The Importance of Being There
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.—2 John 1:12 (NIV)
The Lord is near to those who are discouraged; he saves those who have lost all hope.—PSALM 34:18 (NIV)
My husband, Herb, suffered from severe anxiety and depression for years. In the anxious state, he would
complain about everything. In his depression, he cried and said he no longer wanted to live. “If I had a broken leg, people could see that I’m in pain,” he’d say. “But because there’s no blood, people don’t care!”
As a psychiatric nurse, I supposedly had all the tools to help people with mental illness. And yet I felt I could do nothing that really worked for my own husband! “I’m such a failure,” I kept telling myself.
On one of Herb’s visits to his psychiatrist, a nurse pulled me aside when she saw me crying. She said, “You’re NOT his nurse. You are his wife, and your husband is NOT your patient.” She told me I had to do something for me every day. “But I’m the one who’s supposed to be giving the help, not the one who requires it,” I said. She said, “You have to press the reset button on your brain and be a caregiver to yourself!”
I thought hard about what she’d said, and decided to try to find my reset button by joining a gym. It helped so much to take that time for myself!
Lord, thank you for reminding me that I need to take care of myself even when I’m taking care of others.
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.—2 John 1:12 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.—2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)
The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper.—Proverbs 19:8 (NIV)