I just put Mom to bed. It was one of those evenings,  she was impatient with me for making her stand up to fix the bottom of her night gown. She has an elastic bandage on her arm, to keep her from messing with the dressing on her latest scrape. She keeps trying to unwrap it because she does not remember hurting herself. It was a real chore just getting her arm into the sleeve of her night shirt. She was not happy with me as I lifter her feet into bed and tucked her in.
Her skin is so thin and fragile, I have to be very careful not to tear it just moving her from chair to chair. Even picking up her legs to position her in bed is a precarious stress on her skin. We are using a new prescription lotion on her legs. In addition to being fragile they are very dry. Each day I have to wash her legs with plain water (there is a heavy residue after it is absorbed) and then put on the lotion.
And then there are her finger nails, she yells at me if I try to clip them, so I use a nail file and emery board. There is more, but no point talking about brushing her teeth or taking her dentures out. I don’t use a lot of toiletries myself, I have never fussed about my nails. So grooming Mom has taken me places I have never imagined myself going.
Sometimes when she is impatient with what I am doing, I think of how much easier it would be to just not do it. But that would be unkind than leaving her alone like she would have it.
I know this has been a rambling post, but I have been thinking how much we are like Mom as we react to providence. It is easy to confess that God has a plan for our lives, but how impatient we become when his plan is uncomfortable or ill-timed in our estimation. He does things for our eternal benefit, and we are just focused on how we feel right now. When we are tested and tried we no more think of his ultimate plan than Mom understands why I have her arm wrapped in the elastic wrap. Kind of embarrassing when you really think about it.
Well, that’s all I have time for right now, Pax!
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