October 3, 2005

• Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding? Job 12:12

  
  

  I found this verse last week and saved it so that I can  begin a file on ‘aging’ Scriptures. There are many challenges that await a person once they begin the aging process. I’m on the threshold… I turned 48 this year (sounds like I’m talking about milk rather than a birthday! *S*) and I find that I’m already experiencing changes in my body, mind and emotions that were not there a few years ago. My memory is not what it used to be, nor my strength or my nerves. Lines are appearing on my face and my skin is not as resilient as it once was. I feel like I’m living in an oven most days, even if the temperature is freezing outside. I’m a walking science experiment.

  
  

  I want my thinking to be biblical as I approach this next season of my life. I don’t want to succumb to the worlds way of dealing with age. I don’t want things tucked, stapled,  pulled, lifted or separated. I don’t want my skin peeled or my lips pumped. I want to embrace each line and wrinkle, each gray hair. (well, I guess I can’t embrace the gray hair because my husband likes my hair with blonde highlights!) I want to be comfortable with who God is calling me to be… an older woman. How can I ever obtain this godly goal if I do everything in my power to reject aging and cover it up?  

  
  

  Besides gathering Scriptures that speak to what the Lord says about our aging I also try to  protect myself  from the media’s interpretation of how a woman should look as she ages. One way is by not watching those ’makeover’ shows on tv. What a recipe for disaster!  The focus is on the outward appearance with no thought of eternity or our inward beauty.  Our lines and wrinkles are telling a story, especially to the person they are being found on. They are speaking loud and clear that my time is fading here on earth and that I am  bound for another place.. Heaven!  I can only bring glory to God in this season of my life if I conform my thinking to what His Word actually says about aging.

  
  

  This Scripture also had me thinking about something else and that is how time has the opportunity to change a person’s view on some things and give them more understanding. The older a godly woman becomes the more wisdom she should have acquired. The way I look at many things today is different than I did nearly 30 year ago. The  thoughts that have been grounded in God’s Truth will never change. But, so many times we hold to a belief that we ‘think’ is God’s truth only to have it challenged down the road and realize we had put a ‘thus saith the Lord’ onto a thought or conviction that was of our own making.

  
  

  When we are young parents we think we have all the answers. We feel angered if someone offers us a different opinion than our own. Yet, Scripture so clearly teaches that the older women are to teach the younger women. They’ve been there.. done that! They have hopefully learned through their mistakes. They’ve  sifted through the rubble of decisions made over the years and by God’s grace have hopefully clung to the objective in God’s Word.

  
  

  I’m finding that even at the ripe old age of 48 I still find myself questioning many convictions I used to cling to as solid truth. I still have not worked it all out. Our daily trials and afflictions have a way of tearing our ideals right from our hands, which in reality is a good thing. Our beliefs should always be challenged to stand on God’s Word otherwise we have no right passing them on to others as ‘thus saith the Lord’.

  
  

  I used to attend a lot of homeschool conventions during the years we ran a used book store. I came to know different speakers on a personal basis. It has been nearly 15 years since I first began selling home school books and so I’ve had some time to watch the families of the speakers (mine included) and see how their convictions played out over the years with their children. It’s interesting to see that many of us who tagged ‘thus saith the Lord’ on some of our child rearing convictions in many ways have come to challenge their validity as to whether or not they are found in God’s Word.  Not all of them… but some. Age has a way of gaining understanding if you are the Lord’s and seeking His will.  This must be why the Lord commands the older women to teach the younger women. If they are godly women they have had the experience of age to bring them wisdom they lacked in younger years. They can be a protection to the younger women if they will take advantage of their years.

  
  

  I’m very sobered by this thought and I pray that the Lord will give me His wisdom to only speak where Scripture speaks when laying commands on another person. My older daughter turned 30 this year and I have many grandchildren but I do not consider myself, really to be an older woman as yet.   The older I get the more I realize how little I really know.  I still have so much to learn. So, why in the world am I writing this blog????

  
  

  Blessings!
  Georgene

  • 1:14 am
  • 5 Comments