Honor Your Father and Mother

  Keeping the fifth commandment begins by devoting ourselves to the first one. It
begins by worshiping no other God than this God, the God who liberates from slavery. And it is in
doing so that we learn to honor our fathers and mothers and all those in authority. Itʼs then that we begin to understand the role they play and be grateful for it. Itʼs then that we begin to experience the
blessing of the promise made in the commandment. We experience a fuller life in the land that God
has given.   (www.sbcrc.org)

Mark Roeda, our pastor, has been preaching on the Ten Commandments.  This is the way his sermon ended today, August 24.

How do my children honor me?  Each one has honored me in the last week in his or her own way.

Jeff's family is traveling on the west coast for 17 days.  He has surprised me by texting several times. I have loved hearing his updates even if one was of a forest fire closing the entrance to Yosemite and today's is of hail in Salt Lake City.  Susan has posted photos on Facebook--Stanford, Berkley, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon; it is so good to enjoy their journey with them.

Laura has sent a few photos via text messaging of their vacation on the east coast--also two weeks--at a cottage in Ocean Grove.  I read her blog (lauravanderkam.com) as often as she posts so that keeps me up with her family as well.

Dan posted some wonderful photos on Facebook of enjoying ice cream with Laura and her kids in Ocean Grove.  He and Raven must have taken a train or bus out there for the day. I am so glad when the siblings can get together even when we are so far away.

I wonder if they know how much those little contacts mean to their mother!  We have had longer contacts this summer as well and they were wonderful.  I have been able to spend at least five days with each one of them--either in their homes or here in South Bend or a cottage in Holland and the memories of those times bring me much joy.  They all make me feel very welcome in their homes; I need to find ways to be with them more.

We also need to honor Jim's mother who has been moved into a "memory care" unit in the last ten days.  We spent an hour with her on Thursday. Jim helped his sister move furniture around and fix up her room. I spoon fed her watermelon--the only thing she was willing to eat all day.  She didn't remember that we were there when asked the next day.

 How do we honor her?  We have a responsibility to her.  It is a time-consuming and tedious trip to travel to Kalamazoo to see her but it is one we must make for her sake, for Terri's sake as she has primary responsibility for Mom, and for the staff's sake--so they know her family cares.   And because, in this way, we worship God and honor him.