By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.—GALATIANS 6:2 (NCV)
It had been another day filled with appointments and caring for my family members. My sister’s surgery required that we rotate and clean around the six pins that were attached to a metal rod inside her femur, from her patella to her hipbone. My father’s wounds in both legs needed bandage changes, and he couldn’t walk around the house. With her arm in a sling due to a healing rotator cuff, Mom needed assistance getting dressed, showering and feeding herself.
It was the perfect storm, this trifecta.
Dishes were piled in the sink and on counters. My siblings needed transportation from school. Dinner was unplanned. And me? I still had assignments to finish for my coursework. Friends had offered assistance, but I’d managed mostly alone.
A classmate, Marianne, had told me to call anytime, so I did.
“How are you doing with everything?” she asked.
“There’s so much to do…and so much I can’t even finish.” I paused and then dove into telling her everything I had left to do for the day.
Marianne listened patiently. When I finished, she immediately offered to pick up my siblings and get dinner so I could tend to my coursework. I was surprised and grateful. I resolved then to accept these gifts of help more often in the future. What a relief!
Lord, remind me to accept support and assistance from others in my time of need, just as I accept your constant support and comfort.
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.—Genesis 1:21 (NIV)
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.—Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.—Romans 12:2 (ESV)
