My Mom and Lessons I'm Learning

One of the exciting parts about getting older is also finding out that your capacity and need to learn lessons doesn't really diminish with the onset of age and 'wisdom'.

Mom is in a new rehab facility and fighting the rehab and nutrition just as adamantly as before, thinking that one morning she will wake up and be able to walk out of the nursing home and into her apartment. She's always had a very low threshold for pain and is dong everything she can to keep herself from experiencing any further pain form he broken leg. This seems reasonable to her way of thinking but is a major impediment to her getting better.

So, she lies in bed all day long waiting to be able to walk again. Because she is expending no energy, she doesn't really have an appetite.

I want desperately to be patient and understanding. After all, Mom is 80 years old. I try to look at things from her perspective but, ultimately, I find myself running out of patience. Even more disturbing, there have been times I have caught myself thinking decidedly un-Christian thoughts.

God has a way of calling these things to my attention, Especially when I have time alone in the car on these drives between Ohio and Virginia. I have found the Holy Spirit to be my companion and my convictor on these drives. God has dealt with me with far more patience and mercy than I have exhibited myself.

I found myself wondering, today, how many times in my life I have done everything I could to avoid pain or discomfort in a given situation, not understanding that the very thing I was avoiding was what God was intending to use to heal me.

In the car, I was praying for God to forgive my Mom for being so stubborn today. About half way here , I found myself pouring out my heart to the Father, asking Him to forgive me for being so stubborn about the situation I was in. As is usually the case, I have been concentrating on God improving my mother while He was trying to refine me. It's humbling to find out how self centered I can be.

I really want to learn the lesson that it's better to immerse myself in what God has placed on my plate than to refuse to eat anything at all. God's rehab is so much better than any facility made by man can effect. I hope I can learn to embrace mine the same way I want Mom to embrace hers.