Focus on the Lord in the Storms

As a caregiver perhaps your dreams for the life you hoped to share with your loved one has been crushed.  My marriage with my husband, Wayne, was a good marriage.  We had faced various trials in our lives together.  We clung to each other and to God during those times.  We also enjoyed many joyful moments together.  Wayne was a loving husband; and we enjoyed children, new daughter-in-laws, and grandchildren together.  Our dream was for a happy retirement together.  That dream was shattered by his diagnosis in 2006.  His neurological disease led to his continual deterioration physically and his eventual death in early 2011.

Family care-giving brings on a storm of problems and emotions.  It creates havoc with and sometimes destroys one's former way of life.  Yet even in the storms, even when our dreams are smashed into a million pieces, God is still with us.  His promises from His Word still are true.  When we are in God's powerful hands, there is no safer place to be even when the care-giving storms are raging around us. 

God also has a new and good life planned for both the caregiver and his or her loved one.  For my husband, Wayne, that was a life in heaven with Jesus.  For me although I grieve my husband's absence from me, it is other ministry for the Lord.  For other caregivers it may be the earthly healing of the loved one and wonderful ministries for both of them in God's service.  God wants us to leave the outcomes of our lives in His hands, to rest in peace in Him, and to keep our eyes focused on Him and not our problems.  He will help us weather the waves of life's storms.  Sometimes it is hard to know why we have to face the difficult storms of life.  Yet trusting in the Lord and in His promises will give us more peace than knowing all the answers to our questions.

Dear caregiver, even in the midst of you care-giving storms the Lord is providing for you.  He can do wonders for you even while the storm is raging.  He cares about and provides for the big problems and the relatively insignificant problems.  Trust Him and obey Him in the process.  God's provision for you will never run out.  Your trust in God and faithfulness to you in the storm will also be noticed by others and in turn bring glory to God

In this care-giving storm you have two choices, dear caregiver.  You can stress and wring your hands in anxiety or you can trust God's faithfulness and power to see you through it.  Make the choice to meditate on God's promises and praise Him.  Don't focus on the problems, but focus on the Lord.  One way or another the storm will quiet in God's perfect timing.