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Caregivers, We Thank You

Kingdom Pursuits / Robby Dilmore
The Truth Network Radio
May 20, 2023 12:36 pm

Caregivers, We Thank You

Kingdom Pursuits / Robby Dilmore

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May 20, 2023 12:36 pm

 Today, Robby speaks with Peter Rosenberger with Hope For The Caregiver. Listen as he shares a heartwarming, and encouraging word for all of the caregivers in this world.

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Into kingdom pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. Oh, I've been so excited about this show all week long because I get to be with my good friend who I actually talk to most days.

Peter Rosenberger is the author of a new book, but he's also the host of Hope for the Caregiver and the Hope for the Caregiver podcast, which is usually, unless it gets beat by me sometimes, usually the number one podcast on the Truth Podcast Network. But because of that, you know, Peter and I get to talk quite often. So welcome, Peter.

Well, to you, Robbie, and what a treat it is to be able to be with you today as we talk every day. I know, I know. It's really cool. And you've got a new book out. Well, it's actually in the pre-release mode, right? Correct. It'll be.

It comes out May 31st. A minute for caregivers when every day feels like Monday. I love that title. I know what that feels like.

Yes, you do, don't you? Oh, my goodness. I guess, you know, I'm just the season in my life where we were the caregiver for my father for about nine months.

And that overlapped with becoming the caregiver for my mother-in-law, which lasted for about four years. And so I have a sense of that idea of every day feels like Monday. But, you know, it's so interesting in a way, you know, looking at it the way I'm looking at it right now. Man, I wouldn't have traded those years for anything. I mean, they were really, really valuable to Tammy and I.

Well, they are. They're very meaningful times. But at the same time, it does take a toll on someone.

And so how do you help that person? Oh, yeah. And I mean, I look at you and I thought, boy, it took a toll, didn't it, Robbie? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

It did. But, you know, I had you to talk to every day. You know, not everybody does. But they could listen to your podcast every day. There's no doubt about that if they're caregivers.

I mean, this is something that, right, it's just huge that more and more in our country, this whole topic is very, very meaningful and very much a part of, you know, what the church should be doing, right? Did I lose you? No, but I have a really bad connection with you. Uh-oh.

And you're really kind of staticky, but that's OK. I get your thing because I know you and I love the title of your program, Kingdom Pursuits, because that's what we take into being a caregiver. That's exactly right. The understanding of Kingdom Pursuits, because a Kingdom Pursuit, while we're here with somebody, I would view that the Kingdom of God is to go into these places where people are broken and captive in bondage, sickness, to disease, to affliction, to all these kinds of, and we communicate the gospel into those circumstances. This is the mandate we have from Christ, and in the caregiving arena, that becomes increasingly clear over the years. And to your point on this issue for being a caregiver, when I started doing radio over a decade ago, the radio station I went to first to talk to, they looked at me and they said, you mean you're going to talk about nursing homes?

I went, no. And they didn't think that I could fill up a whole hour of this. And if you go out to our podcast on The Truth Network, we've got well over 700 episodes.

Oh, yeah. 700 really meaningful episodes for those people who are learning the value of what it means to be a caregiver. And by the same token, realizing the frustrations of it and the need for Jesus, because it's not something you're going to do on your own. I got to, actually, I'm going to talk about this on my show next week, soon, coming up, whenever I'm going to do it. But my mother and I, she listens to my show every Saturday morning when I'm live. And she was talking about just the challenges she's having now. She's gotten older, my father's 88, my mother's 86. And she said, it's very frustrating to deal with these limitations.

She said, I guess I waited too long to become handicapped. And I thought, that's such a, but I think that's the point of us as Christians, is we spend an awful lot of time thinking we've got this. And by the time we realize that we don't have this, we have developed a lot of bad theology and bad habits. And those have to be unlearned, often in the crucible of suffering.

