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One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 35. Time off
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 35. Time off
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
ONE DAY AT A TIME Meditations for Carers 35. Time off TMatthew 14.22–23, GNB I’m starting the week refreshed. I’m feeling much calmer and more able to cope because I took the whole of yesterday ‘off ’ – just like people who have salaried jobs and get a day off! It was wonderful…
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 29. Telling it how it is
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 29. Telling it how it is
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
ONE DAY AT A TIME Meditations for Carers 29. Telling it how it is Luke 10.16 Most people, when they stop to ask how things are, usually ask how your loved one is. They seldom ask how you are. But when they do, what do you say? If you’re like most of us, you mutter, ‘I’m okay.’ …
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 34. Thorns and thistles
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 34. Thorns and thistles
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
ONE DAY AT A TIME Meditations for Carers 34. Thorns and thistles Ezekiel 2.6b Life seems to sprout thorns and thistles when you’re responsible for caring for someone else, especially if it wasn’t originally your role to deal with money matters and the like. If you now have to f…
Still Caring - Baby Steps
Still Caring - Baby Steps
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
8 Baby steps Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. (Mark 6.31) It feels a huge thing to do, moving your loved one into residential care. And it can be. Especially when you’re stricken with guilt as well as exhaustion to the point of burn-out. And worse, i…
Still Caring - After the visit
Still Caring - After the visit
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
32 After the visit Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you . . . , as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4.12) We know it’s hard to do, sometimes very hard to do. You gird your loins, pray your prayers, fix that smile on yo…
Still Caring - Down with guilt!
Still Caring - Down with guilt!
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
16 Down with guilt Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8.1) When the person you’ve been caring for goes into a residential facility, people often say things like, ‘You can get on with your life now.’ They think that you’ve acquired a…
Still Caring - In this together
Still Caring - In this together
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
23 In this together And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1.7) They’re everywhere: folk with loved ones, especially parents, spouses, older brothers and sisters, in residential care…
Still Caring - Dealing with the hassles
Still Caring - Dealing with the hassles
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
21 Dealing with the hassles For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23.4b, av) Being on the outside is difficult, especially when your informant may not be 100 per cent reliable. This is something I trip over, and come home feeling, ‘I really did not d…
Still Caring - Mrs Fix-it gives up
Still Caring - Mrs Fix-it gives up
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
35 Mrs Fixit gives up Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? (Luke 12.25 –26) Are your shoulders, like mine, bent with the burden you are carrying? There is another way, and last week…
Still Caring - Powerlessness
Still Caring - Powerlessness
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
34 Powerlessness Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4.23) It was one of those days. Maybe it was time for one of those days – we had had a run of good ones. Anyway, I had a plan. It’s always better to have a plan. But today it went ou…
Still Caring - Need a refill?
Still Caring - Need a refill?
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
28 Need a refill? Love one another, for love comes from God. (1 John 4.7) Living on our nerves is exhausting. Squashing our normal reactions, forcing calm and patience and pleasant responses to that question or that comment for the nth time, costs us. Dealing with upsets without …
Still Caring - New faces
Still Caring - New faces
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
24 New faces A new command I give you: love one another. John 13.34 Just when you’ve got your loved one settled, and you’ve built up good relationships with the staff (well, at least you know their names and can recognize them when you visit), inevitably there will be staff chang…
Still Caring - September songs
Still Caring - September songs
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
37 September sings Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12.1b) I’m watching the folk on the beach this sunny September afternoon. They’re different from the summer visitors. This crowd is made up of people at either end of the happy family spectrum: y…
Still Caring - Thank you
Still Caring - Thank you
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
38 Thank you Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5.18) There are good days. Good visits. Moments when the fog lifts and the person you knew and loved is there again, smiling at you, knowing who you are. And even when…
Still Caring - What's the name for it?
Still Caring - What's the name for it?
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
30 What’s the name for it? The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. (Isaiah 25.8) You’d think you would get used to it – the pattern of visits each week. You would expect to fall into a pleasant routine, with your life working again, but something weird happens…
Still Caring - Time to let go
Still Caring - Time to let go
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
14 Time to let go There is a time . . . a time to embrace and a time to refrain. (Ecclesiastes 3.1, 5b) It was probably guilt that had me running backwards and forwards from our house to the residential home. If he’d lost something, needed anything, I’d drop everything and rush d…
Still Caring - Relax!
Still Caring - Relax!
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
29 Relax! The Lord is my shepherd . . . he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. (Psalm 23.1a, 2b, 3a) I’m visiting my sister for the first time in years and I’m sleeping late every morning. At home I usually wake around 6 a.m., but here it’s more like 9 a.m. before…
Still Caring - Trouble at mill