To Maintain Spiritual Resilience, They Need Opportunities for…
6. Reading the Bible Together
When your loved one can’t read the Bible easily anymore… or perhaps finds holding a Bible too painful for arthritic hands… take the time to read to them. Share with one another how that Scripture speaks to you. If possible arrange for them to have an audio Bible that they can listen to when they wish.
7. Praying Aloud Together
Pray with your loved one. Praying aloud is truly good therapy, and it restores to your loved one their sense of being a priest for their family as they pray aloud with you, and name the concerns and the family members who are on their heart.
8. Enjoying Music and Poetry That Restore the Spirit
Music speaks to our spirits more powerfully than perhaps anything else. Make sure the staff know to put on their favorite CDs or help them with their tablet or mp3 player when they want to hear music that will enrich their spirit.
The old hymns of faith are a deep well of strength. Even on their deathbed, believers will sing along with words engraved in their memory. Hymns to sing are available in the Resource section of my website. https://kingdomcaregiverscoach.com/resources
Try to find some of the poems your loved one was familiar with in their younger years. The older Boomers were a generation that still memorized poetry, and some of those poems can bring confidence and inspiration as they recite them with you.
9. Engaging in Creativity
Older persons are still made in the image of the Creator, so how could you build ‘creativity’ into their life? Could you together collect and press flowers or autumn leaves? Sand and polish a unique piece of wood? Gather and arrange lovely pebbles? Obviously you want to encourage activities that won’t frustrate them or make them more aware of their diminished ability, so ask the Lord for wisdom and truly inspired ideas!
10. Participating in Communal Worship
Beyond what is provided by the ministers who come in to do services during the week in long term care, your loved one craves the familiar rhythm of Sunday morning worship. Perhaps you could invite some from your church to join you in providing a hymn sing with the residents in the nursing home on Sunday morning.
All the resources you need are here; all you need to bring is your willingness to bless these precious elderly people with the assurance that God loves them and rejoices over them.
Perhaps that’s not going to work for you. Maybe your loved one lives with you and is too frail to go to church anymore… so why not create a little Sunday service with them at home (if your church doesn’t provide online services). Sing well-loved hymns together, read a short passage of Scripture and reflect on its encouragement for you both, pray aloud together. If you come from a liturgical tradition, get out your prayer book and read through the service of Morning or Evening Prayer with them. It will be an enormous source of strength.
As we tend to the spiritual resilience of our loved one, we’ll discover that it’s true: “…they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; He is my Rock…’” (Psalm 92:13b-15a)