And so I think that's something I'm going to spend some time talking about, because it's best to go ahead and say on the front end, I can't do this. And then start leaning on Christ. I had a chemistry teacher, and this is in the book, there's a chemistry teacher in high school named Mr. Fail. That's his name, Mr. Fail. He said, he had a sign on his classroom, over the chalkboard. By the way, for those of you listening who don't know what a chalkboard is, it was an ancient device used to communicate learning, and also torture when you ran your fingernails down it.

But he had a sign that says, flunk now and avoid the rush. And I love that when it comes to us in our Christian life. But let's go ahead and admit now, we can't do this. We need a Savior. And we have one.

Let's lean on Him instead of our own understanding. There you go. And speaking of torture, you knew this was coming.

You did, didn't you? Hold on. I'm breaking myself. Okay.

So speaking of Monday, actually, because when every day feels like Monday. So here we go. It's time to play Shenanigans. Shenanigans. There you go. How fun. So here we go.

All right. So next Monday, next Monday, Peter, Christian guys, you know, don't be sad. You know why?

Because you just got 48 hours ago. It was a, in fact, it was today is a Saturday. Saturday. Oh, yeah.

Saturday than Monday. You like that, didn't you, Peter? Like is such a strong word. Yeah. What do you call a person who is happy on Monday? I bet you wonder about that.

No idea. You wouldn't know, Christian. You're too young. But for those of us that are approaching the age I'm in, it's called retired. I could tell you, I could tell you Robbie, I have no retirement ever. I'm going to work through lunch on the day of my funeral. I like that. I like that. Well, do you know how you make a blonde laugh on a Monday?

My wife gave me permission to use this joke because she's blonde. All right. I got this one. Tell her a joke on Saturday.

Yeah, you got it. It was actually Friday night, but it works. All right.

How about this one? What does the executioner say on Monday mornings? Time to get to work. Time to be headed for work.

I got to get ahead of the traffic. Yeah, there you go. And this one's a little risky, but you know me, I like to go there. Diarrhea Awareness Week starts on Monday, runs until Friday. Feel free to use that, Peter.

Is that a laugh track? Hey, I got to run. Don't do that. Don't do that. All right. So you knew at the end of those actual shenanigans, and we did have an actual shenanigans in there. So some clue, we actually have a riddle that you can call in and win today.

And if you do that, you call us at 866-348-7884. And if you can answer this riddle, Christian. Well, I'll tell the riddle.

What the heck? Some clue to Monday blues would be what God made on the second day of the week. So what did God make on the second day of the week, which would be Monday, by the way?

866-348-7884. If you know what God made on the second day of the week, that might have to do with the Monday blues. And you can call us, and Christian, tell them what they'll win. They're going to win a fabulous prize from the Kingdom Pursuits Prize Vault.

All right. Oh, man, we have new music for our prizes. Say goodbye to Jeopardy and hello to whatever it is that you got there.

What is that? We're jumping out. All right, all right, we're rocking.

All right, so 866-348-7884. Just tell us what God made on the second day of the week, and you can win from the prize vault. So getting back to a minute for caregivers. So how long is a minute for caregivers? Well, in radio, a minute of empty space.

You're going to give us the example of a minute of empty space. Yes, a minute of you and me on here telling jokes can feel like an emergency for some people. But we have very little time as caregivers. We're constantly on the move. We're having to pivot.

We don't have an awful lot of time to sit down and recreationally read or even purposely read. So that's what we're going to talk about. Absolutely, because, man, I know my wife was constantly taking my mother-in-law to the doctor.

In other words, she really didn't have a minute. So we're going to take a minute for caregivers when we come back, and we need your calls to explain to us what God made on the second day of the week so you can win. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom, and no doubt Peter Rosenberger has quite a passion for caregivers. And as we know from his show, Hope for the Caregiver, comes on the Truth Network, as well as his podcast, Hope for the Caregivers. And his new book that's coming out, A Minute for Caregivers, and when we left our hero, describing how a minute is a very valuable thing to a caregiver, right, Peter?

