Dementia is not my favorite.

I'm currently home alone with my grandmother, who has dementia. I think it's wrong to treat this like it's a secret, or some hidden family shame...people get dementia. It's a legitimate illness, and taking care of people with dementia is hard, like it is right now. Home, alone with her. When things are challenging, it helps to talk about it.

I know some people are going to get upset, but you know, my grandmother having dementia doesn't take away from all that she's done. It's kind of changed her these days, but ultimately she's got the same quirks that she's had my whole life. Obsessed with her room being clean, determined to do things that she wants to do, drinks coffee all day. She's still my grandma, but she has dementia. It's a mental illness, but it doesn't mean she's whacked out of her mind. It means her mind is getting old, but faster than normal.

And, taking care of her is hard. She has intense mood swings that are difficult to keep up with. Her general short-term memory is now VERY short---and repeating the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again, and then about ten more times, can make someone a little crazy after a while. She gets nervous easily, and is often anxious for mom to get home, whenever mom goes out.

However, by the time I'm writing this sentence, she's calmed down a bit. She's not as wound up and anxious as she was before. I think she's reading her Bible.

If that's not proof of God, and how His Word is inspired, I don't know what is. She always gets calm when she settles into reading the Bible. That's how the Holy Spirit works. He brings peace even when the mind fails, because God isn't something we comprehend with our mind. Since her dementia had been officially diagnosed, and has progressed, the one thing that stayed the same was God. Sometimes, she needs help understanding what she's read in the Bible, and sometimes she gets a little dramatic about how souls need to be saved, but she's the most lucid when she is reading the Bible and has her mind on Christ.

I mean, how amazing is that? That when everything else is failing...her mind, her body in general...when she reads the Bible, and enters in with Jesus---not in some super spiritual, ceremonial way, just reading the Bible, even if she doesn't understand it all---there comes a peace. A peace that she can't bring for herself. It's peace that only Christ gives us, when we allow Him to cover us.

It's pretty amazing, really. When the mind fails, Christ still works, because it's not about our mind. It's about His Spirit.