Old Friends....

 

 

 

"Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly - How terribly strange to be seventy.
Old friends, memory brushes the same years, silently sharing the same fears"

 

Old Friends

Simon and Garfunkel

Both my wife are blessed to still have a surviving parent. With me, it is my Mother - with my wife, it is her Dad. It is a daily blessing to know that God has allowed us the pleasure of their company this many years into their lives. Is it easy? No. Is it is blessing? Yes, even though there have been times we need to remind ourselves of that fact.

It has often been said you don't not fully realize how much your parents did for you until you have children of your own. I found this adage to be true beyond measure. There is something about the love and protection of a parent that is hard to duplicate. When we are young, most parents love, nurture, protect and teach their children. This is not a part time job - the business of parent care is 24/7, regardless if the parents work or not. Parenting done correctly allows the child to grow in love and safety, feeling secure and comforted.

Our kids are both grown adults. It does not mean our job as parents are over. We are in a new phase of parenthood called "friends". We are still here to love and support our children, but the "line" between parent and child is no longer there. Although when the kids were younger, we always tried to be friendly with them, we were not their friends - we were their parents. Now that they are grown, we can be their parents as well as their friends.

That brings us to our surviving parents. My wife and I have had an adult friendship with our parents since we married. Sometimes the road was rocky, but for the most part it was not. The bottom line is this - we love and respect our parents. We understand daily how much they did, how much they sacrificed to raise us. We understand the love they had then, and the love they have now for us.

The difference now, is the worm has turned. As at one time we were totally dependent on our parents for just about everything, each month that passes they become more dependent on us. Honestly, even though this road is often hard and frustrating, it is an honor and a privilege to pay back our parents, even a fraction, for all they have done for us.

They are our parents, they are our friends. They are worthy of so much more that what we now give. To see their joy when we come through their door, is worth so much more than any tangible inheritance. The time we spend, the joy we sense when we are with them, is our inheritance.