It needs to be recognized, right up front, that for some of us everyday chores may be impossible. For others, they require cutting back, or taking frequent rest periods. This devotional is intended to encourage you, not make you feel unnecessary guilt.

Earlier this year, after I started coughing up a small amount of blood (and went into panic mode!) this subject came to mind. A few days later a large clot was disgorged, and I made an appointment with my doctor right away. Then I tried to keep my life as normal as possible, and discovered that doing routine tasks was a help. Having to focus on the now, and on familiar things, dampened my feelings of dread.

There’s also the benefit that comes from stretching, and using muscles. It can improve our fitness level and therefore our quality of life. And there’s the satisfaction of having accomplished something worthwhile, contributing not only to meeting our own needs but those of others. Such activities can develop a measure of endurance and self-discipline. But is there a way to make them less like drudgery?

God is helping me to trade my attitude of self-centered resentment for one of gladly serving Him. I have a long way to go, but this is a good motivator. In addition, I can have times of fellowship with Him while doing more automatic chores, by praying, listening to praise music, or mediating on His Word. And it’s possible to make a game of it, or team up with a friend for suggestions and motivation.

How long it takes to do things can be frustrating. But I have found lately that while it’s often hard to begin a task, once I do I’m glad I did.

Prayer: Lord, give us the grace to tackle needful things, even when they give us a measure of pain and frustration. May we be more grateful, as well, for what you enable us to do. Amen.

About the Author:
Beth Cottrill lives in a small town in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, with her retired pastor/teacher husband, Bob, an avid football fan. She finds living with Attention Deficit Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, depression, osteo-arthritis and a stroke of several years ago a challenge, but also training for a ministry to others. She loves nature, animals, music, making cards and, last but not least, being a grandma.

You can now read this on your Kindle. Find out more at http://TodaysDevotionOnKindle.com

Can you give an example of a time when chores (or just one chore) have been a special benefit to you? What do you do to make chores seem less like slave labour?

Matt and Rachel

By Matt Horne

Caring for a chronically ill wife is not what I had envisioned when I was working up the nerve to ask out “that hot girl” who would later become my wife. We were in college and she was on the cross country team. She let me know very early on in the relationship that she had a chronic illness.

Nowadays, it’s just part of life. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if she were well.

There’s a reason I call her “Super Rachel.” On her good days, she can run circles around me–cleaning, getting things checked off her to-do list, and having tons of fun. She’s amazing.

On top of that, she has the greatest attitude and rarely lets her condition get her down. As her dad says, she’s an “overcomer.” Instead of having a “why me?” attitude, she says “what can I do to fix it?” She also has the tendency to volunteer for more than she can handle, but I digress. . .

Here are some tips about the logistics I’d like to pass on to help other couples who are coping with chronic illness:

Career

Super Rachel can’t work sometimes. A couple years ago, she was working part-time, working on her Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology, and working as a Graduate Assistant at the university (to pay for school). She crashed. We worked it out so we don’t need her income and she can stay at home trying to feel better.

Priorities

She was forced to reevaluate her priorities. Rachel used every ounce of her energy to please everyone else and live up to their expectations. Sometimes she was not physically able to drive home at night and I would have to put on my shining armor and drive my mighty steed (Ford Ranger) to pick her up. We had very little free time as a couple. At that time, she decided to put God first and her family (me) second in her life. School, work, and everything else is important, but not that important.

Now that she’s feeling better, she only works 2 days a week and we carpool, so she doesn’t have to drive herself. Working two days a week at the doctor’s office is the peak of her current physical ability, but she has the opportunity to help others with the same chronic condition she has.

Mobility

I searched on craigslist.org for a walker and a go-cart. (Yes, I call it the go-cart. Yes, I know I’m wrong. It is a mobility scooter. No, I won’t change.) I got the walker for $50 ($175 off) and the go-cart for $300 ($1,000 off). The walker helps her get around the house when she’s at her worst health-wise. The go-cart helps us get the shopping done, among other things.

Shopping

I used to get really frustrated when she said she had enough energy to go shopping, but didn’t. Invariably, when we got just about five items down on the list, she would need to quit and go home. I had probably 25 more things to get. It really made me angry sometimes, but it wasn’t her fault. The walker and the scooter dramatically changed things. Now, for the first time in her life, she actually enjoys shopping.

Independence

To help her be more independent on her bad days, I installed a hand-held shower head in the bath tub and bought a shower chair. Now she can clean herself most of the time.

Comfort

We used to sleep on an incline, so there wouldn’t be as much of a change for her when she gets up in the mornings. This is a common treatment for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.

