Care receiving

I boasted about my parents yesterday, about their amazing caregiving. But I have to flip the coin to talk about care receiving. It’s not always easy. It’s not like asking hubby for an occasional glass of water. It’s much bigger, more vulnerable. 

I came across this scripture today and there is power in these words. 

“But [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

No one wants to feel weak or helpless or powerless. Not driving on my own has stripped me of a fundamental feeling of freedom, and I feel sad when I can’t do things on my own or worry I might get hurt without supervision. But I must accept this state of weakness, not only so that God’s strength can be revealed through me, but also so that caregivers have an outlet for their love and desire to help others. It ties us together in balanced and magical ways, in a community of givers and receivers. It should feel just as good to give a gift as it is to receive it. 

So again I sit here, grateful for all I’ve been given, even my weakness, so that I may boast. 

And in an effort to pay it forward and care for my littles, regain some of my strength, and bring me back to my place of meditation and joy in the kitchen, I present brown rice three ways.