Called to Honor

By Brenda Krick

Part One: Our Story

This book is the story of the journey my siblings and I took to honor our parents. The Bible says we are "to honor our father and our mother," and Our Story reflects what that journey looked like for us. Everyone's journey will be unique to them, and their circumstances may not look like ours at all, and that is okay; it shouldn't look like ours. We came together as a family and made the decision to care for them to the best of our ability to the end, and although the journey was long and we grew weary along the way, the Lord looked at our hearts and made up for everything we lacked. He was the strength that saw us through to the end, and for that, we are forever grateful.

Part Two: His Story

From the time I began to pen this story, the world already lacked honor and respect for so many things on so many levels, but by the time I finished the book, the world had gone into a downward spiral of complete chaos and utter disregard for people and things I never imagined seeing in my lifetime. Lack of honor and respect for just about everything has begun to take over society. Who would have believed America could be so shaken and turned upside down with turmoil of this magnitude in such a short period of time?

I believe entire generations have no idea what "to honor or respect" even looks like, hence adding to the chaos and mayhem we are seeing today in our cities and on our streets. All the more reason, we need to come together and fight this atrocity gripping our nation. I believe we, as individuals and corporately as a nation, are being called to honor in this hour.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098084844

Book preview

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Called to Honor

Brenda Krick

Copyright © 2021 by Brenda Krick

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Our Story

The Start of My Journey

Life Happens

An Extended Pajama Party

The House That Love Built

What a Journey!!!

A Little Girl and Her Daddy

Lost Dishes, Silly Songs, and Cold Water

Room 106

Mom Has a Moment

Wrestling with God

And the Journey Continued!

A Family Forever Changed

His Story

Honor and Respect

Honoring with a Tude

Honor in the Little Things

Choices 24/7/365

Where’s the Honor?

Passing the Baton to a Nation

This book is dedicated to our parents, Darvin and Grace Gilligbauer.

Despite all the traumas Mom encountered in her life, beginning with the death of her mother and three siblings when she was just three years old, therefore not having a mother as an example, she was a good mom. Despite not having a permanent home and being raised by her brothers and sisters for various periods of time, she made wherever we were home. Despite every setback or heartache along life’s path, her heart may have been broken, but she still found a way to love. Of this, we have no doubt.

Despite Dad’s own traumas and disappointments in life, I believe he always carried a measure of hope within him that believed things in this life would get better, whether or not he saw it come to pass. As his family experienced struggles, setbacks, and challenges over the years, I believe he continued to hope for something better for all of us. Of this, we have no doubt.

It is in the sharing of our story of what it looked like to honor our parents when we were called to honor that we hope others will be blessed and glean what they can from our journey. We would come to realize in time that the greatest gift Dad and Mom left our family is this story of honor. May it be a picture of inspiration and encouragement to others as they journey on their own call to honor.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my special thanks first and foremost to my heavenly Father who has been my strength, my hope, my comfort, my joy, and my peace during what I have referred to as the least favorite chapter of my life. Without God’s presence and His love, I would not be the woman I am today. Thank you, Lord.

Second to my sister, Barb, and my brother, Gary. The day we stood in the garage and vowed to see this to the end—no matter what—we would finish this together. At the time, we had no clue as to what we were signing up, or committing ourselves to, or just how long our tour of duty would last. This journey would not have been the same without you. Although a few times, we did think we were nuts! Okay, maybe more than a few times!

To my husband, Gumba (a.k.a. Gary, the only one who asked for a fictitious name in order to protect the innocent and who couldn’t believe Brother Gary didn’t ask for one); to Jack, Barb’s husband (whose only request was to be mentioned in every chapter and not because he was asked to go take a nap, didn’t he have grass to mow, or couldn’t he mow the neighbor’s grass, basically, Don’t you have somewhere else to be? You get the picture); and to Brenda, Gary’s wife, who helped tremendously with taking care of Dad and Mom. We thank you for all the sacrifices each of you made in order for us to accomplish this calling to honor Dad and Mom. Each of you gave so much in so many different ways. This became a very challenging time for all of us as we embarked on what would become our journey to honor.

