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Powerful message about caring for elderly parents is a must-read

COUPLE
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Cerith Gardiner - published on 07/07/21
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And a vital reminder of our Christian duty.

During the pandemic many people had a big wake-up call -- not necessarily about their own lives, but about the more vulnerable older generations. People have gone over a year without seeing their elderly parents or grandparents in order to protect them, or due to restrictions. Some still haven't been able to see them, and others have watched them pass away without being by their side.

Although this has been heart-breaking, it's perhaps given many people a reminder of how much we need to cherish our seniors while we still have them with us.

This sentiment has been captured so powerfully in a message making its way around social media, and recently posted by Diane Bolton Corbett:

WHEN PARENTS GET OLD... Let them grow old with the same love they let you grow ... let them speak and tell repeated stories with the same patience and interest they heard yours as a child... let them overcome, like so many times they let you win .... let them enjoy their friends, the talks with their grandchildren ... let them enjoy living among the objects that have accompanied him for a long time, because they suffer feeling that you tear pieces of his life away ... let them be wrong, as so many times you have been wrong ... LET THEM LIVE and try to make them happy the last stretch of the path they lack to go, just as they gave you their hand when you started yours! “Honor your mother and father and your days shall be long upon the earth.”

That last quote there comes from Exodus 20:12: "Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you."

A key word that jumps out from this message is the word "let" -- allowing and enabling our parents to live their life to the full, even when it takes patience and sacrifice. As Christians it is what we are called to do. By serving our parents and bringing them happiness we're serving our Heavenly Father.

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