Name Change

As you may have noticed my blog has a new name.  It's name has been changed from "Dear Caregiver" to "God's Sufficient Grace."  I will tell you why I renamed my blog in a moment, but first I want to give a little history.    

In 2011 I started my blog.  I entitled my blog, "Dear Caregiver," and it was directed mainly to family caregivers.  I had lost my first, husband, Wayne, only a little over a month previously due to a serious neurological disease called, Multiple Systems Atrophy. I had been his caregiver for four and a half years before his death. Caregiving had been a difficult period in my life, as I saw him deteriorate in his health step by step.  Hence, a deep desire had blossomed in my heart to encourage current family caregivers.  Thus my blogsite was birthed.

Then in  2014 I published my book, Dear Caregiver Reflections for Family Caregivers.  This book also was meant to encourage family caregivers in their very important God-given but sometimes difficult and challenging roles.  You can order this book from me directly by emailing me and asking for specifics jesuschild54@hotmail.com   You can also order this book at Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/DEAR-CAREGIVER-Reflections-Family-Caregivers-ebook/dp/B00JQFJJRA/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BHM2RAO79NLW&keywords=Dear+Caregiver+by+Sharon+Vander+Waal&qid=1692579183&sprefix=dear+caregiver+by+sharon+vander+waal%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1

During the time I published my book and afterwards I have continued my blog as well under the title of "Dear Caregiver."  Yet I know that there are many struggles that we all as believers encounter on this earth.  Hence, I have found that in my blog posts I am gradually broadening out God's message to both Christian caregivers and other believers as well.  

This is true even though I still have a deep love and concern for family caregivers in my heart.  It is also true even though in many ways, I am still a Christian caregiver.  No matter what the trial we are facing, however; God is always refining us, trying to make us more like Jesus, comforting us, and in the process bringing glory to Himself.  In whatever we face, His grace is sufficient, and His grace flows from His goodness.  Hence the new title for my blog is now "God's Sufficient Grace."  Other than the new title you should find the blog to be very much like it always been.  I hope you will continue to read and be blessed.

Chapters Of Our Lives

We have many moments and chapters in our lives.  Some of these chapters in our lives are joyful ones.  Some of the chapters are difficult and challenging.  We tend to look at special dates on the calendar and reflect about the past moments of our lives.  I especially tend to do this.

Seventy six years ago on August 24, 1947 a little baby girl was born.  Her parents named her Sharon Lynn.  She was her parents first child, and she was born two weeks earlier than expected. As you may have guessed this little girl is the author of this blog post.

The chapters in my life included my birth in IA and my growing up years in MN and SD.  I was a quiet introvert type child.  Later came the early adult chapter of my life.  I moved to WI, taught first grade for three years at a Christian school, met and married my first husband, Wayne, and raised a family of three sons.

Later chapters in my life included the marriages of my sons and wonderful grandchildren. One of the difficult chapters of my life was the diagnosis of my first husband's rare neurological disease (Multiple Systems Atrophy) in 2006, my breast cancer diagnosis in 2007, and my first husband's death in early 2011.  One of the more recent chapters of my life was my marriage to my current husband, Bob, a little over four years ago.  

All these chapters in my life were ordained by God.  Psalm 139:16 says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."  God has ordained all the days and chapters of your life as well, dear reader.  If I had been able to chose, I would have not chosen the care-giving chapter of my life or perhaps even difficult moments which occurred before that chapter in my life.  I certainly would not have chosen the chapter of widow or some more recent challenges and chapters.

Yet God truly does bring beauty from the ashes of the difficult chapters of our lives.  God says in John 16:33b, "In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart I have overcome the world."  He has overcome the world, and He will use our heartaches to advance His kingdom and for our spiritual growth and even joy.

