You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.—PSALM 86:5 NIV
Emotions besiege us as caregivers. Sometimes the constant assault causes us to barricade our hearts with high, protective walls. Even so, waves of feeling attack us when we’re tired or discouraged—our weakest moments.
We are often tossed back and forth between anger and despair, fear and confidence, joy and consuming sorrow. The intensity of all that raw emotion leaves us exhausted. Often we’re tempted to try to seal out all feelings…as if we ever could.
We’re not perfect. And there’s really no such thing as a “perfect caregiver.” Our best strategy is to acknowledge our
volatile moods and find healthy ways to express them. In prayer, we can connect with God’s own heart and learn to be gentle and forgiving—with others and ourselves.
God understands and wants to help us. Instead of creating our own walls of protection, let’s cover our hearts with His love and forgiveness. Express your feelings to Him, knowing that He understands, forgives, and strengthens with His love.
Lord of all emotions, I cry out to You from the depths of my feelings. I am overwhelmed and don’t know where to go with all these bottled-up emotions. I know You understand. Thank You for being there—protecting, forgiving, and loving me no matter how I feel.
When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.—Job 2:11 (NIV)
Ears that hear and eyes that see—the Lord has made them both.—Proverbs 20:12 (NIV)
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.—Matthew 10:14 (NIV)
