Yesterday our looking back took us back
about 35 years. Let’s go a little less far back. What were you doing ten years ago;
that would be just on the cusp of 2007. What was the biggest concern in your
life that late December day? Perhaps it was something so monumental that it is
actually remembered. For most people, however, it is a question we would have
to really probe our minds to figure out.
For Jacque and I it was monumental. My
dad was living with us and he had Alzheimer’s. He had come to live with us in
2005 and his disease had continued to worsen a great deal since. I have
recounted the whole story in my book, “Taking Care of Joe”. But that wasn’t
written until 2013 which was long enough after the experience to have let me
process the events that had taken place and put them in perspective. My
thoughts at the start of 2007 were not the thoughts I had in the retrospect of
6 years later.
Guess what? We survived. That is
usually what happens, isn’t it? In those days when Dad was always angry, and
always angry particularly at me, when he was ranting in deep rages every day,
and ranting in deep rages every day particularly at me; I didn’t know if I
would survive the day or not without some great disaster. But I did, Jacque and
I did together and the horrible sting of those days is only a memory and not a
gaping wound. We survived.
What help did we have to survive?
First, we had the recourse of prayer. Second, we had the recourse of a loving
spouse. Third, we the resource of a supportive church. Fourth, we had the
resource of a caring Christian nurse that visited once a month and was always
on call. Fifth, we had the resource of a Christian friend who would come to our
house once a week and play cribbage with Dad and Jacque and I could go take a
walk. I don’t think Dad would have stayed with us for over three years without
those resources, each of which begins with the undergirding support of God. God
above and God in others was the greatest resource that helped us.
What problems await us in 2017? I don’t
know and don’t want to know until or unless they happen. What I do know is that
God is already in 2017. He’s checked the way out before He takes us there. He
will be there when we arrive. His resources of strength from Himself and His
people will be an undergirding stay. Sometimes looking back isn’t such a bad
thing. When we do we discover how we got through bad times before, and that
gives us real assurance that we can get through them again.
For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books
visit www.davidccraig.net
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