Cooking

It is very important for her to be able to eat when I’m not home, even when she can’t stand up. If you can’t stand for more than a few seconds, you obviously can’t cook on the stove top. We try to get a good number of things pre-cooked and in the freezer for her to re-heat and I’m not talking about “healthy-choice box dinners” either.

We like to do what is called “Once A Month Cooking,” or OAMC. We’re not very good at doing it regularly, but if you do it right, you can have wonderful dinners & lunches for very little cost, and it’s all home made! With OAMC, you create a plan, buy your stuff, cook all day, and then freeze it for later. Sometimes all day Saturday spills over into part of the day on Sunday.

When she’s desperate for some nutrition and doesn’t have the energy to cook, she uses the walker to get to the kitchen, musters what energy she has to get the food from the freezer to the microwave, and then sits down on the seat of the walker (or the floor) while it cooks. After that, she can eat right there in the kitchen. Some days, we use the bar stool in front of the stove or sink so that she can get some work done.

And I almost forgot – I do pick her up and carry her sometimes!

Tomorrow Matt will Share. . .

How a Husband Can Encourage a Chronically Ill Wife – The Spiritual and Emotional Stuff

Matt Horne is the wife of Rachel, who lives with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and fibromyalgia, among other conditions. They have been married since December 2006 and Rachel is currently pregnant with her first child. Matt is the youth pastor at the First Baptist Church Hebron in Carrollton, Texas. You can visit his web site at http://www.matthorne.info .

Super-Naturally Healthy Families Cookbook, written by Certified Biblical Health Coach & TV host Joanna Faillace, is packed with all natural & great tasting smoothies, snacks, “habit-izers”, meals & desserts! Our “fast food” lifestyle is causing obesity & disease at alarming rates in families across the globe! But there is hope! Now you & your family can make delicious & nutritious recipes without all those artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, dangerous chemical pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, chemically engineered feed, growth hormones & antibiotics that have been proven to be linked to all kinds of health problems!

In Super-Naturally Healthy Families, you will also be blessed & inspired by beautifully written devotionals by the gifted writer, L. P. Topazio. Included also, are Super-Naturally Healthy Tips that will help you with meal planning & a comprehensive chart listing Biblical foods & their references. There’s even a helpful guide to healing herbs & spices & special sections for note-taking!

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At just 5 calories & one sugar gram per 1/4 of a teaspoon (which nicely coats a bowl of popcorn), you can treat those cravings– without the calories! It’s not sticky, but it’s a light seasoning that does have that kettle corn flavor.

So far, we’ve only located this flavor at our local Blockbuster video store. It is a .9 ounce bottle & is just $.99.

Other flavors have spotted at places like Target & the grocery store, including butter & nacho cheese.

Any flavor can also be ordered at the Kernel Seasons web site for $3.99 for a 3 ounce bottle. The website offers special discounts for bulk orders as well as a listing of all the stores that carry the product near you.

HealthDay News reported, “Their study of 42 people with type 1 diabetes found that nearly half had immune system T-cells that overreacted to wheat. The researchers also identified genes associated with this abnormal immune response. ‘The immune system has to find the perfect balance to defend the body against foreign invaders without hurting itself or overreacting to the environment, & this can be particularly challenging in the gut, where there is an abundance of food & bacteria,’ study author Dr. Fraser Scott, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute & professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, said in a hospital news release.”

“Our research suggests that people with certain genes may be more likely to develop an overreaction to wheat & possibly other foods in the gut, & this may tip the balance with the immune system & make the body more likely to develop other immune problems, such as type 1 diabetes,” he explained.

The study appeared in the August 2009 issue of Diabetes. “These observations add to the accumulating evidence that the gut is an active player in the diabetes disease process,” Dr. Mikael Knip of Finl& wrote in an accompanying editorial.

Fore More information see The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases has more about diabetes.

I love it! Here are a few things to consider:

• it’s not a cappuccino maker & you don’t use individual coffee flavors like some of them. This is basically just a regular coffee pot, but the coffee goes into a pot/container inside the machine, not a pot outside.
• it doesn’t come with travel mugs as some other versions or br& names do.
• you can set the pot to make the coffee a certain temperature. Now when I dump my sugar free cream in from the fridge the coffee stays hot.
• no heavy pots to lift!
• I do have some mugs that have a wide rim & these aren’t able to line up right with the push button & spout so coffee spills. If I want to use one of these mugs, I do have to get the coffee out in another container or something first. I’ve learned to live with it, but this could have been made better.
• You can pull out the entire container of coffee, so if you had a lot of people you could serve it this way which would be faster, or transfer it to a carafe.
• My husb& says it cleans easily (I love that he cleans it for me)

I recommend this, especially if you have any h& issues with lifting coffee pots!

-Lisa C.