Find refreshment for your heart, home and life
Seasons come and go – in our world, and also in our personal lives. How can we live out each season to its fullest for the glory of God? Listen to hear some practical ways you can experience richness in every season the Lord gives you.
The soundbite below is referencing the Summertime of life. Can you relate?
Continue reading “Making the Most of Each Season of Life”
Birthdays ~ we have one every year, and mine just happened to be yesterday. To be honest, there are days when I sigh at getting older, but I’m finding that the way to beat the blues is to enter each year (and each day) with a thankful heart.
As I sat and reflected on my birthday, I came up with this list of SOME of the blessings that have fallen to me in this last year.
This doesn’t include the times I’ve spent in God’s Word, hearing from Him, and talking to Him in prayer. I’ve left out all the sweet hours of fellowship with friends and family, in our home, in theirs, at church, in restaurants and other meeting up sites. Even on my birthday yesterday, we had “fellowship” in the hospital where my poor brother-in-law is recovering from surgery due to fall from a roof and subsequent severe injuries. We gathered in the waiting area and prayed, read Scripture and waited together. Those are not the planned kind of gatherings, but they do become sweet blessings because they add to the depth of my life as I reflect on the joy of having a family who can hold hands and run to God’s Throne together. Years ago I may have regretted spending my birthday at the hospital, but not this year. It’s a reminder that every day’s outcome is how you view it. This was all orchestrated by God’s hands, allowing us to have planned a trip home at this particular time. Only God knew why we needed to be here.
My birthday was filled with blessings and my heart is full. One last blessing is the growth of my blog. Thank you to each of you who read my posts regularly. Thank you to those who have followed me recently. Thanks to those of you who comment and encourage me. I am amazed that others read what I’ve written, but I’m so very grateful! I trust that as the year progresses, God will grant wisdom and help to make this worth reading each day.
What blessings would you recount on your birthday? If you haven’t, start making a list in a journal today!
Another year older, but even more blessed,
I don’t believe I have ever met anyone who is excited at the thought of aging. Take this woman, for instance – an interviewer said to her:
“I see your birthday is May 5, Ms. Beale. May I ask what year?” Ms. Beale replied: “Every year.”
We don’t want others to know how old we are; lest they think we’re old. There really is no option however, and we all have to determine not if we will age, but how we will do it! It’s really up to us how we live our years as seniors. Denying the truth won’t change the situation, but a biblical perspective will be the best help we could give ourselves.
This week our Sunday school class studied Psalm 90-92. There are some wonderful helps in this passage to guide our aging process. Consider Psalm 90 verses 9b, 10 and 12. “We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” We spend our years as a tale that is told – in other words we are preaching our funeral while we are living. You will be remembered by how you are living your life each day. The average years of a person’s life are seventy, but we can by His grace live to eighty or beyond, but we need to remember that we are living for the Judgment Seat of Christ where our works will be tried. We need to be living so that we will hear “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
I read that there are Seven Ages of Man:
6 weeks–all systems go
6 years–all systems “No!”
16 years–all systems know
26 years–all systems glow
36 years–all systems owe
56 years–all systems status quo
76 years–all systems slow
How then does an aging person continue to live so that their life counts for eternal purposes? They don’t have the stamina and strength that they had when they were younger. What can a senior citizen do for the Lord at this time in their life when “all systems are slow?” Here are a few suggestions:
These are just a few suggestions to get you thinking. I believe if we really desire to be used of the Lord we will be like Psalm 92:14 says, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” I love this verse. A person that serves the Lord with a right heart won’t just have leaves, they will bear fruit! No matter how old we are, we can be useful to God -even if your “systems are slow!”
Sarcastic, disrespectful children – it’s a bit shocking to hear, isn’t it? Ugly words get hurled, like mud balls on the playground creating much more disaster than a load of laundry. But who are the children? Who are their parents? I’m not referring to teens and their 40-somethings mom and dad. I’m talking about grown adults who are hurling the words and attitudes at their elderly parents.
Perhaps it started when the parents got sick and needed special help from their children. Maybe it began when one of the parents died, leaving just one – alone, struggling, hurting and needy. It cuts into the world and time of a busy adult already struggling with other issues of their own children, marriage and jobs. This creates pressures and sometimes also causes wrong responses and attitudes towards the people we love and should care for the most.
Our loving God, who knows what happens in families, put a Scripture in Proverbs to remind us to guard our hearts, and to treat our aging parents with love, respect and care.
Why would a child have the temptation to “despise their mother when she is old?” She may:
All of the above mentioned reasons could very well test a person’s patience, but let’s face it, when we were young children at her feet, did we not test her patience? Did she not give us extra attention when we needed it? Why then would we despise her for her needs?
It’s no mistake that the Lord, the Giver of our parents, placed this Scripture in His Word because He knew there would be a temptation for some to “despise” their mom at a time when she may need her children’s understanding and love the most. Don’t allow the changes that have come to your parents in their latter years to build resentment towards them. Love them they way that you would want to be treated. After all, you will indeed reap what you sow.
Lovingly,
Today’s post is a re-post from many years ago.
Every time I come across this verse in Scripture –
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; it brings these thoughts to my mind and I wanted to share them with you again.
Recently I heard a young person say, “I never want to get old! It’s so depressing!” The reason for their statement was that they had heard an older person complain, fuss, moan and gripe about everything that was happening around them. It’s easy for any of us to get into a state like that – no matter how young or old we are.
“Would people envy my perennial peace,or would they shun me because of my continual complaints?”
RefreshHer 