Helping the Helpers
I deeply respect my friend who homeschooled her children in the 1990s while we were homeschooling ours. I’ll call her Jennie. While our families were homeschooling, Jennie and her husband were a handsome couple who exuded faith, vitality, and joy. Her husband was also successful in business. I’ll call him Jeff.
Twenty-five years ago, Jeff was diagnosed with a life-changing illness. Jennie had to return to her career and become the breadwinner of the family. Their children grew up, and Jennie and her husband became grandparents. When I ran into Jennie in a store several years ago, we talked about our families. I asked her to fill me in on how things were going with her husband’s illness. She answered my inquiries with faith and honesty. She expressed her gratitude for God’s amazing provision of allowing her to work from home.
“How is Jeff?” I asked.
Jennie replied, “He can hardly walk and his memory . . . .”
“Does he know everyone?” I inquired.
“No,” she said.
“How are you?” I wondered.
“Thank you for asking,” she said. “Most people don’t. I didn’t used to ask either before I knew.”
During a recent Sunday school class, we discussed:
But encourage one another day after day,
as long as it is still called “Today,”
so that none of you will be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13
A member of the class wanted to know what we can do to encourage others. One way is to think of caregivers like Jennie and see how we can bless them. They need help. They need companionship. They need moments or mornings or days without caregiving. They need someone to notice and say thank you. They need encouragement. Children of all ages can be encouragers through cards, drawings, or well-behaved visits with their mamas or daddies.
Always Welcome, from Illustrated London News, May 19, 1888,
engraver, William Biscombe Gardner,
artist, Laura Alma-Tadema,
courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
gift of Donato Esposito, 2019
Another way to encourage others day after day is to think back on our own lives, remember the struggles we have faced, and connect with others who are facing similar challenges. Then we can do for them either what did help us or what would have helped us. Understanding and help from someone who truly understands is some of the very best help of all. When we help someone who has spent time in the same boat we have been in, we are as likely to be blessed as much as the other persons. One of the best ways to teach our children to have servant hearts is to model it before them.
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction
so that we will be able
to comfort those who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4