Learning From the Children

Recently, I listened to my youngest daughter Sophie on a Zoom meeting with her youth group. She didn’t know I could hear her when she requested prayer for me. “My mom has MS,”” she told her group. “In March, she wasn’t able to see for a week.” Earlier, I had overheard my 15-year-old Serenity requesting prayer for me with her friends, too.

I am so thankful for my daughters and their prayers, and yet I am supposed to be the one taking care of them, not the other way around. It hurts me to remember that week my girls had to lead me around the house when I couldn’t see or balance well enough to walk alone. I often hear, “Mom, you need to go inside,” or “Mom, you need to quit reading your phone. Go rest!” They are very serious and diligent in their new roles as caregivers.

But while my daughters have quickly adapted to their changing roles, I’m struggling mightily to adjust to mine: I am now their mother who has a disabling autoimmune disease. I realize things will never be the same as before my MS diagnosis. I think back to those prayer requests I overheard. Serenity and Sophie knew just what to do: Pray and ask their friends to pray. My daughters put their trust in the Lord. I need to be more like them.