Caregiver Strength: Choosing the Right Voices for Support and Encouragement

Hey, do you know a caregiver in your life who is struggling with something and you don't really know what to say?

Well, guess what? I do. So get them this book. It's called A Minute for Caregivers. When every day feels like Monday.

They're one minute chapters. And I'd love for you to put that in the hands of somebody who is struggling as they care for a chronically impaired loved one. And it could be somebody dealing with an aging parent or special needs child. Somebody that has an alcoholic or an addict in their family. Somebody who has a loved one who has had a traumatic experience, mental illness.

There's so many different kinds of impairments. There's always a caregiver. How do you help a caregiver?

How do you help somebody who helps somebody? That's where I come in. That's where this book comes in. And that's what I think you're going to find will be incredibly meaningful to them. And if you're going through that right now, they get a copy for you. Friends don't let friends care give alone. I speak fluent caregiver for decades of this.

This will help. I promise you it'll pull you back away from the cliff a little bit, point you to safety, give you something solid to stand on so that you or that caregiver you know can be a little healthier as they take care of somebody who is not healthy. Caregivers make better caregivers. It's called a minute for caregivers when every day feels like Monday wherever books are sold. And for more information, go to PeterRosenberger.com.

Peter Rosenberg and I am very glad to be with you. How are you feeling? How are you holding up? What's going on with you as a family caregiver? So many of us are putting ourselves between a chronically impaired loved one and worse disaster. And we're doing it recklessly without thinking about the sustainability of the family caregiver. We talk about sustainable energy. But what about sustainable caregivers? Do you feel sustainable today? Are you being sustained?

Do you have sustenance? That's what this program is all about. And I'm very glad that you're giving me a little bit of time here this morning. PeterRosenberger.com if you want to discover more of what we're doing, how we're doing it, who we're doing it for.

What does it look like? All that's at PeterRosenberger.com. Did you see all the kerfuffle of what's been going on in the federal government when Elon Musk asked all these federal employees to come up with five things they did last week kind of thing? Did you see that? Did that irk you as much as it did me? I mean, did that annoy you? Not because he asked them to do it, but because they're having some type of reaction to that. I'm thinking, if I asked you today, as a caregiver, what are five things you did yesterday?

You'd be able to tell me. That's our journey. That's our life. And I'm working full time. I'm doing all this while in Denver with Gracie while she's been recovering from both of these operations. So I'm back and forth to the hospital every day. I stay at a hotel across the street, which I'll have a pretty good size bill when this thing is over, but I'm hoping it's all going to work out.

They give me a good rate here because this is a hotel that is used to families with extended stay issues. And we certainly do have that. This will be our last journey like this. We believe, we hope, we pray.

I think this is it as far as the mitigating surgeries of this level that Gracie is going to have to endure. And so this one's for all the marbles. We get this right.

She has a better quality of life for the foreseeable future. And we get it wrong. And we're going to have to deal with some harsh things here. So we're taking our time with this. But in the meantime, I'm working since I've been here in the last almost two months.

Well, no, I guess it's been about six weeks. I have published three brand new articles, written more than 5000 words on my new book that's going to probably come out at the end of 2026. I've hosted I don't know how many shows this one and I host a live show on another network. And I have worked on the new song that Gracie has had in the can that we're going to be releasing, get the orchestration done on this.

I have also shipped a bunch of supplies, a big pallet of prosthetic supplies over to West Africa. And all this while back and forth with her and ICU. So that's my journey as a caregiver.

And I'm not saying that because I'm special. I'm just simply saying because that's what we caregivers do. We work.

We push ourselves. And the fact that anybody in any kind of job situation, particularly a taxpayer funded job, is complaining about having to give an account for what they do, is just mind numbing to me. And speaking of giving an account, we have to give a greater account one day before our king.

Are we going to write letters of protest about that? You know, I mean, how many of you all work in an environment where you have to give a report of what you do? I mean, even as a caregiver, I give a report to myself. What did I get done? What did I accomplish?