Indeed. And, you know, if you can't say it very quickly to a family caregiver, chances are it's not going to penetrate through all the things that are competing for shelf space in their brain. And so you want to be concise, you want to get down to the nitty-gritty and let's get people to safety. Think about it in a situation where there's some kind of catastrophe, there's danger, you're trying to get people to safety. That's the whole point. You don't want to have a long, drawn-out academic session. You want to say, go down here, go here, go here, go here, go here. And that's what this book is.

It's incredibly simple. And, you know, my first book, well, I don't like my first book, but my book, Hope for the Caregiver, people said, the chapters are short and simple, now I've gotten even shorter, so my next book will be probably just a word for caregiver. That's a great book. So, you know, I love that you have this heart, but for those of you not familiar with your story, clearly this was something God had for you early on in life, and so if you would share for those people who may not be familiar with why it is that you ended up with this call on your life. Well, I married a woman who had been hurt, and she was hurt a couple of years before I married her. Her name is Gracie, and she had a terrible car accident back in 1983. So this is 40 years this has been going on. When I met her, she'd had about 20 surgeries or so, 21 or so that I could count. It's hard to keep count of all these things. Now it's blossomed up to over 85, and there's more coming.

She ended up losing both legs. She's had over 100 doctors in 13 hospitals have treated her. It's well over 15 million in medical bills. All this is that I can count.

These are really rough estimates. It's a big, big journey that has no sign of letting up or slowing down. I just talked to my friend Johnny Erickson-Tada, and she just got out of a stretch in the hospital.

She's been in a wheelchair now for 57 years since her diving accident. So these long, drawn-out journeys, it's not a plateau for people like Gracie and people like Johnny where you get to the point where, okay, we got this, we got it for the rest of life, it's going to be the same. No, there's always a daily challenge involved when you have somebody that's hurt on this level or somebody who has these types of challenges. And so you have to learn to move with it. You can't fight it. You can't try to punch into it. You're going to have to just be, as the old saying goes, blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

And you're going to have to be a little bit like Gumby, otherwise you'll break. But this is, I believe this is what, when you start understanding gospel principles in this, it changes you. What sustains us is not tips on how to be a better caregiver.

What sustains us are clear understandings of scriptural principles that, for example, my wife has a savior. I'm not that savior. I have a different role to play. I'm not there to fix all this. This is beyond my pay grade. I didn't do this to her. I can't undo it. So what is my role? Well, it's a little different. And so it's helping me settle my heart down so that I can make better decisions caring for her.

I don't do any good to her if I'm broke, if I'm morbidly obese, if I am emotionally a train wreck, if I'm bitter and resentful. And how do I settle myself down so that I can help make better stewardship decisions in it? And I do this, if you'll give me one minute, I'll help you do it as well. I'll show you how I've done it.

And that's all it is. You can turn to any page in this book and you'll find something that'll help you as a caregiver right that moment. Yeah, I love that simple understanding that you are not the savior, right, of whoever it is that, and wow, I mean, that leads to so much guilt.

It's unbelievable that, you know, you take on all these different things. And of course, the patient often thinks of you as their savior because they don't have anybody else necessarily that they can lean on from their perspective until they figure it out. And so a big part of being a good caregiver, right, is pointing them to who their savior is. If you don't know who your savior is, how are you going to point somebody else? And the best thing you can do for your loved one is to reflect Christ in it in this situation. But if you don't know Christ, if you are not pursuing God in your relationship as an individual, how in the world can you direct anybody else to this savior? I spent years trying to get Gracie to Jesus and I didn't even understand the road myself.

And so those guys that tore up the roof and lowered the paralytic down, they needed Jesus just as much. And that's kind of the whole point of this, is saying, okay, how can we help caregivers settle down? Let's take a deep breath and let's look at this thing from a different perspective. Paul says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Well, what does that mean to us as a caregiver?

Because the world would say, okay, you need to throw yourself in this, you need to be the best advocate, you need to do this, you should do this, you should do this, you should do this. And I'm saying, whoa, settle down. We'll get to all that in a little bit, but right now, let's take a deep breath and understand what's really important here. Because this is not going to get fixed. Gracie's legs aren't growing back of anything that I'm going to do.

