Listed below are 26 DOES and DON’TS to consider when visiting someone who is seriously ill:
- Do not talk about how pleasant life is for you, or is going to be in the future.
- Do not lie to the ill person.
- Do not make an ill person feel guilty because you do not know what to say to them. (Don’t give them that look…..)
- Help them live until they die.
- Listen … LISTEN! (A seriously ill person reserves the right to choose whom they want to talk to about serious personal things!!)
- Encourage them to believe in hope.
- Do not make a person suffer in silence … alone.
- Do not say to a person, “This is God’s will” unless you can prove it by Bible scripture.
- Do not say, “I know exactly how you feel” … you don’t!
- Let them know you love them. (*Love is: seek the highest good of another; outgoing concern for the well being of another; you are important to me.)
- Do not criticize or argue or fault find.
- Do not ask them for their personal belongings.
- Do not act superior to them.
- Do not be ashamed to admit that you do not have all the answers to their problems.
- Give them something they could never have when they were well.
- Control your tongue … say less than you think … how you say it means more than what you say most of the time.
- Make promises sparingly and keep them faithfully.
- Say something good, kind and encouraging … not negative stuff.
- Be interested in what they are interested in.
- Be cheerful … “Mr. Worry Wart worries the patient.”
- Let your virtues speak for themselves.
- Be careful of their feelings.
- Do not be too anxious about what is due you.
- Make your visit brief.
- Do not ask personal questions that are none of your business.
- Just love them while you can.