You know, I just I don't I don't even understand that mindset that would somehow think this is a problem, that this is a bad thing. I would if I if it was me, I would love the opportunity to show any supervisor, any employer of what I'm accomplishing. Take note, take note of what I'm accomplishing. Look at what I'm getting done here. And look at the things that are happening under my watch.

I mean, I would I would relish that opportunity. I don't know. Do you I mean, am I am I just odd? Well, I know I'm odd.

That ship has sailed. But do you feel the same way? Anybody here feel that way? That you're just like, why?

Why is this even an issue? You know, I I'm stunned by that. Truly stunned. You know, and and have these people never worked in a business that was outside of government? And maybe that's why people like to go to those jobs?

I don't know. I was just watching this with a bit of incredulity, thinking, wow. And I'm kind of wondering how many jobs that the federal government is funding that are pretty much useless. And I know they're very hard working people do stuff. And I don't think they're the ones that are screaming and crying about it.

I think the ones that have been coasting and enjoying a life of relative ease when it comes to employment, just collecting a paycheck, you know, and it's not by the way, it's not limited to federal government years and years and years and years ago. I worked for the state government. I remember showing up to work. And there was a lady there, been there kind of forever. And she looked at me and she said, 7.5.

I said, what do you mean? 7.5 hours. That's all you got to do.

You sit here for 7.5 hours, and then you go home. And that's all you have to worry about. And I thought, wow, that's kind of sad. That's sad that you would think that is acceptable. For a life that, you know, do you not want to accomplish anything? Do you not want to feel a measure of pride in what you do?

And I think as Christians, aren't we admonished by scripture to do whatever we do to the glory of God and give a fair day's work for a fair wage? You know, nobody's putting a gun to your head to make you go to a job site. If you don't like it, go get another one. Go do something different.

Improve yourself. But to have that kind of laissez-faire attitude of just, you know, whatever. I think that's just, that's sad to me. And, you know, I know that this audience is filled with family caregivers and, you know, nobody tells us to get up and do stuff. We do it because it needs to be done.

I mean, whether it's cleaning the bathroom, taking out the trash, doing grocery shopping, planning meals, cleaning the house, whatever. Plus, somebody's got to make a living, you know, and I that's, to me, that's just stunning that that's a problem. So I'm kind of curious to see how it's going to unfold and what more we're going to see that our tax dollars have been just the waste and abuse and fraud that's been funded. And peel it all back. You know, pull the curtain back.

Let's see everything and all its ugly. I mean, go to your church. You have annual meetings at your church. You have budget meetings. You have all kinds of stuff where churches go through with a fine-tooth comb. And look at things, you know, business meetings in your church, and you have elders and deacons and so forth that are charged with going through line by line to make sure the people's money are being spent well as they donate to the Lord. And yet, for some reason, people in the federal government are crying about this.

I mean, they are really torqued. And I'm thinking, why? Why do you not rush to defend what you've done, you know, and I remember that parable in the Jesus talked about with the talents, and the one guy just went and hit him, hit his talents because he didn't want to get in trouble. He didn't want to lose it, so he just hit it.

He just kind of marked his 7.5 hours, I guess, the same kind of mentality. And Jesus went on to share in the parable that the master said to that servant, you wicked servant. Called him wicked. You know, and I thought, wow, you know, I don't want that. I wouldn't want my boss to call me a wicked servant. And I certainly don't want my Savior to say that. And so I don't know, it was just an observation I made of watching this and I was thinking, you got to be kidding me. And I know this audience is filled with people who get up and just push it every single day. And you do the what I call the three F's.

You give a fair day's work, you work with flexibility, and you're forthright with folks to say, look, this is what I've got going on. And we can talk about that more if you want, but anyway, I just saw this and I was like, wow, Houston, we do have a problem. But anyway, this is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver.

We got more to go. Go away. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger and I am very glad to be with you today.

