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She still apologizes to me for "neglecting" me when I was a teenager because she was providing care for her parents.
My mom like many other parents was caught in the dilemma of being "sandwiched" between taking care of her parents and her children.
Unknowingly, my parents taught us some of the greatest lessons of spiritual devotion and service when they were washing out bedpans and changing soiled linens.
My parents still don't recognize what a positive impact their devotion to my grandparents has made on the lives of the kids on the other side of the sandwich.
My mother still occasionally apologizes to us for "neglecting" us when we were kids because she was caring for her parents.
No matter what I say to my mom, she doesn't seem to understand the positive impact her devotion to her parents had on me.
One of the greatest legacies of caring for my grandparents was the deepening of spiritual faith.
As a young child, I snuggled up against my granddad while he read his Bible and held my grandma's hand on the way to Bible class.
I sang church songs with them and climbed over both of them during worship services.
As I got older, I observed the hospitality of my grandparents and their commitment to caring for other people, but nothing impacted me like helping care for my grandparents in their last years.
Witnessing the physical decline of my grandparents provided a rare window into how faith impacts and influences the final years and days of life.
I heard my granddad beg God to let him die so he could come home.
Years later, my granddad's pleadings echo in my mind .
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what a powerful understanding of the yearning to go home.
As I get older, I appreciate more and more that longing to go home myself.
I understand the common faith I share with my granddad.
My spiritual faith grew in the environment of a sandwiched family.
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