Free printable: Scripture for caregivers

What’s on it

When you are worn out

• Matthew 11:28-30 — Come to me, all who labor and are heavily burdened. Then a yoke, which is a tool for work. Not less to carry; a way of carrying it with someone gentle.
• Isaiah 40:29-31 — He gives power to the weak. The order of the images matters: eagle, then running, then walking without fainting. Most of caregiving is the walking. That, too, is renewed strength.
• Psalm 73:26 — My flesh and my heart fail. The psalm allows the failing. Something holds underneath it.

When you feel invisible

• Colossians 3:23-24 — Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord. Written to people whose work nobody honored. Yours is seen.
• Matthew 25:40 — “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” The pharmacy run counts.

When you resent it, and then feel guilty

• Psalm 34:18 — Near to the brokenhearted, and the crushed. Resentment and exhaustion are not failures; they are what crushing feels like. The nearness comes anyway.
• Galatians 6:9 — Let’s not be weary in doing good. Paul names the weariness first. He doesn’t pretend it away.

What to say

• To yourself: “I can be tired and still be doing this well.”
• To a caregiver you know: “What can I take off your plate this week?” Then take it. Not “let me know.”
• “Go home and sleep. I’ll sit with her tonight.” The single most useful sentence a friend can say.

How to use it

Tape one of these to the dashboard or the pill organizer. Psalm 73:26 for the bad days. Matthew 25:40 for the invisible ones. And please, accept the help when it’s offered; letting someone sit with your mother for an evening is not a failure of love.

One of the passages, in full

Come to me, all who labor and are heavily burdened. Then a yoke, which is a tool for work. Not less to carry; a way of carrying it with someone gentle.