PeterRosenberger.com. If you want to share your story, talk about some things going on with you, there's a mechanism to do that on the site. And there are several things I want to draw your attention to on the site. One of them is this new blog post that Gracie has out about chronic pain. She's been doing this now for several months. She shares some things with me. I help her write it down because her right hand doesn't work very well. And it's quite difficult for her to write, but she could dictate to me. And by the way, she's very good at that. She can dictate well to me. She's years of fieldwork practice.

Oh, I'm just kidding. But these are conversations that we've had over the decades of this, of dealing with pain, dealing with the struggles that she has with this. And it's a fascinating look into someone who's lived with nonstop pain since 1983. From the moment she woke up from this wreck in 1983. And one time I remember she told me she even dreamed, in her dreams, she was in pain. It's in the fabric now of who she is. She cannot divorce herself from that. And it's very, well, it's been a challenging journey for her and her insights are worth reading. And I hope you'll take advantage of that.

There's another thing there. If you'll take the time to sign up for our email letter, you'll get a notice of every time she posts one of those. It's free. And we don't send out a lot of emails like, you know, you sign up for some people's emails and man, you're getting one every third hour kind of thing. We don't do that. First off, that's exhausting. And we're just a mom and pop.

And right now, mostly pop. So we don't do that. But we have, we'll send out a patient every month that we're treating. We'll feature a patient. We'll feature a song and Gracie's blog, my blog, and a quote that we'll have, you know, things like that.

I mean, that's what we do. And you'll be able to see those things. And I hope you'll take advantage of that. And then also on my Substack page, I'm posting quite a bit out there. And there's a new article out on my Substack page. And you'll see at the top it says Peter's Substack on my website.

Just click on that and you'll go to my Substack page and you'll see this article that I put. And it's titled, you can't change the people around you, but, and this is from my book, A Minute for Caregivers. I put one of these out every Monday and I have other things out there that you can listen to and watch.

And I'm hoping to put more video out there once we get finished here in Denver with this surgery and get back to our home in Montana. But the quote of it is, you can't change the people around you, but you can change the people around you. And it starts off, and I thought I'd share this with you a little bit this morning. There's an entrepreneur named Jim Rohn. I don't know how many of you all have heard of him. But he once asserted, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Now think about that. The influence of the people you spend the most time with. There's another famous quote that states, if you hang around five confident people, you'll be the sixth. If you hang around five intelligent people, you'll be the sixth. If you hang around five successful people, you'll be the sixth.

If you hang around five idiots, you'll be the sixth. It really speaks to the power that we grant to the people around us. And as caregivers, we owe it to ourselves to inventory the voices with access to our hearts. Who are you hanging around with? What are they saying to you? Are they building you up? Are they pointing you to Christ? Are they affirming you? Are they tearing you down and criticizing you? Do you not think it's a good idea to inventory who you're listening to? And say, you know, do I need this person's voice in my life?

Are they bringing something of value to the table? They may even be a family member, but that's okay. You can still have boundaries with family members. Although caregivers find themselves in painful circumstances, and this happens to us often, we're always in the thick of things, it seems like. And often we're surrounded by criticism or negative attitudes. But you know what? We could change that.

I was recently talking to a man who was struggling while watching his wife slip away. And I said, you live in an environment permeated by approaching death. We know it's coming. It's knocking on the door.

You know it's coming. How do you balance that? I said, balance that by immersing yourself into life. And he has some great grandchildren that were close by. And I suggested, I said, why don't you let the attendants look after your wife so you can spend time with these great-granddaughters of yours? The life bubbling out of great-grandchildren provides an amazing counterweight to your sorrow.

To his credit, he did. We can't change the people around us. You look around, how many people do you have the power to change?

You don't. But you can change the people around you. Surround yourself with people who aren't tearing you down. Who aren't criticizing you at every turn.

And I get the letters and the calls and the texts from you all. I know that there's so many of you all who are around people that just beat you down. Change that. And I put a quote at the end of this. Mark Twain said, don't walk away from negative people. Run. Don't walk away from negative people.

Run. And I'm telling you, we allow way too many people to have access to our hearts. And we put our self-worth in what other people are saying to us.

