You Know You're Getting Old When…

Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.  D.L. Moody

George Macdonald said, 'If you knew what God knows about death you would clap your listless hands', but instead I find old people in North America just buying this whole youth obsession. I think growing older is a wonderful privilege. I want to learn to glorify God in every stage of my life.  Elisabeth Elliott

I am getting old.  Instead of receiving emails from Match.com, I started receiving ones from SeniorPeopleMeet.com.   The thing I was trying to figure out is; how do they know I am old.  Last time I checked I wasn’t giving out my birth date. 

The other day I received a notice that I am now eligible for AARP.  Do I really want to become a card carrying member of the American Association of Retired Persons?  I am not even close to retirement and when I get there it probably won’t happen because there will be no social security left since I will be in line with every other Baby Boomer and we are the largest group of senior citizens ever. 

I am kind of starting to understand what it means to be over-the-hill.  It’s kind of like you reach the peak and it’s all downhill from there.  I started realizing this phenomenon when a young person called me Ma’am.  Then I read that the definition of Ma’am is a British term for addressing the queen or a royal princess.  Things started looking up.

The reality is we are all going to grow old.  As soon as we are born we are getting older.  Age became a factor in our lives when Adam and Eve ate the apple in the garden.  They would have lived forever young in the Garden of Eden but for disobedience, a snake and an apple. 

When you stop and think about it, getting old doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  We can gain wisdom in our latter years.  If we are smart we will have spent a great deal of time with God and He will have taught us how to age gracefully and with integrity and character.  We will have learned to love others and to give with our heart.

 

I think I will go ahead and join AARP but I am going to call it Adopt A Reading Program instead.  If my reading program includes the greatest Book ever written, the Bible, then I can age gracefully with integrity.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, getting older in life can sometimes be a challenge.  It gets harder to get up in the morning, my limbs don’t work as well as they did when I was 20 and my memory gets shorter every day.  The one thing I know about aging is that You love me no matter what that number is and You are there when life becomes a challenge.  I praise You for loving me in my old age.  I want to glorify You in this stage of my life. 

Scripture: The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” Psalm 92:12-15