OLD OR ELDERLY?

Yesterday, while we were at the wolf preserve, I overheard a couple say to another, "We're not old. We're elderly." And the significance and profoundness of their statement has really stuck with me.
To mature and grow older is a fact of life that I recognized so clearly as I looked at the sea of sorority girls and college students standing in line with Kim and I as we waited our turn to be photographed with the wolves. We are no longer young adults -- we have grown older.

But, as the wise sages next to us quipped, to grow older does not mean you are old. You are only as old as you feel. You are only as old as you live. You are only as old as you choose to be.

The challenge is to not give in to the steady decay of physicality and vigor, but to remain youthful in attitude, aptitude, and appearance. The challenge is to avoid the temptation to take a lifetime of memories and experiences and hang them on the mantle in a frame of the past, but to take those experiences and build new memories for the future.

Life does not end because you grow older. Abraham was 100 when Isaac, the son of his faith was born. Moses was 80 when he was called to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Abraham and Moses were not old. They were merely elderly, and they let God use them to do mighty things. God desires the same of you!

Regardless of your age, you are only old if you choose to be. Like our friends at the wolf preserve, you can choose to be elderly and choose to let God continue to work in you and through you for the rest of your life. Remember, there is not a minimum retirement age in Christianity. God expects you to keep on keeping on until the end!