And I say, that's got to stop. Who determines your self-worth? Who determines that? God does. Because look at the price that was paid for you. And nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to say so in that.

That's God's purview alone. Now you may make mistakes. Of course you will. You're not going to make as many as I have.

I've been doing this too long. I've had ample time to make every kind of mistake. I've forgotten more mistakes than you're going to make. But the mistake I'm not going to make anymore is allowing other people to determine the value of my life. Even when I get it wrong, and I do, I answer to God for that, not critics. And there's a huge mind shift that goes into this. When you start to appreciate what God has done and who God says you are.

If He says you're worthy enough for His Son to hang on the cross for you, is that not enough? I saw a meme on social media. I can't remember where it was.

I've seen it several times. But it was talking about, it showed a guy laughing. He said, I don't care what people say about me. I sing hymns on Sunday morning that say far worse. Because that's the truth. And I think that you understand the perspective of, we cry out to God. Who, despite the fact that we are wretched sinners, placed value on us and love for us. So while you're doing the things you're doing, you're going to make mistakes.

You are. But go to people that will help you deal with those mistakes in a much more constructive manner. We're not here to just flog one another.

That's not the job here. And there will be consequences. If you do something that's heinous and horrendous, there are going to be consequences. But there's a path to the cross. A well-lit path to the cross.

And it's been said over and over again. And that well-lit path says you don't bring anything to the equation. Except the sin that required your salvation. That's it. You're not going to perform so well that you'll earn any of your salvation. And the only kudos you get is, like I said in the last block, we've got to give an account to our Savior. And that well done, thou good and faithful servant. That's the only feedback that we need to tune our ears to.

Is being able to look our Savior in the eye and hear that. That's it. As Paul said, I've run the race.

I've finished the course. Anything short of that, looking for man's approval, is going to end up being incredibly demoralizing. So surround yourself with people who know that. And you may have a limited group of people around you.

Because there are not a lot of people that live in that kind of arena. Most people want to live the way man looks at it. And one of the things my father said repeatedly in his life was, is that man's view or is that God's view? I can promise you in an audience this size, there are many of you today who have felt the stinging criticism and rebuke and the dismissal from people in your circle this week.

And so I'm going to ask you, are they giving you man's view or are they giving you God's view? What does God say about you? And remember, it's not about feeling better. I'm not asking you or myself to feel better about our mistakes.

I don't. I don't feel better about my mistakes. I don't feel better about my failures. And that's not the goal.

The goal is to be better. And then always ask ourselves, well, what do the scriptures say? What does God say? You may not feel better for years about some of these things. You may not feel better for a lifetime about some of these things.

There's things in my life that I am not going to feel better about in this life. But what does the scripture say? And that's when we start taking God at his word. Without faith, it's impossible to what?

To please God. Well, what does that look like? Well, it looks like taking him at his word, believing what he said. Let's go to First John one nine. How many of you all know that by heart? If we confess our sins, he is what? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There it is right there in the text in black and white. Confess your sins. And God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you and me from our unrighteousness. Do we believe that or not?

Christian, do you believe this or not? If you do, then act on it. Live like it. And don't listen to these other voices.

Listen to his. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. We've got a great interview in the next block. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberg. Glad to have you with us. Some time ago, we had a wonderful guest on our program, Kathy Howard, who had authored a book about aging parents. She is back with another book, part of her deep rooted series.

This is Deep Rooted Growing Through the Gospel of John. Kathy, welcome back to the program. Glad to have you here with us. Oh, I'm glad to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Yes, ma'am. Tell me why you took on this project to write this book. So it actually, Deep Rooted Growing Through the Gospel of John is a fifth book in a series of what I call meaty devotionals through individual Bible books. And my goal, I just have this passion for helping people get into the Word for themselves. I've written Bible studies for years and taught Bible studies, but I just really am sensing this urgency to help people know how to open God's Word and read it and understand it for themselves. I heard someone say not too terribly long ago, the Reformation, at the time of the Reformation, one of the biggest challenges we had was biblical illiteracy. And most of the people had no idea what the Bible actually said because they were not educated in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek. And so when it was translated into English or German by Luther and so forth, it was so scandalous because how could we give the Word of God to the common people, you know, kind of thing. And now we have the same problem. We have biblical illiteracy, but we have a massive availability of the Scriptures, but people won't read it.

