Sunday, July 16, 2006

• Nursing the sick in our home...

    My husband was in the hospital on Saturday and has still not recovered. He was sent home but has been in severe pain today off and on. It's a helpless feeling to watch someone you love suffer and not be able to relieve their distress.  Thankfully the medication seems to be taking the edge off for the time being. While I've been caring for my husband I've been thinking a lot about the sacred duty and art of caring for those who are ill in our homes.

   I've thought a lot about my mother the past few days and how tenderly she cared for my sister and I in our sickness. Her nurturing during our childhood illnesses brought such a sense of deep security. No matter how sick I was, I somehow felt better just knowing my mother was there and would be taking care of me. She had the ability to anticipate my every need and knew just how to make me comfortable. I remember one evening I came down with a very sore throat. My parents were away for the evening and my grandmother was watching me. I was so anxious for my mother to come home. I just knew everything would be fine once she was there... and it was!

  

  I found this paragraph in an old reprint and it reminded me of the things my mother did to bring comfort. Her example became my guide in caring for my own children and husband.

  " To make the bed soft; to arrange pillows in such a way as to afford most comfort; to provide covering that was warm and yet not too heavy; to temper the light in the sickroom; to care for pure, fresh air; tenderly to prepare suitable food and drink for the invalids' tray; and with it all to be gently voiced, tender and sympathetic in her manner; O, all this applied as a sort of family tradition to the sickbed, which was handed on among our housemothers from generation to generation." (In Shadow of Death: Meditations for the Sick-Room and at the Sick)

  Would you add anything to the list above that you or your mother did to help bring comfort during illnesses?

  My dear Mother would always put a cool wash cloth on my forehead to help bring down a fever. Also, when I was sick over the 'loo' my mother would sit right there with me while putting a cool wash cloth on my forehead and would continue to wipe my mouth and give me fresh water to drink. What a blessed child I was to have such a Mother!

  Nursing our loved ones during their illness takes a certain dying to self. A mother and wife cannot be preoccupied with her own ease or routine and continue to patiently care for the needs of her sick one. What an honor to know that when we visit and care for someone in their sick bed that Christ says we are visiting Him.

   I was .. sick .... and you did not visit Me...Then they themselves also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'
   "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'    Matt 25:43-45
  

   The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. Psalm 41:3

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