A Prayer for a Caregiver's Exhaustion

Father, I am the one who holds everyone else together, and tonight I am running on empty. I have measured the medications, changed the dressings, answered the same question a dozen patient times, and somewhere in the caring for everyone I have disappeared.

I confess I am ashamed of my own resentment, the flash of anger I feel and then bury, the guilt that follows for being tired of a person I love. I have not slept fully in weeks and I am frightened by how little is left of me.

So I bring my own depletion to You, the part of me no one thinks to ask about. You see the unseen labor, the love poured out in private with no applause. You have not overlooked a single act of it.

Refill the well that has run dry. Send me rest that actually restores, and people who will care for me as I care for another. Let me lay this weight down, even briefly, without the world falling apart.

You invited the weary and heavy-laden to come to You and find rest for their souls. I come exhausted, Father. Hold the one I love, and hold me too. Steady my hands and my heart for one more day. Amen.