This is what you have waded into. Why aren't they doing this? Other than the fact of our sin nature, why aren't they doing this?

That's a really good question. I read some surveys recently. First of all, the American Bible Society does a state of the Bible survey every year.

And in 2024, they discovered that, and this is not just Christians, this is Americans in general, that 53% of Americans would like to read their Bibles more and they don't. And then LifeWay did a survey wanting to know, you know, the biggest reasons people don't read them. Of course, now, self-survey, I've discovered everywhere I go, every group of women I talk to, they cite busyness as the number one reason, right? I'm just too, too busy.

But this LifeWay survey discovered another top reason, and that is because Christians lack confidence thinking that they can open their Bible and understand what they're reading, so they just don't. Do you buy that reason that they're too busy? No, no. In fact, you know, all of us have to spend 24 hours in a day. It's a matter of priority.

It's simply a matter of priority. We will find the time to do the things that matter most to us. So I really try to encourage people to, I think probably starting a new habit can feel overwhelming.

So if you just commit even to just start with 10 minutes, three times a week, and if you could commit to that, once people start really getting a taste of coming to know God through His Word, I believe that most people will begin to fall in love with God through His Word and will read the Bible more and more. But they have to start. That's a matter of discipline.

I agree. And for me, it's very difficult for me to sit down. In fact, anybody that knows me knows that I don't usually sit down. If I sit down, I fall asleep. But, you know, I'm going full tilt all day long. That's what caregivers do. I'm right here now in Denver dealing with my wife in the ICU for the last five weeks. So sitting down is not something I deal with a lot.

And that's what a lot of caregivers are like. However, I listen to a lot, a lot of teaching, sermons, scripture, all that kind of stuff. In fact, I walk back and forth from the hotel where I'm staying to the hospital. It's just right across the street. And I'm plowing through the Gospel of John while I do that. It's 10 minutes to my wife's room. And that's 10 minutes I get to have on the way up and the way back.

And I do it several times a day to get my steps in, too. But I'm listening to stuff while I'm doing laundry, while I'm doing the dishes. I'm listening all the time. And I would encourage folks to do that. So I've got to ask you, Kathy, this is a loaded question here, too, but I've got to ask you, will your book be on audio?

Well, you know what? None of them are on audio yet. But you can certainly listen to the Gospel of John on audio. And then when you have time to open the book and look at the guided questions, the guided studies, then you can reflect back on what you listened to earlier.

That's a good thing. But now you've got marching orders for your publisher to get you an audiobook on this. I think in the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John is such a remarkable book. I mean, you've got the four gospels, the three synoptics, but then John. And two-thirds of the book of John is on the last couple of weeks of Jesus' life on earth.

It's an exceptional narrative there that we have. And it is a bit intimidating to get into because there's some things in there that are, I'm still at John 6, where Jesus is saying now to his disciples and the people listening, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, and man, they're saying like, Jesus, this is a hard teaching master, you know, kind of thing. Right, and many of the disciples left him.

They did. And, you know, at one time he had 70, and then he got down to 12, and one of those was a devil from the beginning, and then at Gethsemane they all left him. And yet, this is an exceptional book, and it's an exceptional place to start where Jesus has these remarkable encounters.

And I appreciate the fact that you want to inspire people to get into this. And what surprised you as you were writing this book, as you dug deep into this, what surprised you about the Gospel of John that you did not know before or didn't consider? I will tell you one thing that surprised me about the Gospel of John that I did not realize is that there are only seven miraculous signs in John. And I guess I had always thought there were more like in the other Gospels, but John was so selective in what he chose to include, because John had a very purposeful intent when he shaped his gospel.

