When your parents grow old and become less capable of taking care of themselves, they need certain things from you, like love, kindness, patience, tenderness, sensitivity, and understanding. When you were a child, perhaps your mother picked you up at school because you didn’t like to take the bus, and now you’re upset with her for being five minutes late. If you are a teen or a preteen, it’s wrong to be more kind, considerate, and patient with your friends and your friends’ mothers than your own mother. Indeed, if you treated your friends like you treat your mum, you wouldn’t have many friends left. And if you treated their mum like you do your own, their mum wouldn’t let her child have anything to do with you. When your mother gets old and needs more care, it’s payback time! ‘But she is always complaining,’ you say. Yes, just like you did, right? ‘But she talks about herself and asks the same questions over and over.’ As they get older, our parents experience fears they never had before, and they need you to reassure them that you will always be there for them. One of the last things Jesus did when He was dying on the cross was to commit the care of His mother, Mary, to His close friend and disciple, John: ‘Then he said to the disciple, “She is now your mother.” From then on, that disciple took her into his own home’ (John 19:27 CEV). So, the word for today is – take good care of your mother. © 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.
