Learning To Cherish

Learning to Cherish

by Moyra Jean Stiles, mother of three

Four months ago, my friend was diagnosed with aggressive stomach cancer. And my life has been irrevocably altered by the days I have spent with her during her illness. Days that confine her to her bed or a recliner all day, very heavily medicated for pain, physically unable to do daily tasks as she moves through the letting go of the work that was hers as a woman, a wife and a mother.

 

"I want to be the one to love
my family in these tangible ways"

In the hours when we sit together and pray, her heart desires remain very clear: "Please, Lord, please, let me be the one that gets to dress my girls. Please, Lord, O please, let my hands be able to once again prepare a meal for the man I love and the children I cherish. I, Lord, I want to be the one to love my family in these tangible ways." Of all the things she's lost in this season, this is what she mourns the loss of most: caring for the ones she loves with the energy and creativity of her unique and committed heart.

Oddly enough, those are the very tasks that most often garner grumbles from me. I, who have an abundant amount of health and energy, grow weary of endless meals to prep, laundry to fold and diapers to change. And yes, these tasks can be tiresome. But because of my friend's beautiful spirit and grace, I'm discovering just how precious they are, just how much they mark me my husband's wife, my children's mother. And those are roles I never want to lose.

 

Dear God, thank you for my family. Show me how to love them through the big and the small, the exciting and the mundane. Remind me to cherish them always. Amen.