There's a lot of sevens in John. He included the seven I Am statements, he included the seven miracles, and near the end of the book in chapter 20, he actually included a purpose statement. I've included what I've included so that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, and by believing in him you will have life in his name.

So John crafted everything he included for that purpose. He wanted to include the things that would bring his readers to an understanding of who Jesus Christ is, and so much of an understanding, so much trust that they would put his whole life in his hands for salvation. So I think it was the mastery of the craftsmanship of the way he put his gospel together that amazed me. When you finished this project, and I'm saying this one author to another, what were your thoughts when you typed up the last words and you had this book now where you have been spending so much time in the Gospel of John, you've been spending so much time studying scripture, going through this, and then you finish this book. What was that like for you? When you got to that end, just as an author, what did you feel like?

You know, I will tell you what it did for me. It so took my understanding of Jesus to a new level that it really increased my love for him exponentially. And that's what studying John did for me.

That is fabulous. When I write, again, I don't have rehearsed questions, so thank you for being flexible with me because I'm just this kind of way. But when I write, I'm writing to myself. Did you find yourself writing to yourself in this? Always.

For sure, always I do. Writing to myself and then so many of my writing projects. In fact, people ask me all the time, of your books, which one is your favorite? And that's a hard question because I usually say probably my favorite is always the one I've just finished because it's such an outflow of what God has been currently teaching me and currently doing in my life.

So I think that's what it is. Not only am I teaching myself as I do it, but it's also just an expression of the closest thing God's been doing in my life at the time. Was there a particular thing in your life going on that you said, I'm tackling this. I'm tackling this book.

I'm doing this. What was the driving force in that? Was there something going on or was this just next on a list or how did it go forward? What is that process like of saying, okay, what am I going to take on? I'm going to take on John, but I'm not going to take on Obadiah kind of thing.

I mean, what was the decision point in your life and what was going on? Right. Part of the choice of John was very practical because I knew I wanted to add to the Deep Rooted series because this is the path God has me on right now is helping people want to get into their Bibles and then know how to get into their Bibles. And so part of it was very practical and I needed a certain length of a book and one that could be dealt with in the format that I was using. So that was part of it. But the other part of it was passion for wanting people to get into the Word. And not only that, but through them getting into the Word that they would, just like I experienced in John, would love God more and more so that they would want to be in His Word more and more, which would then also help them love Him more and more.

It's real a snowball effect, right? But we've got to get them to open the Word and John is one of those books that people probably would be more quick to open than say Obadiah, like you mentioned. Leviticus. I'm looking for your next book, Deep Rooted in Leviticus.

Right. It's funny. I just had a new blog post come out this morning about finding treasure in the boring parts of the Bible.

And the law is one of those big parts we think is boring. Well, what are some of the other books you have in your Deep Rooted series? Well, I actually started with the Gospel of Mark, and then that led to Acts. And I thought, OK, gospel, and then the apostles taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, and then I decided to tackle Romans because I wanted to then, it felt like a natural progression to me, to now let's look at this beautiful exposition of the gospel.

What is the gospel exactly? So it took me to Romans. And then I tackled Hebrews.

I thought Romans wasn't challenging itself. We'll go to the books of Hebrews. Oh my goodness. And so those are the other four books in the series.

All right. Well, look, I am expecting now Leviticus. If you could tackle all those, then I'm expecting Leviticus for your next interview here on this program.

Maybe he's elected passages from Leviticus. Listen, we've had a great time here. I know this is brief, but you've got a list of folks that you've got to talk to after me.

And I wanted just to snag you for a little bit of time. Thank you for doing this. I'm going through the Gospel of John right now. I'm looking forward to reading your book.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this. And it is, if you want to find more about Kathy Howard, it is at kathyhoward.org. kathyhoward.org.

And the book is Deep Rooted, Growing Through the Gospel of John. Kathy, thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. Thank you for having me, Peter, and prayers for you and your wife. Thank you so much. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger and that is my wife. And it's a new song that she's going to release next month. I just gave you all a little teaser of this.

