Trusting God When Your Parent Is in a Nursing Home

Some mornings you wake up and the first thing you feel is the weight of everything that’s changed.

For me, right now, it’s my mom. She’s in a nursing home — long-term care — and she hasn’t been home in almost two months. If I’m honest, trusting God when a parent is in a nursing home is one of the hardest things I’ve walked through. I don’t want to see her like this — the good days and the hard days, a season that doesn’t look like her best. She spent her whole life showing compassion to other people, always pulling for the underdog. And now, as her caregiver, I’m learning how to love her through a season neither of us would have chosen.

Here’s what God reminded me this morning: our lives may not be perfect, but He never changes.

People change. Circumstances change. Health changes. But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). And according to 1 John 4, God is love — it’s not just something He does, it’s who He is. So when I don’t understand the season, when part of me wants to ask “Why, God, why?” — I can still rest in the one thing that never moves: God is good even when life isn’t perfect.

I’m learning to slow down. Not to fix everything. Not to figure it all out. Just to slow down, think about His love, and meet my mom where she’s at — not where I wish she was. And isn’t that exactly how God meets us? He doesn’t wait for us to get it all together. He meets us right where we are, on our best days and our worst.

If You’re a Caregiver in a Hard Season

If you’re a caregiver walking through a hard season — a parent in a nursing home, a diagnosis, a loss, a change you didn’t ask for — hear this: your pain is real. You don’t have to pretend it isn’t just because someone, somewhere, has it worse. There’s no competition in suffering. We’re all in this together. And even in the seasons that are hard to understand, God is still good.

I don’t have it all figured out. I haven’t arrived. I’m a flawed man doing his best to do the right thing, even when the wrong things are happening around me. But I’ve learned one thing for sure: I can’t do any of it without Jesus. “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And in His time, as I stay humble, He lifts us up (1 Peter 5:6).

So today, I’m going to rejoice — not because everything is perfect, but because this is the day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24), and He is good in it.

If this encouraged you, do one thing today: reach out to a caregiver or someone carrying a heavy season. You don’t have to fix it. Just let them know they’re not alone.