One Grateful Dementia Caregiver’s Reflection On A Labor Of Love
Have you ever thought of your caregiving as a labor of love?
Lizette reminds us that all labor is active, just as God actively created the world in six days. Our caregiving, too, is an active decision. It’s a way to serve our loved ones and honor God.
The episode invites us to see this labor not as a burden but as a gift. It’s an opportunity for spiritual growth and sanctification.
The Journey of Caregiving
Caregiving is a journey filled with choices. It’s not just about the actions you take but also about your mindset. You can choose to be active in this journey or reactive.
Being active means making deliberate decisions. Being reactive means letting circumstances control you.
This episode encourages caregivers to be active, embracing the journey with a grateful heart.
Rest is Essential
Lizette also highlights the importance of rest. Even God rested on the seventh day after creating the world. Caregiving doesn’t mean neglecting your own needs. You must build in time for rest and respite.
This helps you recharge and continue your caregiving with renewed strength and spirit. Remember, rest is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.
Finding Support
Lizette offers unique ways for caregivers to find support. One option is scheduling a personalized conversation with the host. This allows for one-on-one guidance tailored to your specific struggles.
Such opportunities are rare but invaluable. They provide a safe space for caregivers to share their experiences and seek advice.
Celebrating Milestones
Reaching 10,000 downloads is a significant milestone for the podcast. But it’s not about the numbers. It’s about the lives touched and the community built. Each download represents a caregiver finding hope and strength.
Lizette is grateful for every listener, seeing this milestone as a collective achievement. It’s a reminder that in this journey, you are not alone.
Embracing Gratitude
The episode concludes with a call to embrace gratitude. Being grateful doesn’t mean ignoring the challenges. It means acknowledging God’s hand in every aspect of your caregiving journey.
You are seen, and your labor is not in vain. This message of hope and encouragement is a powerful reminder that God is with you, guiding you every step of the way.
By reframing your perspective on caregiving, you can find joy and fulfillment. It’s about seeing caregiving not as a burden but as a blessing.
A chance to grow, to serve, and to honor God. So, take a moment today to be grateful for your journey. You are making a difference, and you are not alone.
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Read More:
Talking About Caregiver Burnout With Michelle Gordon
Check the other podcasts: https://dignicarebydesign.com/category/podcast/
Email me at: lizette@dignicarebydesign.com
Message me at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkdifferentdementia/
Gratitude and Caregiving
[0:01] Have you ever had a goal for yourself that you didn’t know whether or not you were going to achieve it? Have you ever been striving for something that you were hoping was going to happen but seemed like it was so far in the future or something that you’re not going to be able to get? Today’s episode, I explore my gratitude related to a reflection on my labor of love to you, my community, this community of Christian dementia caregivers. And I’m extremely grateful to the Lord for everything that He has done and everything that He has provided for me through this podcast. So listen to today’s episode related to being grateful and a reflection on a a labor of love. If you haven’t had an opportunity to spend 20 to 30 minutes with me as a give back, as a present for me to this particular community related to helping you along your journey, I invite you to schedule a time and be a co-creator of a podcast episode where you come on to the podcast and we sit and have a dialogue where I can help you along your way related to your particular struggles as a Christian dementia caregiver.
[1:29] The link for these episodes is in the show notes. You can sign up anytime. We can make you anonymous if you would prefer to be. There are lots of ways that we can do this, but I’m here to serve you. And I want to know how better to serve you and what better way to do that than having real live conversations where your specific questions are answered and where you can get more one-on-one and individual support. So you have a couple of ways you can do that. You can message me on Facebook or on Instagram, the word audit, A-U-D-I-T, audit, or you can click the link in the show notes and schedule a 20 to 30 minute conversation with me related to your particular struggles related to being a Christian dementia caregiver. I look forward to meeting with you.
The Journey of Caregiving
[2:32] Hey Christian caregiver, welcome back to the podcast where I teach Bible-believing Christians where to continue to find help as well as hope during their dementia caregiving journey. Today is Monday the 2nd of September, which if you live in the United States is Labor Day, and I wanted to take a brief time out and talk about being grateful as a dementia caregiver, a reflection on a labor of love. That’s what this particular episode is about. Our lives are a journey. We make a series of decisions throughout our life based on our worldview, what it is that we believe to be true, and all of our decisions have consequences.
[3:22] But most decisions can be changed. Deciding to do something doesn’t mean anything unless you take action. For example, in 1993, my husband and I emigrated to the United States. We made an active decision, took active steps to to actually implement the plan and implement the decision that we made to emigrate to the United States. Without actually taking action, we would still be living in South Africa or somewhere else unless we had decided to do something else, right? So our lives are a journey. Being a caregiver is a part of our journey. And all of the decisions that we make are something that ultimately leads us to, and through the journey that we have. About September last year, I made a decision that I wanted to start a podcast.
[4:22] And as a part of that decision to start a podcast, it started me on a journey. And the journey that I have been on, I’m extremely grateful for this journey. It has stretched me. It has expanded my thinking. It has changed who I am as a person and has been a wonderful part of my own sanctification process because every single time I come to record the episodes of this podcast, I have to trust in the Lord that He is going to give me the right words at the right time to touch the right people’s hearts and that I have to trust that I’m making an impact in the world, even though I don’t always.