What do you think? It's a song that we've actually performed together for our entire marriage. She taught it to me when we were dating.

She loved this song. And I finally got it all recorded and I was working on the orchestration of it from the hospital. In fact, we had her vocals done, my keyboard, things such as that.

And I was working with the orchestrator, Danny Crawford, who did an amazing job. I didn't have my keyboard with me. So I was trying to do all this and say, okay, I need the violins here, I need the cello here, I need the violas here, I need the oboe here. And it's not as easy as it sounds. To do that without a keyboard and then to do it while you're in the hospital is even a bit more challenging. And when I got it back, did everything, I played it for Gracie, and I put the headphones on her and she just raised her hands. She hadn't been able to move around in the bed very much. She said it would be kind of flat on her back or kind of turned a little bit. She couldn't lay on her stomach very well so she had to lay either on the flat on her back or on her side just so she wouldn't get sore as they moved her. So she's having to lay there and she just raises her hands and she said, I feel like I'm flying.

I feel like I'm flying. And I thought, well, then mission accomplished. So we're going to release that next month as the plan. And if you want to be notified of that, then please go out to the website, PeterRosenberger.com. Sign up for our email. It doesn't cost anything. Just sign up.

We'll send you an email and say this is available to stream on your favorite streaming platforms. And I think you'll be quite moved by this song. She does a great job with it. And then I've got more songs that she's going to be doing as we get her home. And now that she's going to be able to stand straighter and I'm going to make her work for it. And I told her, I said, baby, you've got to get out and work and support me in the manner to which I would like to become accustomed. Yes, you know, she rolled her eyes at me, but no, she she wants to sing and we need to get her singing again. I need to get that voice back out there. And I don't know that she'll be able to do a lot of live events.

That's a long ways away. Maybe some. And I certainly plan on having her on this program. It'll be a prerecorded interview with her, though she will not be on this program live every Saturday morning because she doesn't know what Saturday morning at 7 a.m. looks like central time that 6 a.m. Montana time. She doesn't know what that looks like. She's never seen it before.

No, I'm just kidding. She but she doesn't do well in the morning. And I'm not going to force her to do that. But I will have her on here.

We'll do some prerecord interviews. And but it's it's she's ready. She she's eager to get back into life. She's been dealing with this set of circumstances for some time now. And it's it's worn on her.

She told me, she said, you know, I'm tired and I'm tired of dealing with this. And I know she is. And the staff over here knows, you know, and they all the nurses that are taking care of her and the PAs and the surgeons and so forth. They all know she's she has been on an unusual journey. And I think we're all eager to see her have a bit of a reprieve from some of these things.

But ultimately, that's in God's hand. And I've been working on my new book that will be coming out. And I've got three new books coming out back to back. The first one will be out this summer. And that's another reason for you to sign up for the email so you get special notifications of this. It's going to be out in August.

And it is a caregiver's companion, daily inspiration for life's toughest role. And these are just quotes that I've compiled over the gosh. How long has it been since I've been doing this program? I started in 2011. Wow. Fourteen years. And over these 14 years, I've compiled a list of different quotes that I felt like would be meaningful to readers.

And I married each one of those quotes with a scripture or a stanza from a hymn that I found to be helpful to kind of as a as an exclamation point to that quote. And I think you'll enjoy it. My publisher, Fidelis Publishing, is going to re-release A Minute for Caregivers with this as a companion set.

I was very moved that they were doing that. And so they're doing that and that'll be out in August. And then I have a book that will come out the first of 2026 for children called Will Mommy Be OK? And it's it's one I've been wanting to write for some time from the perspective of our sons who watch their mom go through all these things that she's gone through. And they've asked me that question.

Will mommy be OK? And I and then I've got a new book that I've been working on. I haven't finished it yet.

And it's going to be out in 20 at the end of 2026, first of 2027. And I'm very, very excited about this one as well. And I've been plowing through that while in the ICU with Gracie. And it's dealing with pastoral care and from a caregiver's perspective. And I think you'll find this to be quite meaningful as well.

