photo: canva.com
Click this link for the other days in the 31 DAYS OF CARE TAKING: ONE DAY AT A TIME.
I’m in the last few days of the 31-day writing challenge for Caregivers from the month of October. Yes, I know it’s November. I took Sundays off. So I am almost done.
Today’s FMF word needy is most appropriate for caregivers. I can’t think of a group who can identify with this word more! We may start off full of energy and hopeful that we are going to be the ones to give the love and care our loved one so needs. But at some point, we run out of energy. It may be physical energy or emotional. It may be a combination.
It may be that we just had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into! We forgot about some of the family dynamics in our extended family that weren’t as healthy as we thought. We didn’t take into account our own grief over the gradual loss of our own spouse right in front of our eyes…and the toll it was going to take on us. We didn’t realize our own children were going to hit some rough patches during this process. stop
It wasn’t long before we came to the end of our own resources. Often it happened sooner than we anticipated. Some of us held it together until the initial emergency was over, but soon after, saw ourselves falling apart as the day-to-day of caregiving was tearing us apart.
At some point, we became aware of our need before GOD
In those moments that we stood, sat or laid before GOD in the dark and cried before him, our prayers sounded more like David’s below...maybe less eloquent. Mine often sounded like, “Oh GOD, Help!” It was a quick way of expressing to Him my neediness.
My prayers often sounded like, 'Oh GOD, Help!' They weren't as eloquent as David's. Share on XYes, GOD, I am poor and needy. My personal resources have run out. If you don’t show up, all is lost! When I look at photos that show up under that category of poor, needy, they are repulsive! I don’t like them at all! I don’t want to be considered along with that group. But that’s what I am. I don’t have the resources to do this with a little help on my own. I am in the poor/needy category when it comes to GOD and the rescue I need from him to live out the gospel in my everyday life as a caregiver!
I come to a realization that GOD’s resources are vast!
His promise to all those who are in Christ is that He will provide all we need for life and Godliness. That is an amazing promise! But in order to access that promise, we must acknowledge our need. Not just long ago, when we came to Him initially for salvation, but today and each day, as I come to him to acknowledge my poverty and needy spirit. One day at a time. To recognize that despite my outward facade, I don’t have it all together and I desperately need His rescue!
Yes, GOD, I am poor and needy. My personal resources have run out. You are going to have to show up! Share on XIn fact, that is the purpose of so much of GOD’s intervention in our lives! To show us just how needy we truly are…and how much we need Him!
Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
May all who seek you |
rejoice and be glad in you!May those who love your salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”
But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!Psalm 70:1,4-5
O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
like heat in a dry place.Isaiah 25:1,4-5a
When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.Isaiah 41:17-18
I totally understand your beaten-up-dragged-by-the-sturrip feeling! I’m so glad we have a heavenly Father who promises to meet all of our needs!
absolutely anita:) and He comes through doesn’t He? often before we ask.
Mmmmmm. Martha, this one has me nodding my head. I am on the other side of the equation, the one who needs to be cared for more often than not as I battle chronic illness. There are days when my husband just gets tired. And I get upset about that. But it’s not really about me. It’s about him being human and all the things you’ve written about here. He needs the Lord to give him strength just as I do. Thank you so much for this.
you’re right. both caretaker and caree(?) need patience and strength. if the caree is alert, it is very difficult for them to be truly needy! as i have said earlier, no one enjoys having to be waited on. we all like to have our own independence.
I am poor and needy, and unable to do what I so wanted to do: make the illnesses GO AWAY! You are so correct in your analysis — In God’s time, and because of good nursing care, the Lord restored so much. But aging is not for sissies, and having the courage to ask and accept help gracefully is the new normal. You point out an obvious truth — our kids hurt because of the sudden health issues, too. Just as I had to adjust to a new normal, they did too —
at least you and the apostle Paul have plenty in common on that score:) accepting the help is certainly difficult, but it gets easier as we get more tired…and needy doesn’t it? i’m glad you have seen some improvement in your situation.
I’m with you- I don’t like to admit need either, but really we’re all needy and I’m grateful that when we acknowledge that God steps in to help us and give us what we need.
why is it that so many of us christians have a hard time admitting we need help lesley? the fact that we are needy is so basic to our faith! nice to see you. i seem to miss you ar FMF. i need to figure out what you look like there. one of these days i will!
Such an important post!
thanks tara. it has been helpful to me to have this change in my perspective. it is the opposite of the way i want to think. i want to appear to be in charge and competent…able to manage whatever life throws at me. but the fact is I need the resources of GOD in order to thrive under those pressures, to show love even when i don’t feel like it, to care for someone when i am tired.
Such a beautifully stated reminder of such a sometimes-hard truth. There was so much to love about this post. I’ll note two things I appreciated. 🙂 First, 2 Peter 1:3-4 is one of my favorite sets of verses recently. So fun to see it in a post. Second, I loved and was humbled (yet encouraged) by your paragraph about not wanting to be part of the needy category but truly being a part of it. So thankful for God’s grace. And thank you for this post!
so glad you came by kandi:) i’ll have to stop by your blog. i love the name:) yes, i’ve been in a study this fall that is hammering some of these truths away (in a good sense). they are beginning to sink in. i truly am thankful for GOD’s grace. i’m understanding more and more how truly distasteful it must have been:(