Dear reader, the Lord is using your difficult experiences to stretch and grow you in dependence on Him and in love for Him.  He is using it to bring new spiritual fruit in your life.  Finally, He is using it in His kingdom both now and in the days ahead.  God wants you to walk with Him holding His hand during both the joyful and difficult chapters of your life.  He wants you to rest in Him trusting that He will lead you through these times in your life with purpose for now and the future.  If you belong to Him; He delights in you, dear reader!

God's Faithfulness

I am currently reading a devotional book authored by Robert J Morgan called Great is Thy Faithfulness.  In one of the chapters that I have already read the author discusses God's wonderful promises to us found in the Old Testament.  These promises include God walking beside us directing our steps each day, hearing our prayers, and being our shield and reward.  The promises include His vow to renew and restore us and to even be with us in old age.  These promises also include His covenant love for us, His blessings, His strength, and his healing each day.  The Lord further promises to be our refuge in times of trouble, to delight in us, and to actually rejoice and sing over us!

Promises are found all throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation even in what we might consider obscure parts of the Bible. For example, in Hosea 6:1, God promises to bind up our wounds, and in Nahum 1:7 the Lord God promises to be our refuge in times of trouble.  Hence, there are amazing promises in the New Testament, but there are also wonderful promises as well in the Old Testament where we may be tempted to believe they would not be found as readily.  

In a world where we often face trials and heartaches it is wonderful to know and treasure the multitude of God's promises to us.  He is always a faithful and loving God.  We can count on His faithfulness and presence in our lives.  We can count on His promises in His Word.

Below is a link to the wonderful hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness."  I have been listening to this hymn frequently in the past weeks, as I I contemplate God's faithfulness.  May this hymn bless you today, dear reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwiBz1QA4o

Summer Blessings and Trials

July is now past, and August has begun.  How fast the days of July flew past, as every month of the year tends to do.  I am going to take a moment to look back on July, however, and its significance to me.   On July 30, 1971, fifty-two years ago I became a blushing bride for the first time.  In spite of my remarriage eight and a half years after Wayne's homegoing to heaven, I will always remember that day.  I also remember with joy our 39 years of marriage.  On July 13, 2019, four years ago, Bob and I were married.  I look back on the joy each of us felt on that day.  We have faced some new outside challenges this past year, but we remain committed to each other.

These were joyful moments in July in the past, and now this year there were difficult moments in July.  I have had back issues for many years, but in July as in the months before July of this year I have had some more major back flare-up issues.  Through a series of events including contacting my regular doctor and her ordering an MRI, I saw a spine specialist on July 31rst.  I fully expected him to suggest surgery, but because of my scoliosis complicating things, surgery would involve a recovery period that was too long.  

Hence, the doctor recommended doing an epidural instead.  By God's grace I was able to receive that epidural only two days later on August 2nd.  By the morning of the next day I was beginning to notice a difference for the good.  My back is still feeling very vulnerable, and there still are issues, but I am very thankful for God's grace in all this.

There were and are also uncertainties in all this.  Epidurals, for example, are only a temporary solution at best.  Yet God is the God of the unknown.  The future is not unknown to Him and He will lead.  We all need to remember that we are blessed no matter what is going on in our lives at the time.

At this point I am going to quote a fairly long passage from Lysa Ter Keurst's book, Seeing Beautiful Again.  This is what Lysa writes I think it applies beautifully here to our discussion:

"I feel the most unsettled when I'm uncertain about the future.  I suspect many of you are also facing circumstances that have left you feeling caught off guard and unsure about what tomorrow holds---There are thousands of scenarios that evoke these feelings of uncertainty, fear, and exhaustion from life not being like you thought it should be.

Whatever your situation is, you probably feel like you can't change it, but you still have to live through the realities of what's happening right now.  Sometimes you just have to walk in your 'I don't know.'---All this trouble is exhausting.  Walking in the 'I don't know' is scary.---But what if life settling down and all your disappointments going away would be the worst thing that could happen to you?  What if your 'I don't know' is helping you, not hurting you?

