Caring for our Bodies to Meet the Needs of Those We Love

by jphilo | Mar 6, 2024 | Different Dream, Encouragement, Self-Care and Stress

Caring for our Bodies to Meet the Needs of Those We Love

Caring for our bodies to meet the needs of those we love is a good thing to do. In this post, guest blogger Heather Braucher tells about her long journey to improved health for the benefit of her family members, which includes two boys with special needs.

A memory becomes a core memory because we never forget how we felt.

Aashna Jain

A couple weeks ago, a core memory was made in me while the fitness company I work for filmed me leading a workout for the first time.

The reason the event was so significant was that prior to finding this program I had endured a 10+ years of debilitating chronic back and neck pain that took away my job as a strength coach, impaired my ability to hold and nurse my children when they were young, and required significant time and resources to treat.

I feel like I have been given a second chance at life and am living out these verses in Joel 2:25-32:

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.

I now GET to help others who are looking for similar support, wisdom, and relief.

My journey did not happen overnight. It started when I decided to not give up on asking God to help me care for my body well. Some days that looked like asking for pain relief, other days it was asking for direction on who to ask for help.

At first those prayers were just for me. Then the position of my heart changed. I prayed that my body would be a blessing to my spouse and that my endurance and testimony would glorify God. When I had children, I prayed for my body’s ability to care for my children well, sustain them, hold them and be there for them.

The call to care well for my body in order to meet the needs of those I love was a powerful one on my life. In 1 Peter 4:10, God asks us to be good stewards of the gifts that he gives us. Our bodies are one of those gifts.

The definition of stewardship is “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” We are quick to identify those things as the jobs we have, our homes, resources, and finances. We know that the precious children and family members he entrusts into our care requires our faithful stewardship too.

Often as a caregiver, we are exhausted and giving our all to manage the needs of those given to us. There is little left over to use to care for ourselves. But I tell you this:

YOU are worth caring for. Your health will overflow into the lives you are caring for. And if you don’t, who will?

Sometimes our pain and suffering is a gift. Mine turned out to be the tool that God is using now to help others. It is also the tool that helps me to understand, embrace, and nurture my children with special needs.

I started this article with Aashna Jains’ quote about core memories. There is power in remembering what it felt like to suffer. Those memories help me live out 2 Corinthians 1:4 which says, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

My passion is shared with many of you who have suffered, endured, been restored, and blessed to serve others. My hope and prayer is to provide other caregivers with the hope and possibility to care for themselves well so they can serve well, so that the lives of those they serve and their own CAN BE abundantly blessed.

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Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

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Heather Braucher is a member of the “Braucher Bunch” aka her energetic family of 5. The bunch includes her husband and their three children, all of whom are dominant and extroverted and are going to change the world (if she can keep them alive!) She has always held a passion for writing, but motherhood has given her a reason to share her experiences, heartaches, and victories with others. In her writing you will hear stories of hope as well as grief, as her family has navigated life in ministry in the US and overseas, all while discovering that 2 of her children have special needs. Her desire is to provide others with connection, understanding, encouragement and laughter, all washed with the love of Christ.

Author Jolene Philo

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When Parents of Kids with Disabilities Get Ahead of Themselves

When parents of kids with disabilities get ahead of themselves—and let me be clear, I’m speaking from personal experience here—they remind me of Jodi, a kindergartener I taught long, long ago.

She was the daughter of a family friend, and I’d known her since she was three. She was a bright, curious, articulate, organized, and driven preschooler. Before she set foot in my classroom, I knew she would be hard to keep up with once she got there.

The first day of school, I showed Jodi where to put her lunch box and tried to lead her into the classroom. She planted her little feet and looked me in the eye.

“What happens first today?” she asked.

“You put your school supplies in your desk.” I replied.

“Then what?”

“We’ll say the pledge.”

She waved my answer away. “No, not that. What are we learning first?”

“Oh,” I said. “Reading.”

“What happens during reading?”

I gave her my Cliff Notes version after which she asked, “Then what?”

“Recess,” I said.

“And after that?”

“Math.”

“What’s math?”At this point I put a stop to her grilling by saying, “Jodi, you’re getting ahead of yourself. You need to trust me to explain what comes next when the time is right. Now find your desk and unpack your school supplies.”

Grim-faced, she went to her desk and did as I’d asked. By the end of the day, she had experienced everything she’d wanted to know before school began. Her parents later told me she had an emotional meltdown after school and fell asleep during supper. Which goes to show that bright, curious, articulate, organized, and driven five-year-olds are still just five years old.

A few years later, our son was born and diagnosed with EA/TEF. Immediately after receiving the diagnosis, I prayed, “God,” I asked, “what happens next?”

He answered when the diagnosing doctor said our son should be life-flighted to a university hospital almost a thousand miles away for immediate surgery. In the intervening two days, I aimed a barrage of questions at God.

Click here to read the rest of When Parents of Kids with Disabilities Get Ahead of Themselves at the Key Ministry blog for parents.

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Photo by Edi Libedinsky on Unsplash

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Jolene Philo is the author of several books for the caregiving community. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and Amazon. See Jane Dance!, the third book in the West River cozy mystery series, which features characters affected by disability, was released in October of 2023.