With all our heart: ‘Overwhelmed by burden of caring’

Dear Scott:

Is it wrong for me to pray for someone to die?  I catch my heart wandering in that direction when I am overwhelmed by the burden caring lays upon me, especially when I see that all my efforts don’t amount to a hill of beans to the one I love.  In fact, I truly believe she must be praying the same thing for herself.

Dear Truly Believe:

If God answers prayers, you can lay your burden upon God knowing that if God thinks it “wrong,” it won’t be answered.  And if God does not answer prayers, then you are unburdening your heart of the scream pulsing through its ventricles no differently than many of the psalmists.

Editor’s note: Rabbi Scott Saulson, PhD, is the educator, counselor, and mediator behind www.MovingParents.org: Enabling workable decisions & richer relations in caregiving situations & life transitions — for or by older adults. Questions and comments can be left for him at his blog online, at movingparents.org.