To my best friend, Rachel, thank you for being there and providing a place where I could step out of my reality, even if only for a short period of time—a place where I could receive the refreshing, renewing, and recharging necessary in order for me to return and face whatever challenge there might be in the coming days with renewed strength.

To Jeff, Rachel’s husband, for giving us the space and time needed to press into all that God had planned for us during those precious moments of time. You were never sure of what you might find when you came home, but in your heart, you know it was all good.

(Clarification: My name is Brenda, and my husband’s name is Gary, a.k.a. Gumba, for the purpose of this writing. My brother’s name is Gary, and his wife’s name is Brenda. Confusing, you can only imagine.)

In loving memory of Jack, my sister’s husband. Before this book made it to print, he too went on to be with the Lord.

Passing the Baton

To our Children, Grandchildren, and Great-Grandchildren (Those Already Born and Those Still to Come)

Now to you, children, obey your parents in the Lord because this is right in God’s eyes. This is the first commandment onto which He added a promise: Honor your father and your mother, and if you do, you will live long and well in this land.

—Ephesians 6:1–3 (The Voice)

Dedicate your children to God and point them in the way that they should go, and the values they’ve learned from you will be with them for life.

—Proverbs 22:6 (The Passion Translation)

We pass the baton of honor to each of you. We had the blessed opportunity to demonstrate to you during those four years what it meant for us to honor our parents. It was not always perfect, but to the best of our ability at the time and under the circumstances we were faced with.

To honor will always be a choice only you can make.

To honor will always cost you something.

We do not expect perfection; all we ask is that you do your best, whatever that may look like for you. We are proud of each and every one of you and thank you for all the help that was given to us as we embarked on our own journey to honor them. As we continue to live out our lives before one another, our hope is that there will always be honor and respect in our bloodline throughout every generation. May this be part of our family’s legacy forever and ever.

Part One

Our Story

You are to honor your father and mother. If you do, you and your children will live long and well in the land the Eternal your God has promised to give you.

—Exodus 20:12 (The Voice)

Children, if you want to be wise, listen to your parents and do what they tell you, and the Lord will help you. For the commandment, Honor your father and your mother was the first of the Ten Commandments with a promise attached: You will prosper and live a long, full life if you honor your parents."

—Ephesians 6:1–3 (The Passion Translation)

One of the Ten Commandments, given by God to Moses, is to honor your father and your mother. It is not meant as a suggestion; it is a commandment. The Lord places great importance on having proper family relationships, especially in regard to the treatment of parents. In both Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:1–3, God adds a promise that states what He will do, if we do this. It is the only commandment that was given with a promise attached to it.

I believe we are living in a time where there are entire generations alive right now who do not know what to honor means or even what honoring might look like. All you need to do is just look at the news, and everywhere you turn there appears to be a lack of honor and respect, especially for authority, at unprecedented levels this world has never seen before. In my opinion, honor and respect go hand in hand, and I am not sure you can have one without the other in some circumstances.

Based on God’s Word regarding honoring our fathers and mothers, today, most people might say, Yeah, but you don’t know my dad or my mom. They did this, or they did that, or I don’t agree with what they did when they…, or They hurt me by doing this or saying that! I am sure we all could fill in the blanks.

I have looked, and there are no footnotes in my Bible that nullify this commandment. Nowhere have I found Honor your father and your mother unless they…!

So, what does it mean to honor?

First, to honor will be a choice you have to make and once you make that decision, then there will be sacrifice.

Honoring will cost you something.

We began our journey with four generations coming together to build a place where we would be able to care for our parents, not knowing what all that would entail. You will most likely not have all the details when you are called to honor. In fact, you may know very little when you come to this crossroad. Had we known what all would be required or how long this would last, we may not have chosen to embark on this journey, but we did, in spite of our not knowing.

Hindsight is always 20/20. However, when you are in the midst of what you have been called to do, you may feel like you have no clue as to what you are doing, what all of it really means, or even the impact it may or will have on others. We wander aimlessly along sometimes unsure of what we are doing, where we are going, or maybe even why we are doing this. And that’s perfectly okay! You are not alone.

There are times when we get a little farther down