¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 19:19 ESV)

My wife has spent the better part of any free time she had the last few weeks dealing with her mother who has had some illness and dementia. She lives a few hours away and my wife, her sister and her brother’s wife have been juggling being there for her. They are now looking at best next steps.

I went through this with my mother and less so with my father before they died. It can be a trying time, but it is also a time when we as children should step up, and do so out of love and not simply obligation. We, as parents, never want to be a burden upon our children, but there comes a time where the child may have to become the parent. I have seen this played out over and over.

In truth, as I get older, I am not sure how I would deal with this. I hope to never find myself in the place of being a burden on others. I am truly not good with that at all. I would rather just go quickly or go away and deal with it. But we cannot always choose and I now look back on the time I took taking care of my parents in their last days more fondly. Yes, it was difficult, but it afforded me a lot of time I was not taking at that point in my life to be with them before they passed.

Reflect on: The parental role in your life, both as parent and child and possibly parenting your parents at some point.