My cousin, Dr. Vicki Gilliam wrote a book entitled, \u201cForty Days of Care for the Caregiver\u201d out of her experiences as a career specialist to special needs students, and as a caregiver for her own aging mother. I scanned the book when it was written and even wrote an endorsement for the back cover. This week, as I continued to be the primary caregiver for my wife, following her major pelvis\/hip surgery, I read Vicki\u2019s book again, not as an endorser, but as one needing help. As one who has spent most of his adult life \u201con a stage\u201d speaking, or \u201cin a room\u201d teaching, or \u201con a page\u201d writing, Vicki\u2019s poem hit home:<\/p>\n
\u201cLord, I can serve you on a stage
\nOr in a room or on a page
\nHelp me to love \u201cthe least of these,\u201d
\nEspecially when no one sees.<\/p>\n
Quiet, and mostly behind the scenes, to most of the world Joanne might be considered one of \u201cthe least of these,\u201d but to those who really know her, she is anything but \u201cleast.\u201d She is now off her feet for three months. I\u2019ve cleared my calendar, and as frustrating as caregiving is at times, it is an honor to serve as her caregiver. In my preaching, teaching and writing, I have always tried to be somewhat of a caregiver, but now I am learning that caregiving, includes care-living. I\u2019m re-learning that the Lord didn\u2019t just preach, teach, and heal, He was also, \u201ca very present help in trouble\u201d (Psalm 46:1). I\u2019m trying to be that also. Quoting again from Vicki\u2019s book:<\/p>\n
I know I\u2019m not all I should be
\nOr everything You want from me.
\nLord, make me just a ball of clay
\nSo You can mold me in Your way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My cousin, Dr. Vicki Gilliam wrote a book entitled, \u201cForty Days of Care for the Caregiver\u201d out of her experiences as a career specialist to special needs students, and as a caregiver for her own aging mother. I scanned the book when it was written and even wrote an endorsement for the back cover. This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}