The crucial detail for us to have peace in the middle of everything we face is to stay close to the Lord.  We think we want comfort in the I-don't know times of life.  But comfort isn't a solution to seek; rather it is a byproduct we'll reap when we stay close to the Lord.

I wish I could promise you that everything's going to turn out like you're hoping it will. I can't, of course.  But what I can promise you is that God is close to us even in our 'I don't knows.'  God has lessons for us that are crucially important for our future, and we are learning them in the middle of our 'I don't knows.'  God has a strength He must prepare us with, and the training ground is here in the 'I don't know.' This time isn't a waste, and it is definitely not pointless when we are walking with God.

Let's cry out to God, declaring that this hard time will be a holy time, a close-to God time.  And let's choose to believe that there is good happening, even in these places.  Because wherever God is, good is being worked."

(If you missed my post last week about God being the Potter and we being the clay, you can read it by cliking on this link: https://christiancaregiving.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-potter.html  )

The Potter

The Bible teaches us that the Lord God is the Potter in our lives, and we are the clay in His hands. He is in sovereign control of our lives, and He controls all the events of our lives. All the events of our lives are used to make us more like Jesus. God especially uses problems, difficulties, and trials in our lives to mold us into the kind of people who truly reflect the Lord Jesus. The Lord wants to bring us ever closer to the center of His will.  Difficulties teach us to not rely on our own self-effort and devices. Difficult times in our lives teach us to rely and trust only on the Lord. 

This became abundantly clear to me when I was a caregiver for my first husband. His disease was incurable. It was out of my control.  It was also true when I developed breast cancer during that time period, as I spoke about in my blog post last week.  It is further true as I now stuggle with serious back pain.  (I speak to a spine specialist on Monday  Pray for me.) God is also in control even in light of some other discouraging issues which have reared their heads in the past year.   The only recourse I had in the past and the only reource I have now is to seek to rely and trust in the Lord.

Difficulties in our lives further help to remove the impurities of sin from our lives, and they help us to grow in our love relationship with the Lord. When spiritual impurities come into our lives the Lord God recreates and molds our lives to be more in tune with His will. Our prayer to God should be that He will make us into beautiful vessels of purpose for Him. When we fail and allow spiritual impurities into our lives, we need to pray that the Lord will take us back to His Potter’s wheel. We need to pray that the Lord will then reshape us and form us into something more beautiful for Him. From the broken fragments of our lives, the Lord can make us into beautiful vessels for Him!

From experience I know the pressure of family care-giving and other life pressures.  These pressures can feel overwhelming and unbearable at times. We must not fight against or question the Lord’s molding of our lives, however. We need to pray that each touch of the Lord’s hand on our lives will help us to become whom He wants us to become. The Lord knows just the right amount of pressure to put on our lives. We must also remain thankful for how He has made us and thankful for how He is working and leading in our lives! We must persevere in our willingness to submit to the Lord's will. We must be submissive to the Lord even in trials and difficult times in our lives. The Lord has promised to be with us all the way.

Finally, we must also ask the Lord for the filling of the Holy Spirit’s power and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must yearn for the Lord to control our lives completely every hour and every day!  Dear reader, trust you life and your life journey to the hand of the great Potter. He know what He is doing even when the path becomes very difficult.


Here is a link to song about God being the Potter and we being the clay in His hands:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgXL3y9RIbI

Peparation for the valley

(On July 18th I became a 16 year cancer survivor, because that was the day that I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I will always remember that day, as it was also one of my local granddaughter's fifth birthday.  Following is a chapter from my book:  Dear Caregiver Reflections for Family Caregivers.  In that chapter I talked about my breast cancer experience while caring for my first husband.  It is also a repeat of  posts I have published in July in past years.)

"Seeking to provide for my first husband’s needs during my care-giving days could get emotionally heavy at times, but I feel my past experiences helped to prepare me somewhat for the care-giving challenges. One of these experiences actually coincided with the beginning stages of my care-giving days. That experience was my fight against breast cancer.

