This article is for folks old enough to be retired. But if you consider yourself young, keep on reading anyway, for you're headed for the "golden years."
As we grow older, we need God's help to recognize the frailties and temptations that come late in life. Old age is a dangerous period. No wonder the author of Psalm 71 prays as he does. (Read it now if you haven't already.)
While visiting Florida, I found the following item in a church bulletin:
A Prayer As I Grow Older
"O Lord, You know I am growing older! Keep me from closing my eyes to the fact. Keep me from becoming a pest, a self-appointed sage with the annoying habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Keep my mind free from the repetition of past experiences and endless details. Seal my lips about my aches and pains. I do not ask for improved memory, but for less cockiness about the memory of others. Teach me to admit that sometimes I am mistaken. Make me sweeter and mellower as my age progresses. Let me never grow old —only older. May it be said of me, 'Though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day' (2 Cor. 4:16)."
Let's not merely grow older, but more Christlike. --M. R. De Haan, M.D. (founder of RBC Ministries) — M.R. De Haan
O keep me sweet and let me look
Beyond the frets that life must hold,
To see the glad eternal joys;
Yes, keep me sweet in growing old! —Hazard
As God adds years to your life, let Him add life to your years.