A few days ago I was chatting with an elderly man who has experienced a slight onset of dementia in his later years.  He and I were doing activities that required him to reminisce about days gone by and to try and recall information about his family.  As we were talking he began talking about his “original parents.”  My first thought was that it was a slip of his tongue, or his mind as he was talking about the people who raised him.  As time went on I began to understand that he was talking about his birth parents, but it turns out that he was adopted.

The conversation got me to think about how many people, even those that have had the same parents their whole lives, continue to have issues surrounding their childhood.  They get stuck on things that their parents did, or didn’t do as they grew up.  Many of us hold it against our parents that we didn’t have some of the things we felt that we needed when we were young.  These things may not only be material things, but can also be the love, attention, or adoration that we now feel like were missing in our lives.

I know many adults who struggle with the fact that their parent had a problem with substance abuse, or that their parents divorced when they were young, or one of a million other things that their parents struggled with.  These are people that to this day continue to struggle with some of these issues.  Even to the point that they sometimes blame themselves.

Through my discussion with this gentleman I came to realize that all of our parents were in fact our “original parents”.  What I mean by this is that the people who are our parents today are not the same people they were yesterday, and definitely not the same people they were 40 years ago!  They have lived, experienced, struggled, and grown just like the rest of us have.  This man has learned to forgive the people who gave him up for adoption because they are not the same people they were when they were 16 and 17 years old.  They are no longer his “original parents” so to speak.

Through this man’s jumbled, disorganized and at times tangential thoughts he taught me a lesson that went straight to my heart.   He taught me that we must understand, overcome, and learn to forgive our physical parents here in the natural, and realize that they continue, as they have always done, to do their best with what they have.  More importantly, our earthly parents are not our “original parents”.

Our “Original Parent”, who is in heaven, is perfect and has always been there for us and always will be…no matter what.  You can count on that!

“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”  1 Corinthians 8:6.

Today I had a patient give me a new perspective on prayer.  His medical condition has resulted in him having increased difficulty with tolerating solid foods.  Specifically, he has been on a diet that has not allowed him to eat breads.

Now I don't know about you, but if someone took away my favorite food or drink, I think I would do just about anything to get it back. This man was desperate to have bread and said that he had even got to where he was praying to have it back on his plate each meal.

Two seconds after me entering the room he was already asking me what he had to do to have a roll for lunch.  I told him to open his mouth, stick out his tongue, and then smile really big.  Then I said, "you can have a piece of bread for lunch".  He then smiled really really big!

"He said how can you do that?  You can really make it to where I can have bread on my plate again?"  I explained the role of a speech-language pathologist and how we assess people's swallow and see what is the most appropriate diet for them to be on.

He then laughed and said "I guess prayer might actually work, all I had to do was ask for my DAILY BREAD!  We both had a laugh at that moment, but we also realized the profound impact of the moment.  The man literally and figuratively had been praying the way we have all been instructed to do, and then God sent me there with the skills and abilities that I had to answer the prayer.

A week and a half ago the man could have choked to death on a piece of bread, today, he was ready for what he had been asking for.  God wants all of us to pray daily and specifically for the things we want and need.  He knows those things, and he will deliver, but not until the moment that it is right and safe for.  He will deliver right when we are ready and not a second sooner!

"Give us each day our daily bread" Luke 11:3

I have been thinking a lot about maintaining and growing the seed that God has planted on the inside of me.  I know that I have been given my gift for loving others and for wanting to do my best to help others flourish.  This time of reflection has made me think back to an elderly man that I once cared for as a patient.  Each day I would go by his room and work with him in a speech therapy session.  At the end of almost every session I would ask him if he needed anything before I left.  Kindly, the man always told me "I don't need anything, just make sure you water me once a week."  This was his way of telling me that he was good, but to make sure to check back with him.

This really weighed on my heart when I considered what the gentleman was really communicating when he said these words.  What he was really telling me was to be sure to come by, visit, and help him maintain his purpose...to help him continue to grow and flourish as he was intended to.  This was a powerful lesson for me.  My work with this man was definitely helping grow and develop the seed that was planted within me, but equally important my work with him was providing the light that helped keep his seed growing strong.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7