In July of 2007, about a year after my husband was diagnosed with his disease, I noticed a swelling in my right breast and under my arm. I was able to book an appointment with my physician’s assistant. She sent me for a mammogram and MRI the next day. A couple days later I received the devastating news that I did indeed have breast cancer and that the cancer had invaded my lymph nodes. The tumor in my breast was very large, and my doctor told me later that my lymph nodes were all gummed together.

A few days later I found myself at my oncologist’s office, and after a full body scan at the hospital I began chemo. I began chemo by the end of July of 2007. All together I had 8 chemo treatments in 3 week cycles, mastectomy surgery with all my lymph nodes under my arm removed, and 6 1/2 weeks of radiation daily. Side effects of chemo were fatigue, mild nausea sometimes, food tasting like cardboard, loss of all of my hair etc. Radiation caused some burning, but it was manageable. All treatment was completed in April of 2008!

During the time of my cancer treatments I had a host of people praying for me-even people across the ocean! We also had people from our church bringing in meals twice a week for a long time. I further had church people bringing me to all my chemo treatments and most of my radiation treatments. The medical people at my cancer care center were wonderful.

Cancer treatments would not be a time that I would want to go through again, but at the same time it was a time of blessing as well as hardship. It is hard to explain, but I became more free in my spirit and less concerned about other’s opinions as a result to this cancer experience. I experienced the love of other people, and most of all I experienced the love of my Lord and Savior in a new and fresh way. I learned dependence on the Lord God during those many months, and I grew in my faith. The Lord’s strength and His love to me demonstrated through others helped me through those months.

I still am miles away from having it altogether. Just perhaps, however, I will be able to face today and the days ahead with more of God’s strength, because of my cancer experience and my experiences with the heartaches of care-giving. The memory of those days will never go away. It has changed whom I am forever mostly for the good.

I know that there will always be problems in this life, but I am further certain that my Lord and Savior will be with me all through my life. I know He will give me the strength to handle anything I need to face in the future. Even in hard times God has promised to be with me and bless me and someday take me to live with Him eternally. Dear Christian caregiver, rest in Him."



(Look on the side of this home page for a link to the order page for my book on Amazon. The book is also available at Barnes and Noble and elsewhere online.  If you prefer a signed copy from me directly, just e-mail me at jesuschild54@hotmail.com for specifics.)

Deleting the Negative Emotions

I don't know how you as a reader feel, but I often become annoyed by the number of unwanted e-mails which come into my account on a daily basis.  Even though I have a seperate junk account versus my regular e-mail account, lately I have been receiving quite a bit of unwanted e-mails also slipping into my regular account.  If I did not delete these unwanted emails daily and sometimes many times a day my account would soon be overwhelmed by these numerous trash e-mails.

So it is with my life and the negative emotions such as fear, discouragement, and frustration.  If I do not daily spend time in God's Word and soothe these negative emotions, I would soon be overrun with them.  If I did not allow God to  penetrate my heart with his comfort and strength through His promises in His Word, I don't know where I would be or what I would do. 

 Sometimes life's physical and emotional pains can be very heavy. Serious back pain is one of my heavy life issues right now.  Yet the Lord wants me to delete the negative emotions connected with diffiuclt circumstnaces in my life through relying on His precious promises.  He also wants me to replace these negative emotions with trust in Him, courage because of His presence in my life, and with His joy in spite of circumstances.  He wants me to count my blessings.  He also wants me to remember that everything the Lord allows in my life whether pleasant or difficult is always for His glory and my ultimate good.

So dear reader, let's together reolve to delete the negative emotions through the promises of God's Word and His strength, and let's replace them with the joy of the Lord even if the difficult moments.  Remember the Lord delights in us and sings over us, if we are His child (Zepeniah 3:17)!