Taking Care Of Your Parents 4/8/2018

Good Morning,

What a way to begin the day. I have a tired Spring Spaniel sleeping on my feet as I write. There is a large mug of Door County Peanut Butter Crunch Coffee sitting next to me and the oven is spewing forth the aroma of hot ham seasoned with cloves. This home smells great and it sure is quiet!

I recall a time when I was a little boy and I was very ill. My illness had me confined to the local children's hospital. My parents and other relatives would stay at the hospital with me and assist in taking care of me. What still stands out to me is that my Dad would come after work and would stay through the night. He would save some of his lunch and because I was very weak, Dad would feed me pieces of a sandwich that he would dunk in coffee so they would be easy to chew and swallow. When the hospital wanted to put me in diapers at five years old Dad said no. "My man will be carried to the rest room". He carried me back and forth one night saying that no one puts a diaper on his little man. I will never, ever forget that. As I write this, my eyes are filled with tears from the        memories of that night.

There comes a time in life when the roles get reversed and our parents will need some care. It is our responsibility to do so. It is time to pay back what they did for us and we are to do it without complaining. Jesus gave us the greatest example of the duties of a child toward their parents. On the day that He was suffering on the cross, Jesus made sure to make living arrangements for His mother. Jesus entrusted the care of His mother to John the Apostle. Jesus was the oldest sibling and had the right to make the decision for her care. Notice her caregiver was not other family members, but a believer and follower of His. In our responsibilities of care, we are to provide spiritual care also. One of the many acts of love that Jesus showed us was to extend compassion while hanging from the cross. His family duties came before His own pain.

My dad put those family duties before a good night of sleep. I can only imagine how tired he was staying there, sleeping in a chair and then going to work. He worked all day and then would relieve my mother or whoever was there at the time with me.

During my life Dad never spoke of this at all. I brought it up one day when he was thanking me for making him some meals for the freezer. He just had some tough shoulder surgery and was up in years then and the meals could be heated up easily. He was very independent. So as he thanked me for the meals I replied "Oh what goes around comes around. You fed me all those nights in the hospital and I haven't forgotten that". He turned his back on me and walked away. He just walked away. I heard him blowing his nose in a couple of minutes and he returned. He said, "I'd do it again if you needed it". That was the last time we ever discussed that hospital stay. But it was understood that we both knew our family duties and were happy to see them through.

So Dear Friends, count it a blessing when you can repay the kindness your parents or other relatives have shown to you, it is your calling from God.

Marty