[5:12] See it, but it is absolutely a journey of trust and trust in God’s provision and a part of my own sanctification process. So I wanted to talk to you about something today and something I’m extremely grateful for, and that is that as I’m recording the podcast this morning, I looked to see the statistics of the podcast to kind of track how it’s growing,
Celebrating Milestones
[5:39] what it’s doing, and if it’s impacting people’s lives. And effective this morning, this particular podcast, Christian Dementia Caregiving, has reached 10,000 downloads. Now that is a big milestone for anybody who is a caregiver, but it’s not about me. It’s not about me at all. Because what came to my mind as I saw the numbers, because the only reason the numbers are important, it’s not a vanity metric for me, But the reason the numbers are important to me is because those numbers represent people whose lives I’ve impacted and hopefully affected a change in. And it reminded me of Psalm 127, where it says, “…unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city…”.
[6:34] The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors, for he gives his beloved even in his sleep. And so my trust has been in the Lord to prepare and provide the right people at the right time for being open to, listening to, and benefiting, hopefully, from this particular podcast called Christian Dementia Caregiving. It has been an absolute journey, a journey of trust, a journey of being grateful to the Lord for preparing and providing every one of you as faithful listeners, as faithful people who share this podcast with other people, because I want to serve you. I want to impact your life. I want to show God’s glory through the journey of caregiving for each and every one of us, myself included. This podcast was started to serve a bigger audience related to dementia caregivers, family caregivers.
[7:46] And in my own journey, I realized and recognized that I truly want to serve Christian families who are navigating this journey because it doesn’t appear in the world Like there’s very many people serving Christians from a Christian worldview related to their dementia caregiving. And so I’m very grateful to the Lord for every single one of you related to this particular labor of love for me to record.
[8:16] Take time, think through the research, look at what it is that you want from this podcast. Lots of things go into the development of this podcast in the background. So I just wanted to take some time this Labor Day and tell you that I am grateful to every single one of you for listening to, subscribing to this podcast.
Active Labor in Caregiving
[8:38] Sharing the podcast with other people because it is my labor of love to you. And something else I wanted you to think about and reflect with me today is that all labor on this Labor Day is active. And our labor is active in our caregiving journey. The Lord created the heavens and the earth, and he labored actively in the first six days of creation to achieve his purpose.
[9:06] And caregiving, our caregiving journey, is also an active labor of love. It’s an active decision to be a caregiver. And we have two choices when we are faced with dementia caregiving in our lives. The two choices are to be active in the journey or to be reactive to the journey. Those are the choices we have. We all make daily decisions and daily choices related to every part of our journey. Yes, God is sovereign. God has absolutely decreed and predestined our lives for us, but we are still active in how we navigate our journey. We’re active in making decisions. We’re active in how we choose to respond, and our decisions are a part of our sanctification. So remember as we are laboring in our caregiving journey that all labor is active and we can either be active in the journey or we can be reactive to the journey.
[10:09] Are you feeling stressed as a Christian dementia caregiver? Let me help. I offer a monthly dementia care audit to one listener of this program to provide you with personalized but evidence-based strategies from a biblical perspective. We only have one session available each month. Don’t miss this opportunity to make your dementia caregiving journey easier. Schedule your own dementia care audit today.
The Importance of Rest
[10:40] And then brother and sister, rest in God. Rest in God related to your caregiving journey and recognize and realize that even though we are asked and sometimes tasked to provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week care to another person, it doesn’t mean that we’re not required or mandated by God to rest. God created the world in six days, and then he rested on the seventh day. He built into creation this fabric and process of restoring and requiring us to take a rest break. And so even though we are seven-day-a-week caregivers, that doesn’t mean that we can be, nor does it mean that we should be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week without rest.
[11:37] You have to build in rest and respite into your labors.
Gratitude for Our Labors
[11:44] So keep that in the back of your mind. And then lastly, be grateful for your labors. Labor is good. We are created to be active in the kingdom of God. We are created to labor in God’s kingdom. And in this particular time and in this particular season in your life, you might be required or asked to labor in the task of caregiving. And our caregiving labors are forming us into who it is God wants us to be. God is active in our labors. God is active in these circumstances.
[12:23] And this is not just bad luck. We have been given, the Lord has given us this particular situation in our life, and He has done this for our good and for His glory. So I just wanted to tell you today, to take a couple of minutes on this Labor Day, to say thank you, to be grateful for every single one person who who has listened to and helped me get in this labor of love to 10,000 downloads, which is a big milestone. And so I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for sharing these episodes. Thank you for laboring with me related to your family, for being a caregiver, for loving them, for stepping up, for being active, for laboring in love. You are not unseen.
[13:16] You are absolutely seen, if not by your family, if not by other people, you are seen by God. And for you, every single day, I pray and say thank you to the Lord for allowing
Recap and Closing Blessing
[13:29] me to serve you in a different and more special way than I ever imagined possible. So to recap today’s episode, we are celebrating the 10,000 downloads from this community, which is a wonderful gift that I’m extremely grateful for. And I, as I end all of the podcasts, I want to say, may the Lord bless you and keep you. And remember that you are not laboring in vain. Even though right now, today, you may not feel or see the fruits of your labor, you are not laboring in vain. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. And I will see you in the next episode.
