I need to have someone come to my home every morning 7:00-10:30 to help with my medical care, shower and getting dressed for the day. I am blessed right now with a good season of caregivers. Jan, Nicole and Lisa (they take different days of the week) are the loveliest people! Although I’m very grateful that there are people that enjoy doing this type of work, after 365 days multiplied by almost 25 years, I would love to get up on my own. How great that would be! What a joy! When writing about how pure frustration in training caregivers was the catalyst for me learning to praise God, I wrote in my new book “Still I Will Praise”:

“One day I was sharing my struggle with my friend Joni Eareckson Tada (speaker, singer, author and founder of the International Disability Center). Being quadriplegic for over forty years, she understood my struggle of training new caregivers, and she told me one of her strategies. When the caregiver comes through the door, she says, ‘Lord, I don’t have a smile for this woman who’s coming in right now. But You do.’ So I began praying this way and added, ‘so please smile through me.’”

How we can apply this in all situations! Thank you, Joni! If we don’t have a smile for someone, let’s ask the Lord to smile through us. Now if I can just REMEMBER to do it!

Here’s a clip from the opening chapter of “Still, I Will Praise”. I’m hoping during the week to give you a little something to think about… check back often!

“I’m sure you will agree that in difficult seasons we don’t feel like praising God. We’d rather wallow in our misery. We feel more comfortable griping, complaining, faultfinding and being crabby. Let’s face it: in unpleasant situations, praising God is not our natural instinct. That’s what the writer of Hebrews calls a “sacrifice of praise” (13:15). A sacrifice of praise means that we offer honor and praise to God whether our circumstances are good or bad, whether we feel like it or not. It’s a discipline. So if it’s unnatural, if it’s a discipline, then ugh, why do it? Because our praise brings us to the heart of God. Ps 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people. In other words, when we praise, God shows up! Praise and worship put God where He belongs (on the throne) and us where we belong (in submission). I’ve come to understand that when we take our focus off our own concerns and annoyances and place it on what a great God we serve, the weight of our problems lightens and our faith begins to soar.”

– from Chapter 1 “Let’s Get Started”