Mike’s Musings …..
The Older I Get …
The Lord has blessed me richly with sixty-eight years on this earth. Fifty-five years ago this July, I obeyed the gospel. Honesty demands I confess struggling with faithful obedience through some of those years; but the older I get, the more grateful I am for my Father’s loving grace of forgiveness (1 John 1:5 – 10). If maturity teaches anything at all, it teaches lessons in how not to do things, and to be grateful God allows learning, repentance, and discipline in avoiding that which is evil and holding fast that which is good!
A wise one once said, “Age is a relative thing, and I’d just as soon my relatives kept it.” He tried to stay young in his activities, but as with us all, youth matured into age and the abilities became memories. Thus, the older I get the more I appreciate remembering God in the days of my youth (Eccl. 12:1). “Growing up” is much different than “becoming mature” in that one is where you learn the lessons of life the hard way … the other is respecting the lessons learned! The time between the two is determined by how long you wish to act like a child instead of becoming a man (1 Cor. 13:11).
In our youthful days, we found teachers who became mentors, and mentors who became our most valued examples. The best ones dared to correct us, though they were not always our parents. Their determination to make us the best we could be was immovable, just as their demand for respect. Now, we find ourselves to be teachers becoming mentors, and prayerfully valued examples. We realize how blessed we were to have had these precious souls guiding us in our youth that we also became followers of God!
Maturity teaches we don’t have all the answers; we don’t even have all the questions! But we’ve learned where to find all the answers to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), albeit the searching continues daily. Maturity helps us develop the talents of virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (2 Peter 1: 1 – 11). Maturity lets us know we’ve found a good fight, finished our course, kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:8) It also makes us keenly aware that the fight, or the course, or the faith isn’t finished until we pass from this life (Revelation 2:10; 14:13), and thus we are urged to press onward and upward!
Another wise one said, “Never complain about growing old. Too many are denied the privilege.” I muse on that truth. How many more years God may grant is unknown … but how I, as a mature soul must live them, is not! Yep, I’m getting older … and prayerfully wiser as maturity continues!