Aging Parents.

I was reading an article on how a good parent is patient, loving and understanding of the needs of her baby. The writer went on to compare that  to how we will treat our aging, perhaps senile, parents. She said we should treat our parents as a loving mother treats her child.

Seeing one's parents grow old and perhaps become sick is a hard thing. 

My mother is now 85 and in pretty good health. She certainly has kept her sense of humor and is still sharp as a tack. I feel so lucky to still have her in my life. I realize that when I was a little baby she looked after all my needs and I intend to do that for her if she ever needs me.

Jesus made it clear that it was important to take care of your parents. In his time, there was a way to get out of this duty. One just had to take an oath that what he had was devoted to God.

 "...you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God),And so you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." Mark 7:11-12

Corban: a Hebrew word adopted into the Greek of the New Testament and left untranslated

It occurs only once (Mark 7:11). It means a gift or offering consecrated to God. Anything over which this word was once pronounced was irrevocably dedicated to the temple. Land, however, so dedicated might be redeemed before the year ofjubilee (Lev. 27:16-24).

Our Lord condemns the Pharisees for their false doctrine, inasmuch as by their traditions they had destroyed the commandment which requires children to honor their father and mother, teaching them to find excuse from helping their parents by the device of pronouncing “Corban” over their goods, thus reserving them to their own selfish use.

http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/corban.html