And you'll be hearing more about that as we get closer. But I write a lot and I stay quite busy. I've got a lot of blog posts and articles that you could see at the website of things that I've had published in just since I've been down here in Denver with Gracie and the ICU here for these weeks. And I sit right beside her there with my laptop and I write and I write concisely because I get interrupted a lot. So it's it's kind of hard to kind of go write these long diatribes and treatises when you're in the hospital. But, you know, that's my readers know that they people who like to read my stuff know that I will write concisely and say it very tidy and neat because they don't have time.

And neither do I to go on these long verbal jaunts of saying these things. People that people are busy. People are dealing with crisis and they need something just in time.

That's why I'm very excited about this book of the quotes, because they're just it's just a quote with a hymn text or with the with the scripture verse that's incredibly easy to remember. And it's just in time stuff because you don't have time for go dig through stuff. You don't just have somebody put it in your hand.

You're going through the drive through. And I'm going to give it to you quickly because I know how busy you are. I know how frenetic the life is that I know how frazzled so many of my fellow caregivers are.

I know how frazzled I am. And so I wanted to explore that and put that in your hands. And and so I'm please sign up for that on the email list. Today, you'll see more about this as it's coming. I think you'll be very pleased. And then you'll hear about Gracie's new song.

And I've got a couple more coming right behind it. She's going to record as soon as she gets her voice in shape. She had this one already done, but we're going to have to let her voice heal up after all the tubes and things she's had to deal with in the hospital and get her voice in shape. So she'll start recording, hopefully by the end of May. And we'll get these next songs done. And I we're just releasing song at a time. And I think you'll you'll find it quite meaningful.

I think you'll enjoy it. And she's got she's lived to sing about it. And that's part of who she is. That's what gets her up in the morning is to know that she has work to do and songs to sing.

God made her a singer and she feels his pleasure when she sings. If you allow me to paraphrase Eric Little from Chariots of Fire, that's one of my favorite quotes. And when he told his sister, he said, God made me fast and I feel his pleasure when I run. And I'm going to ask you, what do you know that God has made you?

And do you feel his pleasure when you do those things? Look at what Paul says in Colossians three twenty three. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Paul also said the same chapter. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Matthew five sixteen. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Let your light shine. As a caregiver, do you let your light shine? Do people know what you're doing?

Do they see you doing it? I'm not asking you to be showy about it. I'm just asking you to show up and do it with a grateful heart.

And if you're going to clean the bathroom, clean it magnificently. Because you're not doing it even for your loved one. You're doing it as unto the Lord who sees these things. And you could feel, I could tell you this, you could feel his pleasure when you clean the toilet.

Tell me I'm wrong. You can. Because you're doing it as unto him. And there's nothing too menial to do in the service of our Lord.

You know, I joke, my best friend and I back in South Carolina. We joke that at the marriage supper of the Lamb, we're going to be busboys, you know, because I'd be happy to be there. There's nothing too menial when you do it unto the Lord. And I watch these people who have been taking care of Gracie in the hospital and they do a lot of menial tasks. A lot of housekeepers come in and they are cleaning and mopping the room. They're cleaning up stuff. I mean, it's a hospital.

Things happen in there. You know this. We're caregivers. And I watch them do it. And I thank them for doing it.

And you know what? We do that as caregivers. Do it as unto the Lord who sees what you do.

OK? There is nothing too menial in the service of our Savior. And that's what gives me hope as a caregiver. And I trust that it does for you as well. This is Peter Rosenberger.

This is Hope for the Caregiver. Thanks so much for taking the time with me. Be a part of what we're doing. If you want to go out and support what we're doing, the links are all there at PeterRosenberger.com. Would you take a moment? Sign up for the email.

We'll send you the stuff about the songs, when it comes out and all kinds of things. And thank you for being on this journey with us. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And today is a great day to start being healthy. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll see you next time.