Honoring Our Parents When They Decline Cognitively

Bill Davis | Covenant College/Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church

Sponsored by Covenant College

Modern medicine has made it possible to extend our lives longer and longer. Sometimes, the extra years added to our lives include cognitive decline: fading memory, diminished ability to make clear decisions, and even losing the ability to manage the affairs of daily living. When our parents are experiencing these challenges, the joy that should attend honoring them can feel like a burden. We may even be tempted to think of our parents as essentially our children. This seminar will look at what the Bible says about how adult children should honor their parents, both when the parents are still cognitively robust and when their powers of attention, memory, and decision-making wane. No attempt will be made to minimize the grief and difficulty that are often part of honoring our parents in a biblically faithful way. Instead, the focus will be on practical ways that we can honor our parents while being sources of strength and even hope.