Parents caring for kids with special needs or other loved ones require large doses of hope. However, as guest blogger Rebekah Benimoff knows, hope can be hard to find. In part one of her Hope in Hard Places series, she explains where she found hope in the dark days of her caregiving journey. Tomorrow she’ll be back to explain how the character of God is the foundation of her hope.

Hope in Hard Places, Part 1

Those who know I am caregiver to three family members with special needs ask how I do it. Honestly, sometimes I don’t quite know. How did I get from there to here? How did I move from devastating diagnosis, to a place where I can look life in the face again—even on the hard days? It has been a journey, and I am still in process, yet what I do know is that my greatest learning involves connecting to the One who is my Source still today.

The question that strikes deepest is how to live hope in the hard places. I think back to those days of darkest oppression, after my husband’s diagnosis with PTSD. He was getting inpatient treatment in a VA facility, and I was left to care for two little boys with special needs on my own, far away from family and friends. Those were desperate days, and I continually cried out to God, for no other trusted loved one was near. I was lonely, yes, but not alone.

I clung to Jesus, reminding myself over and over that there was such hope to be found, as I sought to train my mind to grip tight to that hope. This helped me put one foot in front of the other, but what changed me was not the power of positive thinking. The moment that changed everything was when God met me with unconditional acceptance and gave me freedom to grieve this diagnosis, and the others that came before.

Questions to Ponder

Here are some questions until Part 2 of the series posts tomorrow: What areas or diagnoses do you need to grieve? How have you embraced freedom to deal with loss and suffering?

Hope in Hard Places, Part 2

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