Joy Boosters: 129 Ways to Encourage Older Adults
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About this ebook
Know an elderly person who needs a little encouragement?
Best-selling author Missy Buchanan, an older adult advocate and a former creativity educator, offers you a bounty of ideas for lifting the spirits of older adults. Her passion for and sensitivity to the needs of elderly persons shine through in this practical book that's packed with simple, creative ways to boost the joy of older adults.
Joy Boosters is perfect for families and friends of older adults, caregivers, senior residence facilities, and churches that want to minister effectively to older adults. Don't miss the opportunity to make someone's day…or week.
Missy Buchanan
Missy Buchanan, an advocate for older adults, is an internationally recognized author and speaker on issues of aging faithfully. With thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook, Buchanan provides daily insight and encouragement for the journey of aging. She enjoys weekly visits (digital visits and phone calls during the COVID pandemic) with older adult friends in senior living communities. Buchanan is the author of multiple books, a devotional calendar, and a devotional journal. She lives with her husband, Barry, in Rockwall, TX. They have three adult children and four grandchildren.
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Joy Boosters - Missy Buchanan
INTRODUCTION
Older adults who struggle with physical limitations and the losses that inevitably come with aging may experience life as barren and dry. As a family member or church leader, you want to encourage senior adults; but perhaps you don’t know what to do. How do you put a smile on the face of a frail man who is slumped over in a wheelchair? What can you do to cheer a grandmother who has just moved to an assisted living facility? How can you encourage an elderly man whose wife must now live in a memory care facility?
Joy Boosters is a response to those questions. Designed much like a pocket guide, Joy Boosters is a book of ideas that will help you become more confident in your efforts to encourage older adults on their spiritual walk. Each chapter is filled with suggestions that will bring joy to an older adult. Some ideas are geared toward church participation, while others target actions family members can take. All may be adapted by both church and family to meet the needs of older adults.
Connecting through
Questions and
Conversation
Older adults offer a valuable link to the past, and questions that invite conversation are the doorway. Use the open-ended questions below to prompt meaningful discussion. Some questions are lighthearted and fun; others are more intense and thought-provoking. Select questions that seem appropriate for each individual and situation.
♦ In what city or town were you born?
♦ What was the funniest thing you or your sibling did as a child?
♦ What was the name of one of your favorite childhood friends? What did you enjoy doing together?
♦ Did you have a nickname? What was it? Who gave it to you? How did you feel about it?
♦ How did you get to and from school as a child? as a teenager?
♦ What was your favorite subject in school? Least favorite? Why?
♦ What was a typical summer day like when you were a child?
♦ What was your first paid job? What were your responsibilities?
♦ How did you learn to drive? Who taught you? What did you drive?
♦ What memories do you have of going to church as a child? as a teenager? as an adult?
♦ When was your first trip away from home?
♦ How did you and your spouse first meet?
♦ Of what achievement are you the most proud?
♦ If you could go back in time to a certain day in your life, what day would you choose?
♦ Looking back on your life, where can you see the hand of God most clearly evidenced?
♦ What would you consider to be the best year of your life?
♦ What loss or failure later turned into unexpected joy?
♦ What