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Be careful what you wish for

8/20/2014

4 Comments

 
Picture
I think the most important prerequisite for working with the elderly is to have a heart for old people. And maybe it’s something that God has programmed into some of us.
 
I’m pretty sure He did that with me. I can remember, as a child, sitting on the front steps of our house in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and watching old ladies in stout shoes walking along the treacherously uneven sidewalks with their canes. Sometimes they were just making the short trip to the corner store for a quart of milk or loaf of bread. Sometimes  they’d march purposefully to the bus stop, intent on making the two-mile trip downtown for shopping and maybe a visit to Prange’s restaurant for coffee or to Kaap’s for a slice of out-of-this-world cheesecake. 
  
I would watch them and my heart would ache with some mysterious longing. I would think, “I can’t wait to be old so I can suffer with them,” whatever that meant. And I still don’t really have a clue. Maybe it was a tender heartstring that the Lord had given me  specifically for the elderly. Maybe it was simply a reflection of my love for one of those old ladies in particular, my own Granny, who lived with us and was my best friend until I grew up enough to begin rebelling against everything good thing God had ever given me – a rebellion that went on for nearly four decades.  
 
Whatever the cause, I’m now approaching the age where that long-ago wish may well come true, and these early aches and pains are giving me hints of what I might be in for. Be careful what you wish for, as they say. 
4 Comments
Darlene link
8/20/2014 10:52:40 pm

I never wished to be old BUT am grateful I have lived long enough to fell the aches and pains....

Reply
Kitty Foth-Regner link
8/21/2014 12:14:29 am

I'm glad you have, too, Darlene!

Reply
Shan
12/28/2014 04:21:23 am

God was calling you to care for the elderly from an early age! How awesome! Causes me to continue to take seriously all the words my kids say about what they think God may be calling them to (things like being a cowboy-missionary in a VERY closed country!). He works it all out and starts very young with most of us, I believe, building into our DNA our role in His eternal Kingdom work!

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Kitty Foth-Regner link
12/28/2014 09:33:52 am

I think you're right, Shan. And I think those kids of yours are very blessed to have parents who take these early stirrings seriously!

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    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including
    Heaven Without Her.

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