Everybody Needs A Little Help

Welcome, Friends and Strangers! Plenty of iced tea in the kitchen. Help yourself. I baked my sister Sherry's recipe for Southern teacakes. There are a couple dozen delicious cookies on the red platter near the hanging oil lamp. There were more, but Sherry's teacakes are just hard to resist hot from the oven!

I've been at the hospital today with Mrs. Elizabeth because her heart began to beat with an irregular rhythm about 3:00 this morning. The cardiologist scared her when he said they might have to shock her heart to correct the problem. (Note to self: Eat that doctor's lunch when I see him for not taking the time to explain a new procedure to a woman who takes no medicine even for pain.)

Please forgive me for getting up from the table for such a long spell. Matters of the heart also involve one's hands, feet and time. When we love someone and have to put her needs above our own, the cost is much more than the price of a card at Hallmark. Words of love are nice, but works of love keep the garden weeded, the bedside attended and one's own needs secondary.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a young mother whose boyfriend doesn't want to marry. As we talked, I realized that not many of us count the cost of being in a vibrant, growing relationship with another person. We must be willing to pay the ultimate price of love: dying to self, extending grace and forgiveness, and willing sacrifice.

As I was weeding the tomatoes, I said to her, "Yeah, having sex is the easy part; it's the constant cultivation and tending to love that is hard."

Bold talk for this Table, but such things need to be discussed in a safe place so we can exercise what we learn in the midst of dangerous living!

GOOD NEWS: Mrs. Elizabeth Crunk was moved to the Franklin NHC phyical rehab center at 216 Fairground Street, Franklin, TN 37064. Maybe you could send her an encouraging card or have your kids draw her something. I hope when we are that age and in a similar situation, kind folks will choose to remember us.

I'll remember you this day, Friend.