When I was in middle school my mother finished college and found a job in another part of the state. She was an occupational therapist and got a job in a state owned mental facility. She worked for a while and really liked it.
One day she was working with a male patient. He was holding a bunny and started to squeeze it. My mom tried to get him to let it go and his rage turned from the bunny to her. He knocked her down and broke her back once again. I haven’t mentioned it, but when I was very young she fell down the stairs and broke her back also.
Now I was older. A different house. A different time. A different living room. A different hospital bed. But in essence the same story. I would get her what she needed in the morning. Go to school. Come home and take care of her again.
During all of this one of my friends had a sleepover. I asked her if I could go and she gave me permission.
So I went.
When I got home the next day she was furious! How could I have left her alone all night! The fire went out and she was cold! She needed me and I was off having fun! I was grounded. I was punished. I wasn’t going to get anything or have a party for my upcoming birthday. I had abandoned her.
I shut myself in my room and began to pack. I had to get out. It was to much. I was barely a teenager. Not the adult. I had permission to go. Since when was it my responsibility to take care of her. Wasn’t she supposed to take care of me?
Justified or not. My attitude was wrong.
I can only imagine what it must be like to have to depend on your children when they should be depending on you. To have your child care for you when you should be caring for them. To be trapped in a bed day and night without a husband or family to support you.
But I was a young teen and somewhat irrational. So I climbed out my window. My plan was to make it to my friend’s house and call my Dad. I just needed to get away for a few days.
Well it didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped. (Imagine that! LOL) I got picked up by the police as a runaway instead. I explained what had happened and they asked me if I’d rather live with my Dad. Well he was still using so I didn’t really want to live with him either.
So back home I went.
I would have saved myself so much trouble if only I had learned early to have the attitude of Christ.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8
BTDT!!!
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