The Wayside Pulpit No.19
Mellowing with Age
Here is a
lesson for those of us, like myself, who are of more advanced years. I have no
idea who wrote it, but found it in a Christian journal of September 1978. It
has a few sobering thoughts!
"With
every year that passes I am growing older. Teach me therefore the art of
growing old gracefully.
Let me not
imagine that my years have instilled into me all the wisdom of the ages, so
that I know all there is to be known on every subject.
Let me
not, therefore, say something on every subject on every occasion.
Save me
from the impulse of telling other people how to run their lives.
Keep me
from being moody, intolerant, and dictatorial.
Keep my
mind clear. Let me keep my powers of concentration, and not to waste time in
the circumlocutory repetition of meaningless details.
Give me
the sense to keep my increasing catalogue of aches and pains to myself, even
though the joy of advertising them becomes greater with every year.
Give me
the grace to listen to descriptions of the aches and pains of others with
patience - if not exactly with joy.
Teach me
the lesson that it is possible that I may, at times, be mistaken.
Keep my disposition
sweet. Do not allow my advancing years to turn me sour.
Let me use my huge
store of accumulated wisdom wisely and not dispense it too lavishly, for, Lord,
I wish to have a few friends left at the end of my days.
Let me see unexpected
good things in people, and give me the grace to tell them so."
- - - - - - - -oOo- - - - - - - -
News flash from Jim
Bramlett,
'JESUS' FILM MIRACLE
WINS MUSLIM CONVERTS
Hundreds of Muslims have come to Christ since a blind 15-year-old
Indonesian girl taken to a screening of the "Jesus" film had her
sight
restored at the exact moment the movie portrayed Jesus healing a blind beggar,
said Paul Eshleman, director of The Jesus Film Project.
"His touch has still its ancient power." Thank you,
Lord.