#5 By Pastor Joe

#5 By Pastor Joe

The last few months have been very busy for both Janet and I. As I write this article she is probably just waking up from a long journey to central Kansas. A journey made much longer by the alternator going bad in her Audi about 2 hours away from her parents’ home. The pastor of the local Bushton United Methodist Church drove 2 hours to rescue Janet (and Norma) stranded in Junction City. What a great blessing that Pastor Diane took the 5 plus hours to help Janet arrive safely at 2am in the morning. The time is important because it means she was willing to help us at a very late hour in the day. She went above and beyond! May that be the testimony of my life when someone needs my help. Janet and I greatly appreciate all the offers of help Hawthorne Assembly family and friends have made knowing we are dealing with the need to care for our aging parents. Rest assured we will use as many hands of help as we can. Thanks to all of you who make serving this fellowship rewarding. My mother and father are now 85 & 86, Janet’s mother and father are 87 and 86 meaning life has transitioned into a new enhanced caring phase for them and for my brothers. The most important thing we can do each day is honor them as the people God blessed us with as parents. Thanks Mom and Dad, Kirkpatrick and Dokken, for everything you did, and are still doing, which has helped us become the people we are today. Consider how many people live day to day and never take into thought the magnitude of what their parents did for the 18 plus years of their adolescent life. The 5th commandment has no time limit on it and we should be mindful of all our parents did throughout the years of living under their care, comfort and command. Let me interject about how our society has completely messed up the God-given principle of parents being the sole authority within the home. Just to clarify, I understand there are cases where the traditional parenting model was not what you experienced. Since these articles end up on our Facebook page, I should let the reader know my view (which is also the Biblical model) of parents; it would be comprised of a Father (Male) and Mother (Female).

My heart goes out to those of you who lived in a dysfunctional parental home. Whether you had the traditional set of parents or something else, or nothing at all, don’t lose heart because God cares about you. The truth is we all live with some level of dysfunction. Some people call this controlled chaos, whatever term you choose to use, it’s written about all throughout the Bible. The Old and New Testament have real life stories, of real people, whose family life was really messy. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being seriously bad and 10 being extremely good home life, the best I have ever seen is about an 8. What people plaster on their car about their honor-roll children or their FB post, may be tens, but the “everyday” family brings the number way down. No one wants a dysfunctional family life driven by poor parenting or no parenting to be the reason why you are mad at God. Sadly, some have nothing to do with their family. That is very heart-wrenching. Considering my own challenges, the need to be intentional on fulfilling the 5th Commandment is more important now than ever. The last words spoken to my parents need to bring honor and/or life affirming feelings to their souls. How many of us need to go on a family vacation from the poor attitude you have about your family, especially your parents? It’s not who is right…it’s who is going to make it right.