12 November 2009

Estate planning

For all the contemporary angst about how terrible it is having to care for aging parents, I'm surprised more people don't see the wisdom in making some effort to allow the burden to be more widely shared. Someday Dad and I may well be old and decrepit. But the chances that our care will become the heavy task of one person are comparatively low. God willing, the responsibility will fall to at least five adult children rather than one or two.

If and when that time comes, I hope our children will say, "We didn't get diamond chip earrings and X-Boxes for Christmas when we were five years old, but we're sure glad to have each other now." This provision for them which God has graciously enabled us to make seems so much more beneficial. People and families last longer than childhoods. I'm not clear on why "family planning" focuses so much on the latter.

4 comments:

ζωὴν περισσὸν said...

Yes! Yes!!

sarah said...

That's why there are seven of us, mom said. One for each day of the week! :0

MooreMama said...

I have 3 sisters, and I couldn't imagine being an only child... or having only one or two siblings. There were a whole lot of times growing up that I wished there were fewer of us, but now I see my sisters as the greatest gift that our parents gave us.

(And my parents are still very much alive and kicking, so I can even tell them how I feel :) )

Family Man said...

Looking for estate planning advice? Luther's Large Catechism, Fourth Commandment, para. 111, exhorts children "to honor them [your parents] by your action (that is, with your body and possessions), serving them, helping them, and caring for them when they are old, sick, feeble, or poor; all this you should do not only cheerfully, but with humility and reverence, as in God's sight. He who has the right attitude toward his parents will not allow them to suffer want or hunger, but will place them above himself and at his side and will share with them all he has to the best of his ability." (Tappert ed., p. 380) A favorable child-to-parent ratio surely can help, but however many or few children God may provide for you, the key is to catechize them as quoted above. Here I have in mind not mere instruction, but lifestyle catechesis: setting an example by caring for your own parents, their grandparents, when the need arises. What we do for one of the "least of these" (Mt 25, the Gospel reading today) is, after all, not only what we do for our children but also what we do for our parents. What a joy it is that God has selected us to be channels of His love to our parents and our children, our brethren in the faith, and our neighbors beyond as we discover their needs and share their burdens.