Dear Caregivers,

I was just talking about you all today with a friend. Thinking of how you have loved someone sacrificially, possibly for years. Maybe even decades. Yet even if it’s been minutes you’ve been there for a loved one, here you are, caring for someone who can’t return the same. They might love you, but maybe they don’t even know it anymore. They might be that far out of your grasp. Or perhaps the relationship just isn’t what it once was. You are in a caregiver role, and everything has changed. The world’s upside down. You never asked for it. Neither did your loved one. So you choose the best in every single day, and you hold on even when your heart is breaking and you want to cry out that this wasn’t what you expected.

Caregivers, you are doing a good job. Yes, you, who feel unworthy of that compliment because there are days you doubt you can do it one more time. Days the guilt over your thoughts of wanting to give up choke you. What you are doing in caregiving for someone else is so incredibly hard and so incredibly beautiful.

Some people walk away. But not you. You have stayed through dark days and nights. You have chosen to show up, day after day. You are beautiful. I am so thankful for your shining light.

You have missed out on things. Events. Relationships. You have sacrificed. You have lost some things along the way and you have gained so much. You are love walking around in human flesh. I am sorry for the things you’ve missed. I’m sorry for the people you love who are not the same as they once were. But I am thankful for you. For the example you set. For the way you choose to put others above yourself. Caregiving is not easy. But so many of you make it look like it is. Today my prayer is that you would know how wonderful and appreciated you are. That you would feel God’s peace on this road he has asked you to travel. That you would be encouraged to love big one more day. That your heart would be comforted as a loved one slips away from you and what once was is no more.

I see you. I see your efforts and your sacrifices. I see your gentle hearts.

I see you, and you are beautiful.

Thank you for all you do.

When your crown is bigger and more bedazzled than mine in Heaven, I’ll immediately know why. Oh, they were a caregiver, I’ll think. They get the best jewels. The brightest.

Exactly as it should be.