Pam Padgett ... teacher
A few days ago one of my neighbor's called me. She was out of town for
her work and had received a call from the police regarding her 80-year old mother who was staying at her house. The mother lives in another state and had come
here to take care of the dogs while her daughter was away. She had gone to a
bank and the teller became concerned because she seemed
very confused. The bank employees were concerned about her
driving and had contacted the police. I went to the bank and drove the
neighbor's mother back to the neighbor's house and stayed with her for a
while. After she calmed down, she said she just remembered that she had not fed the
dogs that day! Although the mother has stayed at her daughter's house
and cared for the dogs multiple times in the past with no problems, this no longer works.
As we go through life we sometimes find that things we were once easily able to do
are no longer easy (or possible) to do. This experience with the neighbor's mother reminded me how important it is for us to pray about what we plan to do
and be willing to make adjustments as needed, not clinging to what we have done before. We turn to God and go in the way He show us. God guides us in the best way for us to go throughout our lives.
Psalm 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death.
A few weeks ago very heavy rains came over the area where I live.
Rushing water washed gravel into the lawn and also ran along the side of
my house and into a window well breaking the basement window. The
drainage ditch was also partially obstructed with collected debris and needed
to be cleared. The broken window was replaced. But landscape work in the lawn, drainage ditch, and
along the side of the house needed to be done. I could see what needed to be done in each of these areas and at one time I would have been able to
easily do the work. (About 20 years ago I had done similar work at the
house I owned at that time and very much enjoyed doing
this work.)
But I'm nearly 60 years old now. Even though I remembered how much I enjoyed doing work like this in the past, as I thought about doing
similar work now I was a little uneasy. Was this what I should do now?
I prayed and was reminded of times recently I have gotten dizzy,
especially if I get up quickly. Doing this work would require me to
bend down and get up over and over. I believed I was being shown that
it was not wise to do this work now, so I arranged for a landscape company
to do this work.
The work was done by the landscape company in a few days and it was a relief to have this taken care of.
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Another example ... When I first moved to Colorado Springs many years ago my grandma had
taken care of children in her home for several years. As she talked about
the various children, it was obvious that she really enjoyed doing this,
and I'm sure she also liked the additional income. But when I
moved here she was almost 80 years old. At that point she planned to care for only 2 children, a little girl approximately 3 years old and the girl's new-born baby sister, when the mother went back to work after her maternity leave. The family with these 2 children lived across the street from my grandma.
But I noticed that sometimes when my grandma would sit down "for just a
minute" she would quickly fall soundly asleep. There had also been an
instance a few months before I moved here in which this little girl had
climbed on a counter and swallowed some pills she found in an upper cabinet
while my grandma had fallen asleep in a chair. Fortunately the child had been
rushed to the hospital and was ok.
I felt this showed extreme
potential for danger if my grandma continuing to take care of children as she had been
doing. Yet the parents of the two children had not made other child care arrangements, and none of my relatives saw a problem. When I
spoke with my grandma she was confident she was well able to
care for these children. Thoughts came to me that I was over-reacting, that grandma had been caring for children a long time and I shouldn't interfere.
But when I turned to God
with my concerns, I was reminded of what we're told in the following ...
Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the
way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them
up again. (Deut. 22:4)
I could not hide my eyes from the danger which was clear to me
where these children were concerned.
I immediately went to talk with the children's mother. She was visibly relieved
as I told her my concern, saying that she was also concerned and had
been praying about what to do. She didn't want to hurt my grandma's
feelings, nor to make my relatives mad. But she was very concerned
about leaving their children in grandma's care when she returned to
work.
I told her that she and her husband needed to do what was best
for their children, and not worry about my grandma and others. They
made other arrangements for childcare.
My grandma then realized that although she had been able and enjoyed caring for children in the past, this was no longer something she should do. However, she still enjoyed caring for her house and her flower gardens, as well as visiting with the mother of the children across the street and watching the children play.
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A year or two after this I became concerned about my grandma continuing
to drive and prayed asking God if there was really a problem in this and
if there was anything I should do. I didn't hear anything so did
nothing.
But one day when I got home from work my grandma called me saying she
had sold her car. I was surprised to hear this. She went on to say
that she realized she no longer felt safe driving. If she needed
to go somewhere, she now preferred to ask me or one of the other
relatives for a ride. And since she wasn't going to drive any more, she didn't need
a car, so she sold her car.
I was very grateful to God when I heard this! And this worked out well for my grandma.
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We often don't know what is best for ourselves or for others
we're concerned about.
But God is our guide throughout our lives, knowing what is best for us each step of the way, as we turn to Him in prayer and are willing to make the adjustments we are shown.