Growing Oldler...but not Old!

I recently celebrated a birthday.  It's amazing how quickly they seem to add up the older I get.  Does that happen to you?  Just wondering.  For all of us we can't wait for our birthday to come when we are younger.  You know, that 12th, that 16th, 18th, and then that 21st birthday.  But something seems to change at the 30th, then the 40th, and of course.....the 50th.  (If you're wondering about me, I've surpassed them all.)  The older we get we tend to begin to apply the brakes to our enthusiasm about our next birthday.  But then after the 50th...who cares!

One fact never changes:  We are all growing older.  If you really think about it, you are older today than you were yesterday.  You younger whippersnappers may make fun of us older folk today, but you've aged since last night!  You're growing older...and you can't change that!!  (Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.)  The truth is we are all growing older.  But...we don't have to grow old.  I will make a marked distinction between growing older and growing old.  Growing older is something that happens biologically. On the other hand growing old is a mindset.  Growing older cannot be stopped (even if you fight it every step of the way ladies).  But growing old can easily be checked.  How?  By the way you think.

I am reminded of an older home that has been restored through the years.  It can have all the modern amenities of a brand new home.  It can be an older home but not old.  Then there's the house that's been neglected and eventually abandoned through the years.  It  begins to deteriorate and eventually becomes a pitiful sight, uninhabitable.  We can be like that "old" house when we don't allow our minds to be renewed by God's Word.  But God has given us His living and active Word to renovate our minds so that we think like Him.  God is older than you and me...but He is not old!

Don't spend a lot of time with folks who think and act old. Connie and I have friends older than us, but we love to hang around them because they think young.  Thinking young allows one to be crazy, pliable, and to enjoy life.  Thinking young also affects your health in a positive way.  Psalm 103: 5 says that He "...satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle."  This verse is part of my daily prayer and has been for many, many years.  Walking with Him puts me in position to receive the "good things" that renew my youth (mindset)...even when I am older.  Draw on your relationship with Him, and receive the "good things" that satisfy your years and renew your youth like the eagle.  So go ahead and confidently grow older...just don't grow old.