celebrating the young at heart

It seemed like a fairly laid back day Thursday as I interacted with and laughed alongside the residents at Morningside. The residents seemed to have nearly worn themselves out this week participating in all their “Appreciation Week” activities. One thing is for sure at this assisted living home – most of the staff (the one's I've met) are kindhearted and thoughtful people. This is important because I think to run a living home like this, or a ministry successfully, it requires good attitudes and creativity on behalf of the leadership.


I was emotionally a little tired this particular day, but that made me appreciate the vibrant, curious spirits of the residents even more. Many of them suffer from memory loss, dementia, and even hints of Alzheimer’s. I find this quite sad when I put this together with how I saw them remembering and functioning earlier this summer. Most of them over the last few days have come to know my name and that I am from Maine, and go to school in Canada – but watching some of my favorite ladies talking to me and Mrs. Donna, I realize how quickly they forget – even if we’ve explained something to them several times.




Older people may be ‘set in their ways’ but I sure have loved being able to serve them as “kings and queens” for a few hours this week. Their smiles and thankfulness make all the repeating of sentences, running of errands, and slow paced work all worth it! They are precious, beautiful people – made by Christ, His children, and a brilliant blessing in my life for sure!




This is important because it is so easy to forget about serving people on a daily basis – I know sometimes I sure do. We get so caught up in serving ourselves, we might not thing to do one extra little thing for someone else. The principle involved with this concept is displayed clearly in Philippians 2, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others”. In the future I hope for this to be my heart cry, and at the center of whatever ministry the Lord places me in.