THE JOY OF GROWING OLD
by Florence Clements
Read at Old Settlers Picnic 1964.
There may be a few people who say there are no joys of growing old. I've been chosen to tell you that there are. There are times in this business of living when joy seems pretty hard to find. When disaster strikes, when losses come and the road looks lonely and uncertain--joys certainly are not visible to the naked eye!
Many begin searching here and there, far and wide, they try to buy it over the counter--they bargain for costly clothes and fixtures--they spend precious years seeking the elusive quality--and when they find it, at last, it sometimes turns into ashes and even bitterness.
We know that time leaves its mark on everything. There are many familiar--one cherished, once useful things that show the marks of time. There are beautiful old trees--old houses, old chruches--we see them everywhere. Gradually, but surely, they weaken and waver and are forsaken, for they are no longer serviceable. A passerby says, "They have served their purpose--they aren't needed anymore."
We, you and I, are older people. We are proud to be Old Settlers, but our three score and ten shows!
Certainly we have passed the peaches and cream complexion-- our once pearly white teeth have been reduced to bridges and plates. Our hands show the stain and ravages of hard work. Sometimes our minds go blank when we try to remember a name--and our bunions grow! Even the men have lost their girlish figures.
But we won't allow ourselves to be classes as having served our purpose--or that we should be laid on a shelf, or that we aren't needed anymore. They teach me and my children many valuable lessons of life. They lend me hope and inspiration and courage--just when I need them most. My friends have learned in the hard school of experience the truths that never change. We never hear those truths too often. People will never outgrow their purpose as long as they have the love of God in their hearts. You know what I honestly believe? I believe that the Kingdom of God has been set forward by the bravest lives of plain people--people like you and me who try to do right because it is right-- and who have the faith and love, of which the world knows nothing, and who practices patience and prayer that is seen only by Him who seeth in secret.
In the book "A Man Called Peter" (so much read a few years ago) are many thought provoking sermons that contain much God-given wisdom. Peter Marshall was a minister who became Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. It was a job he performed in a most distinguished manner. When Marshall was small he sat at his Scotch grandmother's knee and read the Bible to her. He was only a child but he read to her because she was blind and could not read for herself. We think the grandmother interpreted much of the reading to him for he was only a child--but his mind was thirsty and clean--and eager for learning and he absorbed and remembered. Who can estimate the value of those stories and the Great Biblical promises on the little boy's mind? Certainly they become a vital part of his thinking and permeated his whole being--leading him to become a minister. He taught the Bible in simple heartwarming language and men of much learning were drawn by its power and majesty.
You and I have children and grandchildren who are dearer than life itself. What are we teaching them? We should help them lay a foundation and give them an anchor that will hold when life's trouble, envelop them. They may need that more than a deed to 320 acres or a bank account.
It isn't too late to take little hands in ours and walk and talk about the "Heavens and Declare the Glory of God"--and the great Providence of God that supplies us with wheat for our bread and cookies--and the grass on the hills that grow for our cattle--and the great weather cycle that brings us the rain, the snow and sleet--all in good time.
We need to teach the subject and value of Freedom, paid for by the blood and tears and privations of our forefathers.
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