I can't take away her considerable pain, so what do I do? And that's what I talk about in this book, that's what I talk about in my program. Because everything I talk about is just I speak fluent caregiver. Right, and along those lines, we want to tell you that, you know, even if you don't know what God made on the second day, you are welcome to call in and talk to Peter. You got a caregiving situation that you're struggling with?

Wow, here's your opportunity, because we don't carry him live anymore, but he's live right this minute, and so you can call us at 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. If you've got a caregiving situation that's got you baffled, or you just want to share with Peter, because believe me, Peter knows, right? I mean, you're going through it right this very minute.

Gracie's going through a bunch of stuff. We are, we have more stuff coming, and even while I'm talking to you now, I'm folding the laundry. Good for you. And I never stop. Oh, I'm sure that's absolutely the case, as having talked to you many, many times. You are a multitasker. I'm a high-functioning multitasker.

Most of us caregivers are, and so I had a friend of mine once say, do you ever just sit down and talk on the phone? I said, no. Why would I do such a thing?

If I'm going to sit down, I'm not going to talk to you. I'm going to take a nap. But I have things to do. I have responsibilities and chores, and those things have to be done. And I write books, I do radio shows and all that kind of stuff, but I do that all in the arena of being a caregiver. This is my life. It's been my life now for almost four decades. And it's not a bad life, it's a hard life. That's okay.

What can I learn through it? What can I become through this is a better question than, God, just keep, why aren't you bailing me out of it? You know, and that's the problem. We pray, get me out of this, God.

Get me out of this. And Scripture tells me, you know what? It's important to learn to seek God in it. Seek ye first what, Robbie? The kingdom of God.

Right. And I love Jeremiah 29, 11. Everybody talks about Jeremiah 29, 11.

Now I know the plans I have for you, but they don't go up a couple of verses. If you'll go up a couple of verses in Jeremiah 29, you'll see that God says through Jeremiah to his people, he said, look, they're in captivity and they want to get out of this. And they're saying, God, take us home, take us home, get us out of this. I heard a guy today post that says, we're so close to the rapture that I'm not going to mow my yard today.

You know, we're always looking for a bailout. And if you look at Jeremiah 29, about four, it started about four, and you'll see that God's saying through Jeremiah to the people, hey, y'all simmer down. Now that's the southern version. Y'all simmer down. You're not going anywhere. I put you here, build houses, plant vineyards, get married, have children, get your children married, have grandchildren. I'll bring you out when I'm ready, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Context means something in scripture, by the way. And so I would suggest to all my fellow caregivers that maybe that would be a place that we could start spending some time in, is that upper part to Jeremiah 29, and not just stay in Jeremiah 29, 11, but to understand that God has not forgotten you. He knows who you are. He knows where you are. He knows what you're doing. And He is revealing Himself to you in it. Are you going to trust Him? How do we know we can trust Him? Look at the cross.

Yeah, it's a spectacular, spectacular understanding, really, of Jeremiah 29. And I know that you're sitting there thinking, well, I could really use some help with my caregiving. Well, just call us. We would love to talk to you.

866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. And I think about our situation. I wonder how many times, like, God, what's the next step?

What do I do now? Do you find yourself there all the time? I used to.

And now I microstep it down and say, what is it my hand to do? God clearly lays out what we are to do as believers and as His people, to do justice, proclaim captive to the liberty, to heal the brokenhearted, to minister, to be faithful to the task at hand, to be good stewards of what He has given us, to be a grateful people. We of all people should be grateful. I can't, I just talked about this on my show this morning. I think, what, we've got to go to a break, so why don't we talk about this when we come back, of what we talked about this morning.

Sounds good. We'll be right back with more Kingdom Pursuits and your calls. 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. We'll be right back with Peter Rosenberger. More hope for the caregiver with a minute for caregivers.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom, and how fun today we have our own Peter Rosenberger with us, Hope for the Caregiver, and the host of Hope for the Caregiver, both the podcast and the radio show, met his new book, A Minute for Caregivers. And when we left our hero, Peter, he was going to tell us why we should be grateful, or what your show is about this morning.

