TruthHate

Old Age Mothers Fathers Children

We need to treat our aging mothers and fathers as we ourselves would want to be treated by our children and so on. It is hard to do this as we have our own selfish interests, many of which are quite valid. But we must always put ourselves in the shoes of others of our loved ones, (because, for one thing, we want them to put themselves in our shoes,) to try to feel what they feel, and treat them accordingly as we would want to be treated in a like situation. It is not an excuse to say, “Well, I would never do such and so, and be such and so,” because you never know what you will do in the future, and at that time you either will do such and so despite your saying you would not, or that you will do other things that others would equally disapprove of, that they would likely not do. In effect we are put here on earth to bear each others burdens, not criticize each other for having those burdens.

Not only are we an individual with perfectly valid needs and wants but every other person on earth is exactly the same, and while it may be unreasonable to ask us to accommodate ourselves to everyone on earth, it is never unreasonable to ask us to accommodate ourselves to those few we love, who also love us. And our parents loved us, or we wouldn’t be here at all, and God loves us or we would not be here this long.

When all the world becomes a stranger to us, and oft times rejects us as though we were not alive, or as something they hate, our few, often very few, loved ones, usually our parents and children and our brothers and sisters will most often be their for us. And if we never need them, then we are twice blessed by having them there for us if we never did need them. Twice blessed by, in the first instance, not needing them, (what a blessing that is,) and in the second instance having them there in case we ever did need them. Is it not a blessing to have an insurance policy, and then another blessing if you never need to use it?

And in addition is it not yet another blessing to be the insurance policy for other loved ones, for as the Bible says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive, though it is also blessed nonetheless to receive.

So bear the eccentricities of that aging mother or father, and bear the differences, and different needs, of your children. This is not to say, do not try to assist and guide those around us, for that to is an act of love, but we must always be careful how we do that, because as the Bible again says, “Provoke not to anger your children or your parents.” We must always help in love, and in love that is perceived as love by the loved one. This burden is not heavy. It only seems like it might be heavy. But, in fact it is very light when actually taken up. It is like loving God. From a distance it seems a heavy burden, but up close when we do it, it is amazingly light, and lightens all our other burdens as well.

There is nothing like service to others, especially loved others, to make our own burdens seem less.

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