GROWING OLDER

Some people have the mistaken idea that cranky old men (or women) get that way as a result of getting older and maybe suffering disappointments in their later years. The fact of the matter is that a cranky old man has been a crank in the making throughout the years of his life. It didn’t just suddenly happen. He has always been a crank and is just getting worse as the years go by. No one becomes a sweet old lady or a cranky old man just because they reach a certain age. Whatever they are when they get old is what they’ve been becoming throughout the course of their life.

In 1908, J. R.Miller wrote these words of wisdom:” It takes a great deal of grace to grow old sweetly and beautifully. It is not possible to carry the alertness and energy of young manhood, into advanced years. Yet if we live wisely and rightly all our lives—old age ought to be the best of life. We certainly ought to make it beautiful and godly, for our life is not finished until we come to its very last day.

We ought to be wiser when we are old—than ever we have been in any former years. We ought to have learned by experience. We ought to be better in every way—with more of God’s peace in our hearts, with more gentleness and patience. We ought to have learned self-control, and to be better able to rule our own spirit. We ought to have more love, more joy, more thoughtfulness, to be more considerate, to have more humility.

Old age never should be the dregs of the years, the mere cinder of a burnt-out life. One may not have the vigor and strenuousness of the mid-years—but one should be every way truer, richer-hearted, holier. If the outward man has grown weaker and feebler—the inner man should have grown stronger and Christlier.”

So, what have you made yourself to be? Which best describes you–sweet or sour? For others the question is–what are you making yourself to be? Listen, you are not going to suddenly hit eighty and become something totally different than what you are now. You are presently in the process of becoming what you will be, only to a greater degree. If you want to be a sweet, kind, useful person, the kind of person others admire, then you best be doing those things that produce those character traits right now. Yield yourself to the control of the Holy Spirit and watch Him work as He transforms you “from glory to glory”(2 Cor.3:18) into the image of Christ.