Part of learning to care for a loved one with a chronic illness is learning that God’s grace is enough.
Today’s Bible Verse:
2 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV), “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
What the Verse Means:
Suffering uncovers your heart’s weaknesses so that Christ is your strength.
Praying Using the Verse:
Heavenly Father, help us to cry out to You in our weakness and claim Your promise the Your grace is sufficient for us, for Your power is made perfect in weakness.”
Thank you, Lord, for providing your sufficient grace.
Teach us how to boast all the more gladly of our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon us. We don’t understand how but trust in you for our power to be made perfect in weakness.
We ask for strength daily. Give us the grace we need and we pray the power of Christ to rest upon us. The only boasting we will do is to acknowledge our weakness and your sufficiency.
Remember, if you’re a caregiver there is hope. The hope for the caregiver is Jesus Christ.
When caring for someone with a chronic illness do not lose heart. We know that illness and disease can and ultimately will destroy the body. While our loved one’s body ages and suffers from diseases, we need to renew our spiritual side daily.
In today’s verse, God simply is pointing out we should view all earthly adversity in comparison with our future heavenly glory. When we do this, we should be strengthened to endure our earthly trials.
Today’s Bible Verse
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (KJV), “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
What the Verse Means
While our bodies (outward man) grow old and suffer from diseases our spiritual side (inward man) is renewed daily. Too often we only focus on the things we see in this present life. We need to also focus on the spiritual, that is the things that are not seen but given to us by God as a future promise. these are only seen with our “spiritual eyes.” It takes faith. A part of faith is believing that what God has promised he will certainly bring to pass. I believe.
Praying Using the Verses
1. Heavenly Father, help us to focus on you and not lose heart.
2. Lord Jesus, while our outward body is perishing, yet our inward man or body is being renewed daily.
3. God, we realize the chronic illness we are facing won’t last forever but is working in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
4. Lord God, help us to not look at our circumstances which are temporary but to look at the things that are not now seen, but eternal.
Remember, as a caregiver we have hope. The hope for the caregiver is Jesus Christ.
In 1956, my father returned from a one-year tour of duty in Turkey. Our family moved to Greenville, South Carolina. The United States Air Force stationed dad at Donaldson Air Force Base, a C-124 airfield that emphasized air transport and called itself the “Airlift Capital of the World”.
My first memories are from living at 201 Maco Terrace in Greenville from 1956 – 1958. That was also the first house my parents owned.
Faster than a speeding bullet!
My favorite TV show during those days was Superman. Superman always began, “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman! … He fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way!”
In 1956 and 1957 I would run around the house with a towel for a cape and wearing only a t-shirt and my tighty whities pretending I was Superman. I would have my arms stretched out in front of me, my head down as I was flying around the living room and kitchen.
I would try to fly.
One evening I decided I would try to fly. I got on the couch, then used the arm of the sofa as a step before I was standing on the top back of the sofa. Suddenly, with arms outstretched I jumped toward the television.
Instead of flying, I feel like a rock. My forehead found the corner of the coffee table. I didn’t fly but instead received a big cut.
The emergency room
We had to get in the car and drive to the emergency room at Donaldson Air Force Base. The wound was so severe that even with my mother holding a washcloth and applying pressure on it, blood was flowing from my forehead into my eyes where I couldn’t see.
I asked my mother if they would get me a seeing-eye dog if I went blind. Suddenly, the laughter filled the car. My parents were laughing at me.
Fifteen stitches
The doctor also chuckled as I received the fifteen stitches to stop the bleeding as mother retold the story. I have heard the seeing-eye dog story for over fifty years. I last heard my mother tell the story on my sixty-first birthday. She was in the hospital and shared the remembrance with the nurses. Sadly she passed three weeks later.
The happy ending was I got stitches, didn’t go blind, learned I couldn’t fly, and learned my mother had a great memory.
Growing up a military brat was a never-ending adventure.
Suffering from a chronic illness affects people in different ways. Depression may come to live with some people. Other persons can become bitter. Withdrawal from friends and family can occur with some. For the Believer in Jesus Christ, it often mellows our heart to make us more compassionate. The chronic illness allows us empathy and often becomes the point of rapport where we can minister to others now walking down the pathway we have recently traversed.
Today’s Bible Verse:
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (KJV), “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
What the verse means:
The verses are a reminder of what a wonderful God we have. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy. He is the one who comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. Why does he do this? He does this where we can help other. When a family member, friend, or coworker is chronically ill, needing our support, sympathy, and encouragement, we can pass on to them the help and comfort God has given us.
Praying using the verse:
1. Heavenly Father, we praise you for how wonderful you are.
2. We acknowledge you are the Father of our Lord Jesus.
3. We proclaim you as the one who wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in hardships and trials.
4. Thank you for teaching us how to comfort others by your example to us where we can give sympathy and encouragement.
Photo Source:Pixaby with modifications by Jimmie Aaron Kepler
For an eighteen month period in 1964 – 1966 being a Boy Scout was one of the most significant happenings in my life. The Boy Scout troop on Biggs Air Force Base at El Paso, Texas consumed most of my time. I loved the uniform, the discipline, the hiking, and camping. Well, you get the picture. I liked being a Boy Scout. I advanced from being a Tenderfoot to Second Class to First Class in record time. My goal was to be one of the youngest Eagle Scouts ever.
