funny to me and it made me laugh and it kind of broke up my, I guess, my not fun season.

So I had a good time with that. So I filled out all this paperwork, finished all the testing, and they told me you have breast cancer. It is in your lymph nodes, you have three positive, about three, three lymph nodes we're concerned about.

And also in your testing, you have neurofibromatosis as well. And I just thought, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You're listening to my cousin, Meredith. And she is an extraordinary woman. And you're going to love the rest of this story. This is Peter Rosaburger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We got to take a break. We'll be right back.

Jeremiah 29, 11 says, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. You have breast cancer. It is in your lymph nodes. You have three positive, about three, three lymph nodes we're concerned about.

And also in your testing, you have neurofibromatosis as well. And I just thought, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? So when you can't see what tomorrow holds and yesterday is through, remember I know the plans I have for you.

That is Gracie. And this is part two of the interview with my cousin, Meredith, that she recently did at her church. And I want you to hear the exceptional story, faith, wisdom, and courage of this extraordinary woman. It was so much information and so overwhelming. I didn't really, I couldn't take it all in. My biggest fear that I'd had my entire life was to have this disease. And the Lord didn't choose to take, keep that from me. He allowed me to have it.

And He also allowed me to have breast cancer. And I was afraid, as you can imagine. I'll be honest, I was disappointed. I was disappointed in what the Lord had for me. And as awful as this sounds, I was disappointed in the Lord. I felt like this wasn't, this wasn't what I deserved. That's a really selfish thing to say, but it wasn't what I felt like I deserved. But here I was as I got tested and went through all the, I'm going to steal a tissue because I don't want to snot on y'all.

And some people are cute when they cry and some people aren't. I'm only not. So I apologize. I apologize up front, but I really thought the Lord was going to spare me for more suffering. And He didn't. He chose me to walk through it.

So I did. I started with chemotherapy, which zero stars on chemotherapy. That was not fun. You lose all your hair and you just, you feel like like the bottom of a shoe. And then I started with chemotherapy. And I would be at home and I would be alone a lot because when you're sick, you really don't want to, you're not thinking, I'm going out and partying, you know, I'm going out to hang with my friends or to do stuff.

I mean, you're trying to protect yourself from sickness. And so you find yourself at home a lot and you're tired. So I was at home and honestly, I just felt deep despair.

I felt deep despair. I remembered something I'd been told was that the way to combat despair is through praise and that I needed to choose praise. So I love music. And I think that the Lord speaks often to me through music, because a lot of Christian music is just His word. And that's how He speaks to me. And I enjoy listening. And so I decided, you know what?

Well, I lay here and feel terrible. I'm going to fill my house with praise. And so I did. I want to tell you a few songs that I filled my house with. One was gratitude, because I needed to remember to be thankful. I did not have to like what was happening, but I had to be thankful. I'd be thankful that the Lord loved me, that I did not understand why the Lord chose this for me.

But I had to remember that He loved me and to be thankful for that, to be thankful for my family. King of Kings, I love that song. There's a line of King of Kings. I don't know if you've listened truly to the words, but it's just the story of the gospel.

And it's so beautifully told. But there's a line of King of Kings that says, even in my suffering, even in His suffering, excuse me, He saw to the other side of the world, even in His suffering, excuse me, He saw to the other side. Even in Jesus' suffering, He saw to the other side. And I had to think, even in the suffering that I'm walking, I have to choose to see to the other side.

I don't know what that other side is. I would love to believe that that other side is healing on this earth, but that may not be what the Lord chooses for me. He may not choose healing. He may choose that my victory is not going to get to be seen here, but my victory is definitely going to be in heaven. And I know that. And I know that my ultimate healing will be there.

It doesn't have to be on this earth. Selfishly and honestly, my flesh wants it to be. My flesh wants to be done with cancer. My flesh doesn't want to be compromised by this other disease. But I know that the Lord didn't choose that.

And that's okay. Another song is the blessing. The blessing is beautiful. The blessing talks about, for a thousand generations, it talks about for my family and, you know, blessing, that legacy that I would leave my family. Oh, I hope I leave a legacy that my family knows I love the Lord. And my family knows that I pray for them.

My family knows that I want to honor the Lord more than anything, even if that means that I have to suffer here. I speak Jesus. I speak Jesus.

