Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a
righteous life. Proverbs 16:31
I can’t say I am an
authority on very many things. However, in the last few years, God has given me
a crash course on ageing.
In the last four years I
have lost both my parents and an aunt who had been like a second mother. On a
personal level, I am 67 years old and my current residence is on the corner of
youth and old age. The children are grown, married, and with families of their
own. My husband has retired and, at this point, we both enjoy good health. We
live in a community where most of the residents are like us, retired but active.
Based on both observation
and personal experience, let me share this: old age doesn’t make you better or
worse; it just makes you more of what you have always been. That can be bad or
good. If you are kind, cheerful, reasonable and godly, then you can expect to
grow in those graces with the passing years. If you are difficult,
self-centered or tiresome? Well, they may not need to bring extra chairs into
your room on visiting day at the nursing home.
Of course it is not that
simple. Life has many variables and equations where one plus one doesn’t equal
two. Not on this side of eternity, anyway.
This week is for everyone
who is old or plans to be old one day. It is about youth and old age and how
one sets the stage for the other in ways you might not realize. It is also
about what is really important and why.
Our teacher is the wisest
man who ever lived. For an awfully smart man, Solomon made some awfully foolish
mistakes. Fortunately for us, God allowed him to share the lessons learned
through a lifetime of experience with us, in a book called Ecclesiastes.
There’s no fool
like an old fool…
Nancy Shirah
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