My folks flew to Arizona to start their new life. After living six or so decades in NY, they need a little more help with daily living and decided to move to a beautiful new place near my sister Amy. With the herculean efforts of Amy and my brother, they packed up all their belongings and winged their way across the nation with the able accompaniment of Amy.
Unfortunately, unexpected weather delayed them and forced an unplanned overnight in Chicago. Another wonderful sister who lives outside Chicago was able to meet them, get them a great hotel, and herd the exhausted threesome into a comfy room for the night. Then she returned just a few hours later to get them back to the insanity of Chicago Airport and safely on their plane to Arizona.
With relief, I gazed at the photo of them in Arizona, signing the paperwork that allows them to move into their new home. I know this has not been easy on them. Tremendous upheaval and unfamiliar adventures await them. It is hard enough to face completely new horizons in our twenties...let alone our eighties.
I pray that I am as blessed as they are however. They raised five kids and now it's payback time. At some point in the past few months, every one of their children rushed to their side to help as best as our schedule, resources, and ability allowed. I have never been as grateful to have siblings as I have been in helping my parents in their time of need.
Meanwhile, I have been deeply involved the past two weeks helping a family that is falling apart. It is a family I worked with through my Cities4Life volunteer work with abortion-minded women. No family is perfect...and some are definitely less perfect than others. But Satan would like nothing better than to destroy the family.
Hold on to your family. Do whatever it takes to heal the fractures that all relationships suffer at some point. Look to God for the model of what it means to be a family, and strive to follow His perfect plan as well as possible. Love lavishly, forgive repeatedly, model Christ-like sacrifice endlessly. This is a battle worth winning.
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Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
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