Come on. We just got to speak Jesus. I speak Jesus over my family. I spoke Jesus over my home. And that was hard. It's hard, y'all.

It's hard to speak Jesus when you don't like what you got. So here I am sick. It's like a stink. And I have my surgery. And y'all, when you have your first breast cancer surgery, you look pretty terrible because you're bald. And then I've got like a drain. And so I'm looking rough.

And I got all this packing and, you know, stuff going on. And our daughter, who's precious, but she has terrible seizures. She'd had a really rough week the same time I have this surgery. So she's kind of, this is going to be, it sounds terrible, but she gets a little like, like when she did, when she's had all these seizures, she's kind of like laid over and she looks pretty bad. And our dog decided he needed to get sick too. So our dog lost his eye. So he's already crazy and then he loses his eye.

So he's like looking like it was terrible and gross and disgusting. And my husband, who's awesome and leads us well, he's like, we got to go on a walk. And I'm like, what? He's like, we got to go on a walk. You got to get up. You got to keep moving. We're going to keep moving. We're going to go on a walk. Let's go. And I'm thinking he has lost his ever loving mind, but here we go.

We go on a walk. So I'm at the end and I'm like dragging this nastiness and feeling terrible. And here's, you know, my sweet husband pushing our daughter who looking kind of rough because she doesn't feel good. My dog with his one eye.

And I thought this, my neighbors have got to be like, what in the heck? This poor man, like, do you see this? But then at the same time, all of a sudden the Lord said, but do you see this?

Do you see that your husband is leading your family well? That he is trying to find some good normalcy and some strength for y'all. And he's saying, let's go. Let's keep moving. So I kept walking. I'm thankful for a husband who would leave me and who would say, get up, keep going.

It's a couple of, couple of months ago I was leaving Noonan and it was terrible. It was terrible rain. Like, you know, there's downpours and if you have a kid in a wheelchair and a downpour, they're not good friends because it's not a quick process to get in your car if you got a wheelchair. So I'm thinking, oh, so Emma and I, we were down there and I'm like, okay, we got this. We're going to be able to get in the car.

So we were, you know, we're getting wet. We get in the car and I'm kind of wait a second and it kind of starts to lighten up a little bit and I head on my way and I'm heading back to Carrollton. And as I'm leaving Noonan, it's like gorgeous in front of me.

Like, I mean, I'm still in the rain, but it's not as hard and it's really pretty in front of me. And behind me is just dark and gleaming cloud. And I thought, I bet there's a rainbow near me because yeah, you know how that scene goes. And I'm thinking, I'm going to look for it. So I'm looking at my rear view mirror and my back mirror and I'm turning around and I'm about to wreck my car, trying to look for a rainbow behind me. And I felt like the Lord said, Meredith, stop looking behind you. Has not, it's not where my promises are.

It's not where I am. He was there in the past, but he's ahead of me. And I've got to keep walking forward.

And that, he's going to still give me promises. My hope is not back there, but my hope is in him. My hope is moving forward. My hope is one day at a time. And my hope is in my eternal future.

Cause that is where my healing will definitely be. If it's not here today, it's going to be there. And I'm thankful for that. And I know that deep in my heart, but it doesn't change the fear. Now love in Psalm 56, three, whenever I needed just some simple, simple, like basic prayers, I would just go there and just remember that, that fear, fear is talked about in the Bible. When I'm afraid, I will trust in you.

And I would just say that over and over, when I'm afraid, I will trust in you. I don't know if you're reading along in the Bible recap, but I'm enjoying it. And today's scripture, which I just feel like is not by chance, is Mark 9. And in Mark 9, there's a man who brings his son to be healed. And the Lord, there's some discussion there, so read it. But the Lord heals the son. And the man says, I believe, but help my unbelief. And isn't that all of us? I hope, I'm so thankful that that scripture's in the Bible. I am not alone. And that I believe, but I'm not going to lie and say, I don't have unbelief.

I do. I'm not going to lie and say that the Lord has taken away all my fear. He hasn't, but because he needs me to trust in him, I know that he can take away all my fear, but I know that I also struggle with it. And that's kind of where I sit. It's hard to watch other people be healed. It's hard to watch other people. We listened to a beautiful testimony from Nicole.

