We Are A Motley Crew.

"We are quite the motley crew." Those are the words that came out of my mouth one night as I arrived home after my nearly ten hour day and found Mom just getting around to cooking dinner. I wasn't angry. I understood, because we all seem to be in the same boat these days.

I've written about how this past year wasn't what I expected, but man, this past year wasn't what my parents expected, either. I won't go into detail about their struggles, but suffice it to I'm not the only one facing health issues, lagging motivation, or discouragement. We need each other, or at least I need them.

Christmas 2017

At this stage of my life, I need my parents for a lot of things. I need them to feed me when I come home starving at 6:45 pm and need food stat before I go finish my paperwork for the day. I need them to put my tithe check in the offering at church on Sunday while I'm on the platform singing with the worship team. I need their listening ears when I have had a hard day and want a safe place to vent. I need Dad's car advice and Mom's medical knowledge. I need to have them cover for me when I can't complete my household chores. I need their encouragement and their truth-telling. I need their prayers. Basically, I'm surviving right now because of my parents' material and immaterial support, support I didn't really want or want to need when I moved home a year and a half ago.

I'm not sure I'm giving as much to my parents as they give to me, but I hope I'm contributing to their lives in some ways. It's not a tit-for-tat situation, but I hope that I can encourage my parents to at least some degree. I hope that on the days when I have extra time and can do extra around the house, that I help. I hope that I contribute to discussions by providing new information and a different perspective. I pray for Dad's safety as I hear his truck leave for work in the mornings. I pray for Mom's activities as I think of her throughout the days. I hope that in some ways, I'm improving the lives of my parents by living life with them in their home.

I joke that between the three of us adults at home, we might have one fully healthy, operational human. Each one of us has too many issues to be fully functional ourselves. But isn't that the way it's supposed to be? The Word says that, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ" (1 Cor 12:12, New International Version). We're meant to need each other. We're built to rely on each other. It's the world that tells us otherwise. 

Realizing my need for parental and community support is hard and humbling, but it's necessary, and biblical. The waves are rough and the seas are tough, but my parents are my crew. Motley or not, we're in this together.