Stepping Back

As caregivers, we do our best to meet the needs of the person we’re caring for. What about those times, though, when we can’t make things better?

There may come a point when we have to step back, when we need to let the people we’re caring for deal with some of their own issues. We can offer encouragement, but they’ll have to find the courage. We can speak of hope, but they have to feel it. We can push positive thinking, but they may need to grieve over a particular situation.

Jesus had friends who were close to Him, but there came a point when it was just Him and God. Jesus knew, no matter how understanding His friends tried to be, that they couldn’t know the depth of His feelings at that moment. And that holds true for us, too.

We can never fully understand how another person feels. We sympathize, empathize, even try to imagine…but we can’t know for sure all the thoughts that go through his or her mind.

God, however, does know. He has total access to our bodies, hearts, and minds. We don’t have to fear stepping back because we know that God is there caring both for us and for our loved ones.