It was beautiful last week. And she talked a lot about her healing. The Lord didn't choose that so far for me. Maybe he will, but I honestly don't believe he will. I believe in my heart that the Lord is telling me to walk out in suffering and to walk out in suffering will. And that is my goal. And that is my hope, is that I'm walking this out in a way that honors the Lord. He knows the plans he has for you. He knows the plans he has for you.

Oh, yes, he does. He knows just what you're going through. So when you can't see what tomorrow holds, and yesterday is through, remember he knows the plans he has for you. Oh, to give you hope for tomorrow, joy for your sorrow, strength for everything you go through. He'll give you hope for tomorrow and joy for your sorrow, strength for everything you go through. He'll give you hope for tomorrow, joy for your sorrow, strength for everything you go through. Remember he knows, he knows the plans he has for you.

Oh, yes, he does. He knows the plans he has for you. Oh, thank you, Father, you know. Oh, I'll rest in your love, Father.

He knows. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. I do kind of like the new version of my theme song.

It's a lot of fun. You know, Chris and I, when we wrote this years and years and years ago, we didn't know each other. He was working the Ten Lizzies at the old Opryland theme park back outside of Nashville. And he was thinking about this melody. And then, by the way, they closed that down and made a mall there in Nashville, which I never quite understood.

And then they gave all the equipment or sold all the equipment to Dolly Parton for Dollywood, which is making money hand over fist. However, that notwithstanding, Chris was writing this theme in his head. And I was working on the chord chart. I had a groove that I kind of had in my mind. And I was doing that not too terribly long after he did that. And then we got together, I don't know, about 14, 15 years ago and said, I need a theme song, Chris.

And we came up with this one. One of the things I love about what we get to do now is because even though I live in Montana, I'm able to continue to stay very much in touch with and work on music with long relationships that I had in Nashville. And in fact, I've got a guy doing orchestration with one song, a couple songs over in South Carolina.

I've got another guy in Nashville working on some other projects. And we're going to be releasing songs for Gracie, new stuff that she's done that we've had in the can for a while. And then she's going to lay down some new vocals. We're hoping she can. She can do it right here with the setup I have for this radio program. And then I'll send the vocals to Chris and then he'll mix everything and, and we'll be good to go. That's the plan. And so far, I think everything's on track. So you'll be hearing more about that later. We've got a special song coming out later this month that Gracie has recorded that is just spectacular.

When you hear it, you're going to flip. It's just wonderful. So if you want to stay in touch with that and more, go out to PeterRosenberger.com, sign up for our newsletter. It's a free newsletter. We send out stuff every month. We have a featured patient through Standing With Hope.

We have music that we do. Gracie has a blog that she's been doing on dealing with chronic pain that is really powerful. And this month's issue, you're going to, you're going to really find it very meaningful. I write something every month and just so many different things we can offer. And I'd love for you to take advantage of that. And by the way, did you enjoy my cousin Meredith's interview?

Wasn't that spectacular? You know, she's, she doesn't have a website, a book or anything like that. She's a mom of a special needs child, wife, great, just a great lady. She, she's just a wonderful lady. And, and I wanted to share her story with you. If you want to get in touch with her, the best thing to do is just go out to my website, contact me and I'll send a note to her because she's not really trying to create some kind of public persona on here. She just wanted to be able to tell people about her journey with Christ and learning to trust him with these very, very difficult things. But if you have something you'd like to share with her, I'd be glad to pass that on. You could go out to my website and do that. And while you're there, if you have a story that you'd like to share and you feel compelling in your heart to be able to share this with others, there's a mechanism for you to do that there at the website.

And you can just send it to me and we'll talk about it, you know, and we'll see if you might even come on the program, you know, we'll see, we'll see, but I'd love to hear from you. And I think it's important that we as caregivers share our story, not for the purpose of just wallowing in the grief and the heartache, but to say, okay, here's what we've learned. Here's what we've become through this. That's the goal. The goal is never to just get out there and expose all the lurid details of one's life, that kind of thing. We get enough of that. Don't you think in our Christian culture, we've had a lot of people that would just get up and just overshare.

And sometimes it's kind of a dysfunctional way to get attention. That's not the point. And if you've listened to Meredith, you're hearing, this is a woman who wrestled with very deep things and here's how she's doing it. Here's what she's become through this. Here's what she's learned of God through this. That's the point. And each of you all have your story, the things you've learned. The purpose of this program and my books and everything else that I do is to equip my fellow caregivers to go out and equip more people. That's the point of it. It's not to have me be the source of all these things.

