ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT. How should the younger generation treat their elders when the elders go cranky on them? Photo by Peretz Partensky.
SWINGING A CANE LIKE A CLUB, has as elderly person ever come at you with something less than peaceful intentions?
It happened to me recently.
The experience is sending me to the Bible to see if there’s any good advice for my situation. I’m looking for it now, as I write this article.
I was in a group of people when the elderly soul got off a nearby elevator. The soul knew each person in the group and had ought against each one. That’s King James Version talk for describing a person “more ticked than a Fox News Republican.”
The cane came up instantly. At first it pointed. Then it waved. Then it started poking.
I saw it coming at me though I hadn’t yet said a word to the soul. I backed away. Two or three times.
It kept coming.
The cane tapped me lightly on my gut. It wouldn’t have been lightly if I hadn’t backed away.
“Stop that,” I said.
The cane went down. I didn’t see it come back up during the gathering.
How should we treat people who treat us like that? Especially if they’re our elders.
I’d like to know what the Bible says about that.
I don’t need to know about self-defense. I came loaded with survival instinct. I know about backing away. Ducking. Running. Or standing my ground in Florida; though I’d run there, too.
But I need help with my attitude.
“Show respect to old people; stand up in their presence” (Leviticus 19:32).
That sounds like good advice for dealing with polite elders and the ticked ones, too. When I see a cane come waving, I’m standing right up.
“Anyone who won’t care for his own relatives when they need help, especially those living in his own family, has no right to say he is a Christian” (1 Timothy 5:8).
Sometimes taking care of elderly loved ones involves getting them the professional help they need. But I can’t imagine that it involves sitting around and doing nothing for them. Unless you’re a quantum theorist who defines “nothing” as something. On the other hand, maybe there are times when nothing is something, if nothing means we stop enabling them to keep hurting themselves.
I’m thinking as I write, as you can tell.
“When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person…Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst” (Luke 6:27-28).
Well, it’s worth a try.
But I might need a little wine for my stomach first.
Free books this week
Each week I give away a free book to randomly selected subscribers to this blog and newsletter.
I missed last week (got too busy for my own good). So I’ve selected two winners for this week:
Ward Kilburn and Rhonda Leslie.
I’ve sent emails to them, inviting them to pick a book.
 
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