There are many concerns about growing older but, in my own case, the concerns are far outweighed by the pleasures. One of the promises God gives us is Psalm 92:14 “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,” As Joshua got older, God told him that there “is still much land to be taken” – Joshua 13:1. It seems then that maturity has its privileges and its pleasures.
Certainly, grand children are one of the great privileges and pleasures of life. How can one not marvel at the potential wrapped up in a baby. Innocence un-marred by experience, everything is new and exciting and just waiting to be discovered and explored. It matters not one jot if you are the most important person in the world, when a two year old hands you a toy telephone, you answer it. As a grandparent, it is one of my great pleasures to play with the little ones and, if I am a touch cynical, to hand them back afterwards for the feeding, cleaning, and bedding department – although I still love story time.
Another great pleasure is that of hospitality. This would never have happened years ago, but friends now call to tell us to break out more coffee as they are on their way over. I love it that people feel they are free to do that with us. We just love being hospitable and if there’s enough in the pot then stay for a bite too. If there’s not enough, then we can stretch it a bit further so that we all get some, so stay anyway.
One of the more important roles we now have is that of nurturing, especially of new Christians. This is an enormous privilege to lead them through the basic tenets of our faith and perhaps to introduce them to prayer and Bible reading/study. The joy of encouraging people to grow in their faith is only compounded by the fact that they nearly all end up as friends – good friends because we can also ‘teach’ them about hospitality as well. We have the great joy of having “adoptive” couples who are away from their own parents but who have adopted us as surrogate Mum & Dad.
A more serious role we get to play is the mentoring of the rising generation of younger Christians, particularly those possibly headed towards leadership in the church. Whether we like it or not, and whether we ask for it or not, age brings with it a certain amount of leadership and responsibility to ensure that the next generation is as equipped or better equipped than our generation. It is a privilege and a pleasure to match raising grand children and with even more responsibility. In mentoring we should remember the warnings in Ezekiel 34 about shepherds and sheep.
What we bring to the table is, in short, life experience and (assumed) wisdom. What we give is advice, wisdom, encouragement, nurturing, training, and good solid grounded faith. Without losing any of our fervour for the Lord, we have, like Paul, learned to be satisfied with what we have whilst being ambitious for those we are mentoring or otherwise helping to raise in the faith.
Yes, life does have its great privileges and pleasures and, to me, these can only increase with age.
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