For example, the first day of this journey with Dad's cancer, before we knew he was sick, he started vomiting profusely at home on a Friday morning. Dad is 80 and pretty stout. My mom is 79 and suffers from congestive heart failure. Dad continued retching until he passed out. Instead of calling one of us daughters (I am only 5 minutes away!!!!), and instead of calling the ambulance, my petite momma managed to get my 200 lb 5'10" dad to the car and drove him to the emergency room.
Once they got there, THEN she called us. And things spiraled downward from there. Since then it's still been a constant struggle for them to allow us to help. We have quit just offering to help. When we offer they both say "no, we'll be fine". So we just help anyway.
I decided to move in so I could be there if anything else happened, after we got the diagnosis and dad started showing so many signs of weakness. He first night I was there, he collapsed and I caught him and helped him to the floor and then back to bed after he regained consciousness. They needed help.
Likewise, I have had so many friends offer ME help. They want to bring meals, take a turn spending the night with mom or dad, or just do something nice for us. I catch myself saying the same thing, "No, we'll be fine".
Well you know what? The struggles in life put us on our backs. They immobilize us and we work so hard to keep taking care of them ourselves. We have a loving Father who says, "can I help?" But in our pride we say, "no God, we can do it ourselves."
I just watched dad trying to shave this morning. His left side is paralyzed, so he is shaving with his right hand only which is shaky. I'd be happy to shave him. It would be easy for me. I can see where he's missing and I could eliminate the risk of him hurting himself. But he has to let me. He has to accept the help.
As I watched him, I decided something for myself. I have a Father in Heaven who wants to always help me. That is a prayer he LOVES to hear. Just like I LOVE to hear my parents or my children say, "ok, help me!" God rushes in. The battle belongs to Him and He is a fixer. And when He gets involved, the situations you are facing are not only resolved, you will be forever touched and changed by it.
I dare you to pray that prayer. Think of a situation in your life where you are hitting a brick wall. Is there a hardship? A broken relationship? An addiction? Look to the heavens and say "Help Me Father". And say that with the knowledge it can change everything and that you will accept the help, whatever that looks like.
Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
3He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
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