It isn’t often that we get a chance to repay our parents for all that they’ve done for us.
Sometimes Grandpa get’s on a kick that real Christianity is caring for orphans and widows and he wants to start a non-profit to minister to them (James 1:27), until I remind him that he’s a widower and I already have my hands full.
When I was changing him before lunch, he said to me, “Who thought when I was changing your diaper that you would someday be changing mine?”
“That’s God’s approved plan,” he continued. “That’s real Christianity.”
That’s life full circle, Pops. It’s payback time, I thought to myself.
Somehow I don’t think my diaper changes were as profound.
When my grandmother was sick with cancer, especially the last year of her life, my father took care of her, and did everything for her, including giving her baths and helping her in the bathroom. He never thought twice about it. She helped him when he was a baby. It wis his turn to love/help her. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂
Dear Sister….this is the 1st that I have been on your blog for quite a while. How things slip away from us at times….I had all but forgotten about this site. Well, I am glad that the Lord prompted me to think of it again and to get caught up on the doings of the Novak household. When I think of the full circle that you refer too, it comes upon us all to soon and we often think in retrospect of all the things that we did for our children and now it is their turn to give back in so many of the ways that we gave to them. Not that we would ever do things with the thought in mind that they owe us anything, but it is true what Grandpa says about this being “God’s Approved Plan.” While the world becomes so dependant on things set up for the “Aged” in our lives…I have actually been a part of that as a hired caregiver….it seems to me that this is the time in the life of the Adult Children to give freely back to their “aging” parents as they are able. You have shown that with commitment, comes sacrifices at times, but the Lord takes notice of it all and I have a feeling that when all is said and done…the Lord will have these words to speak to your family…”Well done, my good and faithful servants, enter into my rest.”
Love, June(Jill’s Sister in Maine)