What do we see as we care for a person who is suffering? Do you see that person as a burden, an irritation, an interruption, or an old needy person? As caregivers--whether we are caring for a co-worker who is going through a divorce, or a friend who has cancer, or caring-full-time for a spouse or parent--we need to remember that the person is first of all a child created by God.
In 1972 Joe Biden was elected to the Senate and a week later his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash. In...
We have all known loss. The grief we’ve felt in the midst of our pain has perhaps seemed overwhelming. The most...
One afternoon, I pushed the button to replay my phone messages and was shocked to hear a young angry voice say, “Shame on you! How can you call yourself a Christian woman and do what you are doing! You should be ashamed at yourself.” I wondered what I had been doing that earned these angry, slanderous words. As he proceeded, I found out. He said, “You talked my mom into getting a divorce. How could you? I’m not going to allow you to put my dad down! I won’t stand for it.”
Kim Hamer says, "What a person needs when going through a crisis is a witness. They need someone to acknowledge the fact that what they are going through is very difficult. Their life is crappy. They need you to be their witness."
What do you say when someone is crying? You could say:
By Chic Broersma A little girl on an errand for her mother took too long in getting back. “Why?” Mom asked. The...
Grief is a normal and natural process by which a person makes a healthy adjustment to any significant loss in his or her life. Any significant loss (the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a broken marriage, deterioration of health, a shattered dream) triggers the process.
I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. When people are talking . . .listen to what they're saying. Care about it. It has taken me a long time to believe in the power of simply saying, "I'm so sorry," when someone is in pain. And meaning it. One of my patients told me that when she tried to tell her story people often interrupted to tell her that they once had something just like than happen to them.