To achieve my goal I had to earn merit badges. Merit badges are awarded based on activities within an area of study by completing a list of periodically updated requirements. The purpose of the merit badge program allows Boy Scouts to examine subjects to determine if they would like to pursue them further as a career or vocation.
Back in my day the program also introduced Boy Scouts to the life skills of contacting an adult they hadn’t met. It required arranging a meeting, having the adult as your mentor and then demonstrating my skills, similar to a job or college interview. In more recent years, more merit badges are earned in a class setting at troop meetings and summer camps than through the guidance of a mentor.
I decided to seek the God and Country Merit Badge. I received a mimeographed list of available mentors. I called the man I selected and made an appointment.
I told my father I needed him to take me over to Fort Bliss to meet my mentor. Dad said okay. Kind of in passing, he asked who my mentor was.
I picked up my paper. I said the mentor told me he was retired from the US Army. Dad nodded. I told dad the mentor’s name was Omar Bradley. It has GA after his name, whatever that is. I knew rank abbreviations but had never seen GA before.
“General of the Army Omar Bradley?” asked dad with a gasp.
“I guess,” I recall replying.
Dad told me who he was. I gasped.
General Bradley was kind. He had been an Eagle Scout. I remember asking General Bradley what he did to relax during World War II. He said he and General Eisenhower used to work calculus problems. They would challenge each other with advanced mathematics. He said you can’t think of anything else or worry when working a real math problem. That’s when I learned calculus was math.
I was too young to appreciate the access I had to my mentor but am in awe that such men would help boys grow into our country’s future leaders. He kindly led me through the process of earning the God and Country Merit Badge. Thank you, General Bradley.
One way a writer can become successful is by having a more established writer as a mentor. Writing groups can serve the function of a mentor. Let me share an example of the influence a mentor.
In 1919 a young veteran returned from World War I. He moved to Chicago moving into a particular neighborhood for the purpose of being close to the author Sherwood Anderson.
Sherwood Anderson
The young beginning writer was impressed by the critical praise for Anderson and his book Winesburg, Ohio. He had heard that Sherwood Anderson was willing to help aspiring writers. He worked to meet Anderson. The two men became close friends. They met almost every day to read newspapers, magazines, and novels. They dissected the writings they read.
Ernest Hemingway
The aspiring writer brought his own works for critique having Anderson help him improve his craft. Anderson went as far as introducing the want-to-be writer to his network of publishing contacts. The aspiring writer did okay with his first book The Sun Also Rises. The aspiring writer was Ernest Hemingway.
William Faulkner
Sherwood Anderson didn’t stop there. He moved to New Orleans where he met another aspiring writer. He took the young man through the same steps and paces of the craft. He actually shared an apartment with this young man. He even invested $300 in getting this writer’s first book Soldier’s Pay published. This young author was William Faulkner.
John Steinbeck
Anderson would later move to California and repeat the process with John Steinbeck. Thomas Wolfe and Erskine Caldwell were also mentored by Sherwood Anderson.
Ray Bradbury says Winesburg, Ohio was on his mind when he wrote The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury basically wrote Winesburg, Ohio placing it on the planet Mars.
Mark Twain
Arguably, only Mark Twain has had a greater influence in shaping modern American writing than Sherwood Anderson. Anderson didn’t do too badly, did he?
Nobel Prize for Literature and Pulitzer Prizes
William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck each won the Nobel Prize for Literature and there are multiple Pulitzer Prizes between them.
If you are serious about writing I encourage you to find a mentor or join a writing group. The encouragement of my writer’s group and critique group keeps me motivated.
Encourage your writer friends, keep reading and writing.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler
As I face the challenges of applying a yucky tasting prescription steroid gel inside my mouth twice a day and using a compounded prescription “magic mouthwash” that has a cocktail of four different prescriptions I find myself growing weary.
Remembering to use the magic mouthwash at the right times is critical. Swishing and spitting after meals, not before meals is essential where I don’t swallow the mixture’s medicine with food or drink. It is not for internal use. The steroid gel is applied to gauze and then placed inside the mouth in the appropriate location for fifteen minutes.
Even under a physician’s care, it was hard for me to place something in my mouth marked external use only. After removing the gauze the mouth feels like I still have the gauze inside of the mouth for about an hour. Plus there is that terrible taste. Add to that I made the mistake of going to a forum on the disease and treatment. It was scary as I read about people claiming to have lost the sense of taste from using the medication. It made me cry out for God’s protection.
Today’s Bible verse
Psalm 3: 3-4 King James Version (KJV), “But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.”
What the verse means
What the verse is saying in today’s English is that God shields me like a force field. His protection is three hundred and sixty degrees. In Christ, I am both grounded in the reality of the situation and able to hold our head high. I know I am not alone. With all my strength I shout to the Lord. My cries do not go unanswered. He voice thunders His answer from His holy mountain.
Praying using the verse
Heavenly Father, I pray to You and You alone. I confess You are our shield.
Lord Jesus, You are our glory.
Thank you for being the lifter of our head.
We rejoice knowing we can cry to You and You answer our cries.
Don’t Lose Heart
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