The Joy of Growing Old

                My mouth is full of laughter and my heart is full of joy. I feel so sorry for folks who don¡¦t like to grow old, and who are trying all the time to hide the fact that they are growing old, who are ashamed to tell how old they are. I revel in my years. They enrich me. If God should say to me, " I will let you begin over again, and you may have your youth back once more,¡¨ I should say, ¡§Oh, dear Lord, if Thou dost not mind, I prefer to go on growing old.¡¨ 

I would not exchange the peace of mind, the abiding rest of soul, the measure of wisdom I have gained from the sweet and bitter and perplexing experiences of life, nor the con­firmed faith I now have in the moral order of the Universe, and in the unfailing mercies and love of God, for all the bright but uncertain hopes and tumultuous joys of youth. Indeed, I would not! 

These are the best years of my life¡Xthe sweetest, and the most free from anxious care. The way grows brighter; the birds sing sweeter; the winds blow softer; the sun shines more radiantly than ever before. I suppose ¡§my outward man¡¨ is perishing, but ¡§my inward man¡¨ is being joyously renewed day by day. 

Some lessons that I have learned, or partially learned, here pass on:

I. Have faith in God¡Xin His providence, in His superint­ending care, in His unfailing love.

2. Accept the bitter with the sweet and rejoice in both.   The bitter may be better for us than the sweet. Don¡¦t grow impatient and fretful.  If you fall into diverse temptations, count it all joy, knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience, and let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Victory is to be attained through the joyful acceptance of annoying trials and petty vexations as a part of God¡¦s discipline (James i. 2¡X7).

3. Keep a heart full of love toward everybody. Learn to be patient with folks who try your patience. If you can¡¦t love them with complacency, then love them with compassion and pity; but love them, pray for them, and don¡¦t carry about with you hard thoughts and feelings toward them.

4. Don¡¦t waste time and fritter away faith by living in the past, by mourning over the failures of yesterday, and the long ago. Commit them to God, and look upward and onward.  ¡§Forgetting those things which are behind,¡¨ said Paul, ¡§and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.¡¨ 

Oh ! the joy of living a life of service, of love, and of ¡§growing up unto Him in all things, which is the Head¡Xeven Christ!¡§ Such a life is never old, but eternally renewing itself; eternally youthful, like a springing, sparkling fountain that is fed by unfailing waters that flow down from the heights of the everlasting hills. Hallelujah!

[ Top of this page | Table of Contents ]

.