This Sometimes Lonely Path

Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (I Timothy 5:7-8) 

            When I wrestled with the decision to leave my last job, well-meaning people gave advice. The piece I remember best was that I needed to think about my life and career. Giving up an income was tough, meager as it was, but it also meant giving up an identity…becoming “unemployed” which is translated as “useless,” and dependent. 
            I don’t recall thinking of this verse. What I remember is the fact that Dad had been at least hinting at the idea of my moving to Florida with him for years. I had completely resisted for a long time, but I had begun to tell him that if and when he needed me to go to Florida with him, I would. Two years ago, it became more apparent to me than it still is to him most of the time that we had reached that point. Yes, I wanted to be a good daughter – I’m still trying to figure out what that means – but more central to the situation is that he needed me and I had promised. 
            If you have read the blogs posts I wrote back then, I said that I felt like Abram, leaving my home, my job, my community, the life I had known for the past thirty years, and going out there, somewhere, with no means of support for much an old man who was raised in the Depression didn’t approve. 
            I’m fortunate. I am truly blessed because it was possible for me to do this. Some people can’t. Some people could, but won’t. They have their careers, their own lives, kids who have active schedules… there’s just not enough time or money to drop everything to care for a parent. Part of this may be the huge emotional price of watching their hero turn into a toddler in their terrible twos, or worse. 
            Somehow, and it must be God because it’s not me, I’ve managed the transition as far as I have. It’s involved giving up TV, trips to the hair-dresser (only two haircuts in the last two years), going anywhere that has me away from home more than a few hours and soon, our home phone number. (I will be reduced to my hated cell phone.) It’s hard, but it’s possible. 
           When the time came, the decision had already been made. In fact, the decision had been made more than twenty-five years ago. I just didn’t realize what it meant back then. I have never regretted doing it, at least, not for long. I kept my promise. I am doing what I believe I should. Maybe more than those things, I am learning to walk by faith just a little bit.
            I’m not sharing these things for sympathy or an ego boost. I’m sharing them because we are under intense pressure to consider self and career to be more important than family. I was basically told that it would be better for me if I put Dad in a home, or paid someone else to come in and care for him. I’m sharing it because chances are good that at some point in our lives, we are going to face a decision like this about a parent or a spouse, or a sibling. I made my decision years before I had to and I do not regret it.
           Lord, guide me to follow the path You choose for me, a path that means loving family when it’s not convenient. Help me to continue to make decisions that honor my father, that are for his best, and that are obedient to Your will. Cause me to continue to grow in my faith as I walk this sometimes lonely path.