Why Your Children Should Visit Nursing Homes

Austin Leading Singing at Morningside Devo

Austin Leading Singing at Morningside Devo

The smell . . . the yells . . .  the awkward questions . . .  all of these are a part of visiting a nursing home facility.

I remember going to nursing homes as a kid. Both of my great-grandmothers were in nursing home facilities.  I still remember going with family members to see them.

This morning my three older children (8 – 3 years of age) went with me as they do each first Tuesday of the month to help conduct worship at two local residential facilities in Mayfield.  Most all churches have some period of worship each month at a local facility.  Most families have someone living in a facility.

I know families are busy, but I want to share a few reasons of why you should take your children to visit nursing homes or aged shut-ins regularly. 

  1. The Bible teaches us to visit, respect, and love the elderly, hurting, and aged (James 1:27, Ps. 68:5, Prov. 16:31, 20:29).  In a culture that esteems youth, Christians should model a respect for the aged. 
  2. It conditions your children to be able to handle the anxiety and challenges of such environments.  The nursing home environment can be intimidating to children.  Residents will often look and act different than the children might have experienced before.  Children need to learn how to handle these situations and to be comfortable in these environments.
  3. It is a great opportunity for your children to serve.  Your children can get experience in leading worship, doing acts of service, or simply, giving of their time.  My son Austin is becoming a good song leader through the practice he gets in the nursing home devotionals. I preach the lesson each month, but my kids and other kids that come do more good than I do in uplifting the spirits of the residents. The residents get so much joy from watching and talking to the kids.
  4. It teaches them so many valuable lessons without you saying a word.  Visits to nursing homes teach us in subtle ways the frailty and temporary nature of life.  They help us realize how thankful we should be for our present health and sound mind.  Sadly, not all the residents are old in nursing homes;  many are young in years, but feeble in mind and body.
  5. It is where Jesus would be if He was here on earth (Mat. 9:36).  My roomate in college Kyle Butt, said one time, “I think that if Jesus was here today, he would spend a lot of time in nursing homes.”  While obviously a subjective statement, I think Kyle was right.  Jesus was constantly serving and ministering to the hurting, lonely, afflicted, and troubled.  He was concerned about the weak and hurting.  If you want your kids to be like Jesus, you need to take them to do the kind of things Jesus would be doing.  

I am sure there could be more reasons given, but let me encourage you to get your kids involved in the lives of some older individuals.  Don’t just expect the church to plan a trip to the nursing home at Christmas.  Get the list of Christians in the homes from your church and go visit some of them.  Think of the encouragement it will give them and the good it will be for your children.  

Why do you think it is important to take your kids to nursing homes?

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  1. Josh, I agree with you. My first Girl Scout Troop was a Brownie troop of 8 &9 year old girls. We adopted a wing of the Shelby County Nursing Home. It had10 little older Ladies in it and we had 10 little girls in our troop. At first they did not want to visit, but after a couple of visits they couldn’t wait to go, we went once a month and took things to them, combed their hair, did their nails and these little ones would just sit and talk to them for the entire hour. My first thought was that we were doing it for the ladies, this home was for people who didn’t have money or family (much) and was run by the county, but it was so obvious that we received as much blessing from our visits as they did. I watched these little girls grow in grace, generosity and love ! We were so proud of them and the ladies loved them all.

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