Well, the show this morning, first of all, let me answer the question. The reason we should be grateful is because of the cross. If you spend any time thinking just... I've been studying theology for a while. Robin, I've got a tutor of mine that is helping me, and I do this while I do the laundry and all my other chores, and he tutors me on systematic theology, and I'm taking some online courses and so forth. Here's what I've learned. Send's a bigger problem than we think it is, and the cross is a bigger remedy than we could ever imagine. And that's all I've learned so far, because this is why we are grateful people. And do you know how hard it is to be resentful, despairing, and fearful when you are consumed with gratitude? Yeah.

I mean, you can't do it. Those two things cannot exist in the same bubble, and so we remind ourselves of all the things to be grateful for. For example, if you're finding yourself in that place, go through the alphabet, A, B, C. Think of something that starts with A that you're grateful for, and keep going. When it gets to Q and X and Z, it gets a little weird, but you know what?

Just keep trying it, because you will find that your heart settles down. And what I was talking about this morning, though, when you asked, did you ever get this way in the last block about, you know, what do I do next, what do I do next? It's hard to have a five-year plan when you're boarding up your home. Preparing for a hurricane.

I mean, think about that. My wife's family is all from the panhandle of Florida, so there's a lot of hurricanes that fit down there. And when you're boarding up your home and trying to evacuate and get everything ready for that, you're not thinking of a five-year business plan. Well, as caregivers, we're boarding up pretty regularly. Many caregivers are like that. And you do what is at your hand to do. That's interesting.

Whoa. I don't know what happened there. But it's interesting that you mentioned the whole grateful idea. So it used to be my, I guess, what I did every single morning in my life, and I still do it quite often, but I don't do it often, it's not used to, but it used to be before I even got into my prayer time, my first thing was to list all the stuff I was grateful for. And so there came a time in my life where I had a very, very close loved one attempt suicide. And I was at the hospital for two nights dealing with that and all that went on to that, and when that loved one recovered, then they wouldn't even see me, and that was really difficult. And then when I got home, it was February, it was like minus 10 outside, and the heat had shut off the house while I was gone. And so that night we just hunkered under some blankets to figure out what we were going to do, the heat, the next morning.

And so the next morning I get up to do my normal devotional, right, Peter? And the first thing I'm supposed to do is write down all the things I'm grateful for. And I was like, you know, Bruce Almighty, all right, God, the gloves are off here, I'm just going to tell you, I am not happy. I mean, it was one thing I went through, the whole suicide thing, and I went through this and I went through that, and oh my goodness, you couldn't even at least let the heat be on when I got home, you know, and I was just going through all this stuff when I was supposed to be grateful, right? And then all of a sudden the smoke of the battle started to clear, and I went, well, wait a minute, my loved one lived, right? And oh, there's really nothing going to be, I mean, there's no result of the horrible thing they did to themselves.

And, you know, all these things, and then certain medical people that came in and helped them, like in amazing ways. And I went from just being the most ungrateful human being on the planet to the most grateful human being on the planet in a matter of about, you know, a minute and a half, and I've never forgotten. Like, how could I be so shallow, but it was so cool when God showed me, oh yeah, you were there, oh yeah, oh my goodness, yeah. Well, the question is, how could I be so shallow? That is our natural state, is shallow, petty, petulant, demanding, ungrateful.

That's who we are as a human nature because of sin. How could we be so shallow? How could we not be shallow, is the better question. How could we not be so shallow? And the only way we cannot be is through understanding just how magnificent what God has done. But it's hard because these painful things obfuscate that. They cloud our vision. Paul says we look through a mirror darkly, a glass darkly. We can't see things very well.

And so we're going to always default to that place. I'm that way all the time. I mean, listen, when you've been a caregiver as long as I have, I've had ample time to make about every kind of mistake you can make. Everything I've learned, I've learned through failure, and most of it, abject failure. And so at the end of all of that comes this point where my mother said this to me this morning, I guess I've waited too long to become handicapped, and she was laughing about it. But there's a real truth to that.

