Wisdom from an Old Lady…

Someone once said, “Old age is just a state of mind.” Really? Ha! That’s funny!  It is more than my mind that makes me feel old.  It’s also the state of my joints, my memory, my body, my sleep (or lack thereof), my focus, as well as my mind.

As I’ve gotten older, it has caused me to reflect on many things. I know you can’t relate yet, my dear friend, but there are a lot of changes that happen as you become a “senior citizen.” Here’s a few that I have noticed:

Reflections from Old Age

1. I have to turn down the car radio to see better where I’m going. Yes, true!
2. When I can’t find my glasses, 9 times out of 10 they are on my head.
3. I can anxiously search all over the house for my cell phone and then realize I am talking on it.
4. Every time I go near a bathroom, I think, “I better go now while I’m here.”
5. Speaking of bathrooms, even one sip of water before bed time equals at least two trips during the night.
6. My family volunteers to drive because they are getting more and more afraid to ride with me when I drive.
7. When a website asks me for my birthdate, I have to scroll and scroll just to find my birth year.
8. I am the age that I used to think was ancient. I really believe that old is at least 20 years older than I am right now. And why do I find myself acting like my mother?
9. The older I get the shorter I get. With age comes shrinkage. Sadly, that doesn’t include weight.
10. “Slow metabolism” is a valid excuse for everything. And I’m sticking with it!
11. I can’t tell you how many times I walk into a room and forget why I went there. Yes, I stand there for at least a minute, then give up and go back to where I came from.
12. It is getting harder and harder to complete a task because when I start it, I get distracted and start something else. Then I get distracted from that task and start something else. Nothing ever really gets done!
13. I love my slip-on shoes because it takes too much work to bend down and tie my shoes.
14. My granddaughters think I’m really old, but they love me walking slow and stopping to look at the flowers with them (I’m actually trying to catch my breath).
15. Yes, I remember a time before personal computers, before cell phones, before cable tv, and before the internet. (And I survived just fine without them).

Then there is this list I found on the Internet, and I remember every one of them (if you don’t know what they are, just ask me):

You Might Be Old If You Remember:

• Penny candy
• Soda machines that dispensed glass bottles for 5 cents
• Diners with tableside juke boxes
• Metal ice cube trays with levers
• Party line telephones
• Newsreels before the movie
• 33 RPM records
• Reel-to-reel tape recorders
• PE uniforms in high school and group showers (a real nightmare!)
• AM transistor radios that you could tune at night and hear Wolfman Jack in Chicago
• S&H Green stamps and the Green Stamp store.
• Roller skate keys
• The Fuller Brush man, the milkman, and the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman
• 35-cent a gallon gasoline
• 15-cent McDonald hamburgers with 10-cent fries
• 5-cent packs of baseball cards with that slab of pink bubblegum

The Benefits of Old Age

I guess you may be thinking that old age is pretty boring and not something to ever look forward to. Right? (I mean, really — life before computers and the Internet??). But that isn’t quite true. There really are some blessings that come with old age. One of those is wisdom.

Wisdom doesn’t just come to you instantly when you get old. It comes when you endure trials and learn from them. Then, as you endure one trial after another, you realize that the Lord has always been faithful and has never forsaken you. His love is constant, and His peace is really possible in the midst of the most trying of times. As you face future trials, you remember the lessons from the past ones.

God’s Plans vs Mine

When I was younger, I expected that God would give me peace by getting rid of my struggles. I asked Him repeatedly to just take them away, but He never did. You see, that’s not how He works. God wants to remind us of His presence and give us peace in the midst of our struggles. As I have gotten older, His plan makes more sense to me.

My first husband, Bill, had severe epilepsy. I prayed every day for 26 years for God to heal him. The seizures and their consequences were a major stress on our family. I figured if God really loved us, he would give us “a break.” After all, I thought, what benefit did Bill (or the rest of our family, for that matter) get from all those seizures? He had a life of pain, fatigue, and confusion. He dealt with embarrassment, ridicule, and was ostracized at work and in public. I figured that in the overall scheme of life, would it really hurt for God to take away his disease and let us finally have a “normal” life? It made perfect sense to me.

Trust Him in the Tough Stuff

In the long run, I just had to trust God. It wasn’t easy. I asked Him to show me His plan for my family and to help me learn what He wanted me to learn. My prayer life was definitely stronger! In my loneliness, fear and sadness, I had nowhere else to turn. I also learned many lessons that I have been able to share with others who are struggling. Now that I am older, I could give you a long list of benefits that came from that season of struggle. Bill died from a seizure in May of 2006. He was finally healed.

I know that my trials are not the same as yours. Please understand that I’m not trying to minimize your problems, my dear one. Yours feel very big and overwhelming. Rest assured that no matter what, they are not insignificant to God. He sees and cares about you. Yes, this old lady can reassure you how deeply He loves His children. So keep your eyes focused on Him. Ask Him to give you His perfect peace and to show you His perspective on what you are facing. That is how you grow in wisdom.

Turning Worries Over to Him

Through the words of the Apostle Paul, our Father encourages us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) 

There is so much more I’d love to share about these two verses. Anxiety, or worry, is one of the most disturbing and rapidly growing problems we face in this world we live in. But I’ll have to save that for another time.

He Meets Our Needs

Not only does God promise to never leave us, but He also promises to take care of us and meet our daily needs. In Psalm 37:25 it says, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.” Notice that I didn’t say He meets all our “wants,” but He does meet our needs.

As I’ve gotten older, I have found that my wants and needs have changed quite a bit. If I am blessed with money, I don’t want to buy more “stuff.” Instead, I want to share it. It makes me happy to bless others. I don’t need a closet full of fancy clothes and shoes. I know that God will give me clothes to wear, a roof over my head and food to eat.

Jesus’ Words on Worry

Jesus said it beautifully in Matthew 6:24-33: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Old Age = A New Perspective

So, I was young and now I’m old. The blessings keep coming. And my perspective on what is valuable and worthy of my attention has grown more in line with what my Heavenly Father wants. I pray the same for you.

One of my favorite writers was humorist Erma Bombeck. She was an author as well as a newspaper columnist (before the days of blogs). She wrote many funny columns, but also some thought-provoking ones that touched my heart. So I’ll leave you with a link to one of her best which she penned after finding out she had cancer. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/49262-if-i-had-my-life-to-live-over-someone-asked

Blessings, Grandma D

PRAYER:

Dear Father, 

You are all wise and all loving. I ask you to help me to trust more and worry less. Hold me close and keep me safe when the trials of this life leave me feeling defeated. Help me to remember all the times you have helped me in the past, and as I get older to rest on Your promises to never leave me or forsake me. In You alone are my peace.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN