Growing Older

The Price of the Gospel

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

I am thankful that God has opened a new door this week in a memory care wing of a faculty we have been visiting for a while. For those of you who think this is a pointless exercise I would like to encourage you to get involved if you can. Alzheimer’s and dementia effect a small but significant portion of our nursing home community residents. But while memories become spotty the value of the person remains unchanged to our Heavenly Father. We have discovered that love and music in combination can communicate quite effectively the love of Christ!

 

Honoring our Parents

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What is honor and what does it mean to honor our parents? One way I have come to understand it is that honor is a combination in equal parts of love and respect. Honoring our parents means we can not love without respect and we should never respect without loving.

Every week as I visit nursing homes I see the results of a culture that has often forgotten how to honor its mothers and fathers. and has abandoned it’s parents.

Yes they are professionally cared for. Yes they are clean and well fed, but they mostly spend their days alone. Though we may be honoring our own parents, God is also calling on us to hear the cry of the forgotten ones. On January 18th hundreds of thousands reminded our nation about the value of the unborn. Today we need many more among God’s people to also remember those left alone in institutions. God doesn’t forget a single sparrow. If we forget these mothers and fathers we have forgotten the heart of God.

Nursing Home Christmas

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This was my first Christmas at Life Care Center since we just moved three months ago to Florida. What a blessing it has been to get involved right away in this community. Our small team went in and sang for two groups of residents today. Of course the Hipaa laws prohibit us from showing any of the people you can hear them singing. One of the highlights was a 104 year old resident who joined us in singing Silent Night! May this little abbreviated version of our visit be a blessing to you tonight. After all Christmas is all about God coming to visit those others have forgotten!