Caregiver Chronicles: When Endurance is the Only Choice You Have

It seems like eons ago that Sam climbed in his car and drove to my house, his walker still standing in front of his house, but it's only been a few weeks.

I slept until 6:00 this morning, so I was behind from the start. My routine is to get up, get coffee, and get going. First stop is quiet time with our Lord. Today, everything was later than usual, so I ended up altering my schedule to help Sam up.

My routines have died a hard death over the last five weeks, and I've struggled to adjust to the change. Again, this morning, caregiving altered my usual timetable. 

I sat down before the Lord, tears brimming, no words to say except, "Hard, Lord. This is hard." 

Please don't misunderstand. I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. This has brought an abundance of peace and joy, but it's a change. With change comes a certain amount of stress. 

I know endurance is the only choice I have, but that doesn't make it easy. 

Still quiet, I opened James (because I am way behind on converting the James study from an e-book to a traditional book) and found these words:

"Consider it all joy, Leanna, when you encounter various trials; knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-3 

James wrote "my brethren" instead of my name, of course. 

Here's the Leanna paraphrase: "Hey, you. The one who's going through a hard time. I'm talking to you. Settle down and let God get you through it. He's teaching you endurance and, if you'll hold on, that endurance will do a work in you. I want you perfect and complete, and this is my tool to accomplish it." 

I laughed out loud when I read James' words. He spoke directly to me today.

I took a deep breath and prayed a profound prayer. "Okay, Lord." 

In case you didn't recognize it, that's a prayer of surrender. I've had to pray it quite a few times in the last five weeks. I'm confident I'll pray it quite a few more before we're done.

When we encounter trials, we get through them one surrender at a time. That's what I'm doing today...surrendering at the start and letting God's timetable replace my own.

What about you? Are you struggling with a trial? 

It's much easier if you surrender to God's plan of endurance and refinement. So, today, let's face our trial by bowing to the plan of God and let Him have His way in us.

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If you're new to this series, you can read about how it started here: When the Time to Move Finally Comes

In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: Caregiver Chronicles: A Matter of Perspective

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