8. Happy Families

ONE DAY AT A TIME
Meditations for Carers

8. Happy Families

Proverbs 10.1

Maybe you’re fortunate in your family and they’ve been a great help and support. For many of us it’s a tough learning curve on both sides. It’s easy to forget that they too have to go through the same difficult stages to acceptance – denial, anger, disappointed expectations, the grief of that too-early long bereavement – and deal with the inevitable changes in the family relationships and the whole balance of the
family. They may have to tolerate a degree of benign neglect while you focus on being a carer. There may be resentment . . .

This is normal. It goes with the territory. How we handle it makes the greatest difference. And we can’t handle it on our own. Our energy may be used up with the caring task and it seems unfair that we have to dredge up even more forgiveness, tolerance, compassion and patience. But we are only asked to give what we ourselves receive from our Heavenly Father, so let’s draw on his resources – and
those of our church family...


Taken from One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers by Dorothy M.Stewart