We wait too long to realize how needy we are. I can't help but wonder, Peter, was your math teacher's first name abstract? Abstract. No, abject. Oh, abject.

I'm sorry. I object. Abject failure.

Complete and utter failure. Yeah, my memory just isn't what it ought to be. But that was good. I liked that. Well, I appreciate that. And so I look at your situation where you're saying, you know, Lord, really?

We all get there. And one of the things I want to help my fellow caregivers do is take away the supposedlys and the shoulds and the I need to and I must. That's obligation.

And obligation is a cruel taskmaster, and it leads to resentment. I'm supposed to do this. I'm supposed to be this way. I should. I must. I have to.

I need to. And I would like to replace that word with stewardship. God owns this. I'm going to do what is at my hand to do.

If it's his will, it's his bill. If he leads, he feeds. If he guides, he provides. And we have to understand that is the biblical way that we see presented for us throughout all the scriptures. Jesus said in Matthew 6, look at the birds of the air.

Look at the lilies of the field. Well, do we believe this or not? We all believe that if our checkbooks balance and we've got money in the bank and our bills are paid, do we believe it when we're watching our wife go in for her 86th surgery that's coming up? And that's the question. It always comes down to do we believe God at his word or not? And if we do, how would others know?

And if we don't, why not? And these are very important questions that we need to deal with. And in the crucible of caregiving, you get an ample time to deal with that that other people may not because the relentless pressures you deal with. And it forces you down to that decision point of am I going to trust him or not?

Do I believe him or not? And once you wrestle with that question, you're going to find it changes your life. I love that. If it's his will, it's his bill. That's really good, Peter. I've heard some of the other ones. I steal all of those. Well, you do a great job of plagiarism.

I'm a magpie. I just take them all. But those are things. That's why I write things like a minute for caregivers. Not an hour, not six days, not seven months for caregivers. A minute because that's all we got.

If you can't put it on a bumper sticker, people aren't going to pay attention. And sometimes I wonder if you can't say it concisely, I really wonder if you know your subject matter well enough. And the thing about what I've had to go through, Robbie, I've been doing this for a very long time. I've been set here in this place for a very long time.

I have immersed myself in this world. Friends of mine are Bible translators in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Wycliffe. Great organization. Well, when they show up to a village, they don't translate the scriptures the first day. They get there. They have to be immersed with these people. They've got to live with them. They've got to spend time.

They've got to understand. This is my journey. I've been immersed in the village of caregivers for a very long time. I speak the language fluently, but more importantly, it's our Savior's native tongue.

Yeah, you can't help but see that. And it's so beautiful, you know, to see the progression of how, you know, and again, in my own case, like I know what it was like to head into this adventure not having any idea and when to come out of it five years later, which I know is just a really short time compared to what you've experienced, but wow, what I learned in five years, you know, it's amazing. All right, well, we've got one more segment for you to call in and get your questions for Peter or if you're feeling like winning something from the pie, all you've got to do is tell us what God made on the second day. 866-348-7884, 866-348-7884. We'll be right back with our good friend and host, Peter Rosenberger, for a lot more on caregiving. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom. And today, we've got our amazing host of Hope for the Caregiver and the Hope for the Caregiver podcast, Peter Rosenberger. And so, interestingly, Peter, in that very press kit that you sent me, it said that the closing paragraph, which, you know, intrigues me, it says the closing paragraph of your book, A Minute for Caregivers, could be the starting place for many caregivers. What is in that closing paragraph?

Well, it's just the conclusion of the whole thing. My wife has a Savior. I'm not that Savior. And I am here to not fix this, but to point her and others to this Savior in a way they understand in their distress, in their heartache, in their misery, in their pain, in their sorrow, in their grief, in their heartache, because I'm basically a crossing guard.

I will stop traffic and help somebody cross the path to get to safety. But I am not the destination. Do not look to me for anything other than I am pointing you to the One who will, where you can stand, who will speak into those situations that you're dealing with. And you can stand on these bedrock principles.

