The Cracked Acorn – Now old

Many yesterdays ago, I was involved in lots of car repair. I was much younger & took it in stride I was going to become the master mechanic.

After several auto restorations I began to think, was it really worth the trouble. My father was still in good health working on the farm. In one of my visits from Virginia to Kentucky, I confided in my dad & told him it was becoming too much. I was beginning to take naps in the garage, while under the car. Dad replied he had been doing this for years; it could be under a tractor or the  combine. (He once told me when he was old; I would also be old. I just hadn’t realized it had happened this quickly.)

The Bible tells us people lived into the 900s before the Flood, Methuselah, at 969. This declined till about 1000 B.C. & then maybe 70 or 80 (Psalm 90:10). Starting in 1900 U.S. life expectancy has risen from 47 to an average age of 83,today.

In this added time, we should “number” our days (Psalm 90:12) .

We should discern the future. (Deut. 32:28-29).

We should consider how life will turnout. (Psalm 39:4-5)

We will live longer if we consider our speech/behavior. (Psalm 34:11-14; I Peter 3:10-11)

We should love the Lord. (Psalm 91:14-16) Obey the Lord. (Proverbs:3:1-2,4:10)

We should fear & grow in the knowledge of the Lord. (Proverbs 9:10-11; 10:27)

Note these humorous remarks from people of the past:

All would live long, but none would be old.

Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are cheese.

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, & the second half by our children.

No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.

The older I grow the more I distrust the family doctrine age brings wisdom.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

Age doesn’t protect you from love, but love to some extent protects you from age.

Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.

Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked.

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come into contact with a new ides.

( My favorite!) How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young.

Recently there have been several specials on TV about the NEW AGE & evangelistic movements supposedly sweeping our nation. I am not sure if we are looking at this from close-up or from afar. I do not see within these vast audiences a sea of grey hair.

Has the present generation forgotten ‘An aged person loved is winter with flowers’ (old German proverb). The older generation is the “splendor” of today. (Proverbs 20:39)

Psalm 92:13 & 14 says, “These who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in an old age; they shall be fresh & flourishing.”

They are the bearers of fundamental human values. Where this memory is lacking, people are rootless; they also lack any capacity to project themselves with hope towards a future that transcends the limits of the present (From theDignity of Older People).

Go, in early morning, Into the harvest white, Sing a song of gladness labor with all your might; Let the words of Jesus over this nation ring, With the coming evening, beautiful gleanings bring. For the faint & weary, carry a smile of cheer, With the sad & dreary, weeping an anxious tear. To the heart that’s aching under a load of care, Lend a hand of comfort. In the name of Jesus gather the
sheaves of today, Read the precious promises, wages, He will pay; Go with rejoicing gleaning from the fields of sin, Thrust thy glowing sickle, bring in the harvest. (#10 9 , Beautiful Gleanings –
Sacred Selections)