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Ten Commandments for Caregivers by Phil Callaway If you’re exhausted from caring for those you love, here are a few reminders of what can keep us relatively sane in the midst of life’s challenges. 1. Laugh a little each day She couldn’t believe it at first, but it was his way of finding sanity in a dark place. There are times we cry, but sometimes laughter is our most effective weapon — perhaps the only one we have. And it’s cheaper than counselling. 2. Find a confidante If you can’t find a support group, start one. If you can’t start one, get a pet. Sometimes my dog is my support group. She’s the only one who’ll listen without interrupting. 3. Carve hurry from your life When I discovered “no” as a complete sentence, I freed time for pursuing my gifts. When I learned to enjoy things without owning them, I forgot about the Joneses. When I began taking care of myself, I was better equipped to take care of others. Sometimes the most pressing thing you can do is take a rest. 4. Exercise three times a week 5. Enjoy the right food and take longer to eat it But middle-age informs me that my philosophy is flawed. Pants that fit last Thursday are malfunctioning. I need to acquaint myself with salmon, broccoli, nuts, and blueberries. And never pass up an opportunity to savour dessert. A recent study conducted by the dark chocolate industry indicates dark chocolate is good for you and may constitute a food group. 6. Run away from home When you can’t take what you’ve been taking any longer, take a vacation. 7. Take care of the home front 8. Worry less 9. Remember you’re more amazing than you think So never underestimate the power of a kind word, a touch, a smile, a tear, or a compliment. You’re the answer to someone’s prayer. There will be resistance, but the rewards are out of this world. 10. Go looking for the blessings Phil Callaway is the author of ‘Family Squeeze: Hope and Hilarity of a Sandwiched Generation.’ Visit him at www.laughagain.org.
Couched in Mystery by Rhonda Rhea Boy, do we need a new sofa. There are quite a few reasons why, the first being that we’re a wrestle-on-the-sofa kind of family. It’s like WWE on a smaller, sofa-sized scale. My teen boys are 6-footers so it was only a few months of wrestling before the couch lost a round or two and started making a loud popping sound every time we sit on it. Hey, if I’d wanted a crunchy couch I would’ve left the kids’ potato chips in there, thank you very much. It’s like a cereal sofa with all that snap, crackle, and popping. I sat down on it the other day and I was sure I’d just snapped my spine. Scary. Even more scary the second reason we need a new sofa. With five kids, I shudder to think of all the fermenting Pepsi, pizza sauce, Ramen residue, and old milk in there (although the milk is more likely closer to cottage cheese by now). It’s full of toxic liquid teenager solution. I don’t even want to know what kind of juices I’m sitting on. Whatever is in there, it’s “couched” in mystery. Come to think of it, maybe it’s good that the sofa makes that loud popping sound. It’s probably drowning out the “squish.” Any way you look at it, I’ve done a thorough couch-check and it’s time to burn this thing. Time to put it to death. I have to do a life-check regularly, too, to make sure I get rid of anything squishy. Sitting on sin? That’s worse than sitting on a fermenting sofa. The Bible explains how to do this: confess that your life thus far has more than a few stains and has popped some faulty springs. Accept God’s offer to clean up your past and turn your life over to Jesus. He forgives our past, and His love allows us to have a brand new start, in effect reupholstering ourselves with Him. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” How wonderfully amazing that because of the love of God, we can be forgiven — totally cleaned up! Our grubby past is replaced with a future that makes us smile, not to mention God. He has a life designed for each one of us, more beautiful than the newest, cleanest, top-of-the-line designer couch. Maybe not so much a couch as a “love seat.” As for my squishy and crackly sofa, I’m off to burn it. I just hope that with all those teenage chemicals in there it’s not too flammable. I don’t want to lose my eyebrows over this thing. Rhonda Rhea is a radio personality and a conference speaker for events across North America. She is a wife, mother and author of several fun and fruitful books. Look for her newest book, ‘The Purse-uit of Holiness’ in stores now. Find out more at www.RhondaRhea.org. 
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