An Encouraging Woman
About once a month, on a Sunday evening, I preach for a church about an hour from here. They are a small, friendly, elderly body of believers and several Christians from area congregations rotate to preach for them on Sundays. Over the past few years I’ve grown accustomed to seeing the same faces. So, it makes newcomers easy to spot during my own visits.
Last week, when I arrived, it was nice to see a new, fresh face. She was sitting next to an older couple, one of the regulars. They introduced me. It was their daughter and she had just moved in with them from Florida. Because of their age and health difficulties, she left the nation’s sunniest state to care for her parents. My wife had the opportunity to talk with her more and found out all of her grown children and grandchildren were still in Florida. However, she left behind such joys for the sake of family duty.
She was an encouraging story to me. So many families are loosely committed to each other. For some family members, if one gets sick their first option is to “put them in a home” or “facility” where they do not have to deal with it themselves. I realize it can be a necessity, but it can also be an evasion of responsibility.
Some of our members spend a lot of time at a local nursing home. They see many people who go days without visits from family members living right in town. It can be a lonely, intimidating place isolated away from the comforts of home and family.
The Bible makes a stern pronouncement concerning our responsibility in family obligations. 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household (family), he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Verse 16 says, “...If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows.”
Like this encouraging woman, may we all take more personal responsibility to care for those in our family and, if possible, not give this up to any other organization or facility. They’ll appreciate you more for it. You’ll live without regret. The world will notice such sacrificial love too.
Think about it.
November 2008