These things that I have detailed in this book are not unique to me in the sense that I have set up on a mountaintop and contemplated all the wise things of the world, and now I'm going to come and bless everybody with my knowledge. That is hardly the case. You've known me for a long time, Robbie.

That is hardly the case. I like the fact that you're the point man, though. That, you know, sort of a point guard, actually. You know, I don't know if you've thought about that.

Well, Stu is a much better basketball player. But I think that that's the point we all get to as Christians, because we live in a world of shifting sand. Where is solid ground? Okay, we know that.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. But what does that look like when you keep going into surgery with your wife? What does that look like when you have a special needs child that has a seizure disorder? What does that look like when you have an alcoholic or an addict in your family who is stealing from you or is creating all kinds of havoc?

What does that look like? How do you stand on solid ground in the midst of that swirling chaos? That's what this book is all about. One minute at a time.

Literally. It's not linear. You don't have to read it frontward to backwards in a straight line. You can start at the back, work your way, pick it up, any place, put it down.

It doesn't matter. I did it for caregivers who are on the go who are just dealing with insanity. And they need something just one minute. You give me one minute, and then you can go see more about it at hopeforthecaregiver.com.

Just click on the New Book tab, and you can see more about it. But the point of it is not to look to me. It's to look to Christ.

Well, you know, and I'm excited that, you know, it's cool how God has blessed you with all that. And he's blessed us with a collar, but I'm trying to get it on, but they've got to, nope, it's somebody else talking, and they don't have, but I thought we had a collar, Peter, and I didn't want to miss it. And we only had a minute, so I thought it was going to be a perfect segue of what to do, and you only have a minute. And so, you know, essentially we only have that minute, and so as you had a chance to talk to our audience, how do you want to close that minute? I just want to say to the audience, it's not, don't try to think too far out.

Stay with right here, right now, in this moment. Do what is at your hand to do, what is at your task right in front of you to do, and check that off. It may be just cleaning the microwave oven.

Okay, you cleaned the microwave oven, it's clean now. And people may think, well, Peter, that's just stupid. Well, okay, you go take care of somebody through what I've done for 37 years and tell me how stupid it is to micromanage your task down to the next right thing.

And people say sometimes to me, Peter, you talk about this God stuff a lot, are you limiting your audience? This is how I do it. If you want to be an atheist and do what I've done, I'll read your book, but I don't think you'll write one.

This is how I've done it since Reagan was president. And you have to learn that I can't see that far out in front of me. I don't know what's going to happen to me, Gracey, you, or anybody else. So I have to deal with right here, trusting him right now, give us this day our daily bread. Do we believe it or not?

That's what I want to leave with my fellow caregivers. Do you believe this or not? And if not, why not?

If so, how would we know? Yeah, that's well said, because in so many ways it doesn't come in great big long, you know, he's going to give it to you in the peace that you need that day. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, not a searchlight. The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.

Trust not in your own understanding. All of these things start making sense when you realize he's going to ask you to just be still and know that he is God in the midst of this craziness. He's got you. He's got your loved one.

He knows what he's doing. And so as we are, we want to tell you that at KingdomPursuits.com, you're going to find a link there where you can pre-order Peter's book, Hope for the Caregiver. A minute for caregivers, excuse me, when every day feels like Monday, you can again go to KingdomPursuits.com and there you'll see that post clearly.

You can click on that. And so it's a big help, right, when people pre-order the book, Peter? It is, and people seem to be enjoying it.

They haven't used it as kindling, the ones that have read it. So that's always a good sign, Robbie. You know, it's right there. Maybe you know somebody who is a caregiver and you've heard of their struggles. Again, KingdomPursuits.com, and it's called A Minute for Caregivers When Every Day Feels Like Monday. So thank you so much for listening today, and I hope you'll stay tuned because we've got so many wonderful truths at the shows coming at you. You've got Encouraging Prayer, followed by Masculine Journey here in Winston-Salem, and then Nikita Koloff. It's going to be Time to Man Up at 12.30. Stay tuned, so much truth coming at you on the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-20 15:01:43 / 2023-05-20 15:18:50 / 17

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