One of the dearest women...

I know lost her father last night. This woman moved across the country with the sole purpose of caring for her aging parent. They built their house to accommodate his particular needs, and husband and wife covenanted with each other to care for her dad at home for as long as possible.

This care over the last 10 years has involved numerous hospitalizations, doctors' appointments, and therapy visits. They both re-arranged their individual and joint schedules. They gave up vacations and private time together.

All of those small and large decisions were done for the sake of honoring her father. I have been blessed greatly to see her particular and consistent care for her earthly father. For I know that the task has not always been easy. As he aged he became more confused with his days, resistant to taking his medicine, and as frustrating as a nap deprived toddler.

Patiently she endured.

But what has challenged me all the more in her precious testimony is how not once did she use the "excuse" of caring for her father as a reason for not serving her Heavenly Father. Faithfully, year after year, she has served in her church, as a leader in a Bible study, and as a leader in the National Day of Prayer.

And that's only the list of what I know she has done.

More than once she could certainly have plead her case as lack of time, inconvenience, fatigue, too much to do or simple unwillingness because of being stretched too thin. She didn't take that route, and the kingdom of God has benefited from her example and her service.

Too often we are soft Christians, wimpy in our work and words; seeking after the pleasures of personal convenience versus the labor and obstacles that are involved in the world that Jesus overcame on our behalf. And the one He tells us, commands us, to persevere in and through for the sake of His Name and by the grace of His all-sufficient power.

This dear lady, my friend, demonstrates that honoring our Heavenly Father is first cause to anything else we might choose to do. May I be convicted to do the same.