Comfort and Be Comforted: Reflections for Caregivers Book Excerpts

Excerpt #1

You Have Permission

When you were a child, you were given permission slips to go places you wanted to go. Parents and teachers had to sign them. Now, you get to sign your own.

If you want to take a break from the constant care of your loved one, the permission has to come from you. Of course, you may need to arrange for someone to fill in while you are away, but you are free to sign the “permission slip” for this to happen at any time and as often as you need.

Remember how glad you were as a child when you got the permission you desired? Give yourself that same happy feeling whenever you’re ready for a time out from caregiving.

“Christ has set us free.”
Galations 5:1

Excerpt #2

Good Company

It may come in the middle of the night or when we first arise to face the enormous tasks of the day–that penetrating sense of being alone faced by so many caregivers. No pep talk, no antidepressant pills, no doughnut or sweet roll can take the feeling away. It comes whenever we realize that we may have inherited or accepted the main responsibility for the care of our loved ones. No one can possibly understand how heavy that responsibility is or how alone we feel carrying it.

With a slight change in outlook (and in wording), however, we can go from feeling “alone” to feeling “at one” with ourselves…and with God.

Then, we will always be in good company.

“This I know, that God is for me.”
Psalm 156:9