Don't look to me, look to Christ. These are just things I've witnessed and experienced, just like what Meredith did. These are just things she has witnessed and experienced.

And here's what she's learned through the process and how it's applying to her life. And I'm just one beggar showing another beggar where the bread is. Okay.

And I want you to be able to show people where the bread is. And it may seem unattainable to you right now. You may be in so much of the throes of this and you're so discouraged. I get that. I understand that.

I really do. And I'm not asking you to go out and do it today. I'm just asking you to consider the promises of God in the context of your challenges. I look at Gracie and the heartache she has endured now for 41 years. This month is 41 years since her car wreck. And when you read this article that'll come out in our e-letter, it will really touch you. It's very profound. And I think you'll be quite moved by this, of the insights that she has through this. She's had to wrestle with it every day.

But it's not for the purpose of just feeling better. It's for her to grow and learn and understand the things of God better. My father had this ongoing conversation with my family about this. And particularly my sister told me this. She always says, don't talk about me on your radio program. Well, okay, I'm not talking about her. I'm just talking about my father, but this is something he would say to her.

And I thought it was a great, well, technically I am, but don't say anything to her because she gets all mad at me. But when she would learn something in scripture or whatever, or she was having an issue she was wrestling with, she would talk about with dad and dad would say, now, is that the high view of God or the low view of God? I spent a lifetime with a very low view of God. I did not trust him with these things. I didn't understand these things. I was angry.

I was railing against it. But over time in his grace and mercy, he has helped lift my eyes. Remember the scripture, my glory and the lifter of my head. There's even a chorus about that, I think.

Let me go to the caregiver keyboard. I think I'm remembering this right. Old chorus, we sing, my glory and the lifter of my head. You remember that? My glory and the lifter of my head. He said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw men unto me. Remember that? Did I do that right?

I think I did, but I love that text. My glory and the lifter of my head. Is your head bowed down with grief? Are you crushed under this?

Well, let me tell you about one who lifts your head. Lift up your head, oh ye gates, unto the king of glory. Lift up, look up. And that's the point of all of this, is for us to have a higher view of God, to understand that He's working in ways that we cannot see. Don Mohen wrote that in God will make a way when there seems to be no way. But if we refuse to have that higher view of God, to be willing to say, is God up to something greater than what I'm seeing here? And we know He is maybe in our head, but do we really know it in our heart, in our DNA, in our bloodstream? Do we really know that?

And are we willing to trust Him on this? Paul modeled this so beautifully when he said, you know, none of this stuff matters. Eye has not seen, ears have not. We can't even imagine what God has for us.

So none of this matters. Well, I'm not the apostle Paul, and I haven't attained that level yet, but that's the invitation invitation that is given to all of us. Can we trust Him in this? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Well, that's the higher view of God.

Recognize that He's got this. He's here. If He is here, who could be against us?

Martin Luther. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. That's the higher view of God.

As caregivers, can we have that? I am persuaded that we can. I am persuaded that scripture invites us to do that very thing and equips us to do it.

The Spirit Himself equips us to do this against all conventional understandings. Gracie is this way when she sings this one hymn. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him. And she'll sing, how I've proved Him. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Jesus. Precious Jesus. And then she'll do this. Oh, for Gracie to trust Him.

You see the difference there of that higher view of God? Can we do this? Yes, we can. Should we do this? Yes, we should. Will we do this? Now there's the question. But I challenge myself and you to do this very thing.

A higher view of God. I appreciate so much the time you spend with me here every week. Thank you all. I will say that we had a very powerful time at the funeral service I went to in Nashville.

Gracie was not able to go. I told Sam I was at poor representation, but I did the best that I could with it. My friends Freddie and Dale Richardson helped me with that, with the music for my part. And it was great to perform with them again for this. And I think it was a meaningful time for all. I do miss Marianne a lot because every Saturday after the program aired, I would get her rundown of the show. But now her rundown comes as part of that great cloud of witnesses that she's joined. Not just for me, she's cheering you on as well. And the Holy Spirit himself is interceding. And that is a higher view of God. And that is hope for the caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver.com.

This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll see you next time. 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 a terrible mess. Gotta change the sheets.

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