CAREGIVERS • Posts, Books & More
Caregivers walk their unique path through illness and pain.
A caregiver’s role can be rewarding and exhausting, difficult and joy-filled, meaningful and frustrating, isolating and inspiring—discovering God’s joy as you care for your loved ones.
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40)
FREE PRINTABLE
An Infusion of Hope for Caregivers
God knows how overwhelming caregiving can be, how it can throw the whole balance of our lives inside out and upside down. As caregivers, we need a steady infusion of hope from God's word to do the work He has called us to do.
Blog Posts
If You Ever Need to Talk: Finding Comfort and Empathy
Parents of chronically ill kids are the best people. They’re the best at encouraging without offering advice, at listening without trying to one-up with their own story. And they’re the best at offering empathy that comes from having walked a similar road. I could learn from these parents.
Marriage: In Sickness and in Health • Part Two
In the midst of the valley, be deliberate about fixing your eyes on Jesus and leaving room for supernatural intervention. God is with us always in our marriage in sickness and in health.
A Caregiver’s Survival Guide: How to Stay Healthy When Your Loved One is Sick
Kay Marshall Strom brings experience and compassion to caregiving. Her practical ideas for how to meet your own needs for energy, patience, strength, wisdom, peace, and creativity will carry you through many difficult days.
A Spirituality of Caregiving
Henri J.M. Nouwen
If you provide care for another person, whether you are a family member or a professional caregiver, you know that caregiving is hard, sometimes unappreciated work. However, have you ever considered that it isn’t easy to be the care receiver?
Ambushed by Grace: Help and Hope on the Caregiving Journey
Shelly Beach
Caregiving is probably the hardest work you will ever do. Yet it can also change your heart and transform your life. Experienced caregiver Beach offers practical help and spiritual insights to those facing the challenges of caregiving.
Being There: How to Love Those Who Are Hurting
Dave Furman
We all know people suffering from sickness, disability, depression, or grief. Where are we to find strength in such circumstances? Dave Furman offers support, encouragement, and wisdom for those called to care for others in need, equipping us to effectively care for the hurting and pointing us to the strength that God provides.
Blessings & Prayers for Caregivers
Annetta Dellinger
Find encouragement for the realities of daily caregiving challenges. Through brief Gospel-focused readings and Scripture verses, this small book offers refreshment and renewal for the exhausted caregiver. Each reading focuses on Jesus as the source of our hope and strength. Blessings and Prayers for Caregivers can be tucked in a pocket or a purse to go with you wherever you go and to be at your fingertips whenever you have a minute or two and need a word of encouragement.
Courage for Caregivers: Sustenance for the Journey in Company with Henri J. M. Nouwen
Marjorie J. Thompson
A vulnerable exploration of caregiving acknowledging the demanding physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges. Learn to celebrate the gifts of caregiving grounded in the belovedness both caregiver and care receiver share in God’s eyes.
Don't Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart: How to Relate to Those Who are Suffering
Kenneth C. Haugk, PhD
Haugk has written an essential guide on caring for and relating to people as they encounter difficult times in life. This book draws on extensive research of those who have experienced various kinds of suffering and offers key insights and suggestions of what to say and do (and what not to say or do) when people are hurting. With its biblical foundation, compassionate approach, and concrete ideas, this book will help you bring God’s loving presence to hurting people when they need it most.
Invisible Illness, Visible God: When Pain Meets the Power of an Indestructible Life
Merry Marinello
Are you ready to find something more than just a lesson to learn from painful experiences? Are you ready to meet God in a deeper, more meaningful way? In the package of suffering, God wraps a most surprising, precious gift: Himself. If you find yourself struggling to see God, may the meditations in this book carry you to his arms of love and his throne of grace.
Not Alone: Encouragement for Caregivers
Neil E. Noonan
Caregivers have a front-row seat to suffering. Helping someone (most likely a close loved one) through disease, pain, frailty, and death exacts a tremendous toll. We don’t want to think about it, feeling inadequate and overwhelmed with despair in the midst of it. Yet we must somehow pull it together and press on.
Prayers of Hope for Caregivers: Seeking God’s Strength When Someone You Love Needs You
Sarah Forgrave
Each heartfelt prayer and devotion is intended to help you navigate the complex set of emotions that come with caregiving. Read it front to back or go directly to the devotion addressing how you feel at any given moment…when you need it most. Take comfort in the truth that God knows your every need as a caregiver and is always there for you amid your toughest trials.
The Amazon buttons are affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and purchase the item, Chronic Joy will receive an affiliate commission.
Caregiving is a constant learning experience
“Caregiving is a constant learning experience.” Vivian Frazier
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience..
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the things which you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Care is … the source of human tenderness.
“Care is … the source of human tenderness.” Rollo May
The simple act of caring is heroic.
“The simple act of caring is heroic.” Edward Albert
Caregiver is a gift.
“Caregiver isn’t a noun or a verb. It’s a gift.”
Caregiving is a gift of great love.
“Caregiving is a gift of great love.” Melodee Claassen
Caregiving calls us to lean into love
“Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn’t know possible.” Tia Walker