Old Age

I just saw another Retinol commercial on TV.  It’s amazing how those models can look 40 and be 60 years old!  I’m not sure that this “fountain of youth” miracle cream is as good as it claims to be.  If it really works, I need to get a drum full of it!  Ha, ha!  Our society values youth and dismisses old age.  Hey, I understand.  I would like to be young again … but with the knowledge that I have now.  But, if I were young again, I would probably make a whole new set of mistakes.  Many folk fight aging, but I embrace it.  I use my gray hair to my advantage.  I don’t have to work half as hard … I get a pass.  “Gerald is old,” they say.  People have started holding the door for me.  I thank them and take advantage of it.  I can forget things and still not be held responsible.  The old-age-excuse again.  But the best part of aging is my children and grandchildren.  My grandchildren think that I am the best.  And I don’t tell them any different.  And my children (the grandchildren’s parents) think that I am the best too.  Now that they are having to deal with children, and I have gone up in their esteem.  David said in Proverbs 17:6, “Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”  Growing older comes with aches and pains, but children and grandchildren are the blessings.  But Paul gives us older folk a serious reminder in Titus 2:1&2, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.”  I’ve got most of those down pretty good.  I’m still working on the patience part.