Treating Others

    I felt quite sad for my 18 year old daughter this afternoon.  As president of her high school Key Club, she had asked her members to meet her at the nursing home, to play bingo with the seniors. Bingo is a very big thing with the elderly.  They would love to play it all the time if they could.
    Sadly, none of her members showed up.  She waited one hour.  It broke my heart. I was wondering if the members of this service club really joined to help others, or to add points to their resume for scholarships.  It also made me sad, as the elderly seem to be forgotten in our society.  They love to play bingo. They would play it all day long if they could. Yet, teens could not give up one hour of their time to make another generation happy.
    In Matthew 7:12, we read how we are to treat others in the way we are to be treated, which is a law of Moses. I wonder how these teens would like to be treated as they get older; would they want to be treated as they had treated these seniors today?  Let us not forget that God wants all of us to be treated with dignity. We are born in His image, all having His Spirit within us. Before we decide we don't have time to care for another, we need to ask ourselves if God would say He didn't have time for the elderly. No, he wouldn't say this, nor should we.  All of us will become older one day; I wonder if we will be left alone, with others being to busy to visit or play bingo with us, or if they will remember the Golden Rule, stated in Matthew, to treat others as we would want to be treated.
     The forgotten generation, those in nursing homes.  Perhaps you can find an hour to run a bingo game, work on a jigsaw puzzle, or read to the elderly, who have lost their sight and can no longer read for themselves.  Think about it.  Maybe it is a way you will want to spend the Lenten season, extending your time beyond this season.  After all, the elderly are there 365 days a year, not just at the holiday season.