Growing new wood

Part 2 of my "Aging with Grace" series

They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green. – Psalm 92:14 (NIV)
     
“I will not make age an issue,” the late Ronald Reagan said in 1984, when, at age 73, he was running for the US Presidency. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

His opponent was 56.

Life doesn’t end at 60 or 62 or 65, or whatever age the government or company you work for says you must retire. You can still produce in the autumn and winter seasons of life.

Vanderbilt increased his fortune by $100 million between the ages of 70 and 83. When he was 74, Verdi composed his masterpiece, Othello; when he was 80, Falstaff; and when he was 85, the Ave Maria. Cato began to study Greek when he was 80, the same age that Goethe wrote Faust. At 83 Tennyson penned his renowned poem, “Crossing the Bar.” And at 98, Titian created his historic painting, “The Battle of Lepanto.”

Productivity in the golden years isn’t only for the ancients, either. I knew a man who went deep sea fishing when he was 91.

What’s the secret to aging with grace? The first secret is to keep growing. Anything that isn’t growing is dead.

“That tree is very old, but I never saw prettier blossoms on it than it now bears,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote. “That tree grows new wood every year. Like that apple tree, I try to grow a little new wood every year.”

We, too, need to grow a little new wood each year. The Bible tells us that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). That means He grew mentally, physically, spiritually and socially. So should we, no matter what our age.

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” Paul wrote (Romans 12:2). Grow mentally by keeping your mind active. Learn something new. Read something that requires effort, thought and concentration, such as classic literature. Take a continuing education course. Write your memoirs, research your genealogy and family history. Do crossword puzzles or solve brain teasers. Play games that require thinking, such as Scrabble or Scattergories.

Physically, our bodies are no longer growing as they did when we were young, but they still need upkeep. I call it “temple keeping” because God’s Word tells me my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20). So I take care of this temple by eating right, getting the proper amount of rest and exercising regularly (well, I try). It’s important to know my limits and pay attention to what my temple is telling me. Taking care of health issues immediately will save me a lot of grief and hassle down the road. And I keep up appearances because if I look good, I feel good, and if I feel good, I do good.

The famous comic strip artist Harry Hershfield lived a fruitful life until his death in 1974 at the age of 89.

“I wake up every morning at 8 a.m. and reach for the morning paper,” he once said. “Then I look at the obituary page. If my name’s not in it, I GET UP!”

     
Lord, show me ways I can grow a little new wood every day. Amen.


Join me at the Seasons of Life Christian Women’s Conference at the Punxsutawney First Church of God on Oct.16, from 9 a.m.—3 p.m. Tickets, which are $20, include lunch and must be purchased in advance. Benefits Punxsutawney Christian School. For tickets, call PCS at 814-938-2295 or email me at michelehuey@yahoo.com

For more information, visit the conference blog at http://seasonsoflifecwc.blogspot.com 

The girl in the picture

Here's the "girl in the picture" that I wrote about in my last blog.My husband has kept this picture in his wallet for nearly 37 years. It was taken on October 20, 1973, the day we got engaged.

The girl in the picture

So we do not lose heart. Though our outward nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. – 2 Corinthians 4:16 (RSV)

Every year my husband and I attend a holiday dinner given by his employers. Years ago, when the children were still at home and the job list longer than the day (and my energy supply), the dinner was held at a fashionable, classy country club. No longer was I the slim, young thing pictured in a snapshot my husband keeps in his wallet. The years had brought with them a few more pounds, and put a dent in the youthful self esteem exuding from the photo I sometimes wished he’d stop showing to everybody.

There were other changes, too: The long, silky chestnut hair that cascaded over the bare shoulders of the girl in the picture, taken on the day she got engaged, was now cropped short. With a husband, three children and a house to take care of, she no longer had the time for herself.  

That evening, however, I’d taken extra care getting dressed, and, when I came down the stairs, I was compliment-ready. But my spouse only glanced at the clock and said, “We’d better get going. I don’t want to be late.”

He said little on the one-hour drive in the swirling snow to the country club, but I was feeling too good to let his silence ruin my mood. Besides, the evening was still young.

When we arrived at the country club, we turned up the long, curved driveway that led to the hilltop restaurant. As we neared the portico, he asked, in an attempt to be thoughtful, “Do you want me to drop you off here?”

“Sure,” I said, opening the car door.

At that moment, the headlights illuminated a large sign: “BAG DROP.”

We’re all growing older. We’re changing physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Shifts occur in our social life, too, as the people we associate with change, move away, experience life-altering health problems or pass away. Some of the changes we’ve looked forward to, but others, such as weight gain and health issues, are more difficult to deal with. I don’t want to turn into a crotchety, bitter old person. I’d rather age with grace. With all the changes, wanted and unwanted, that getting older brings, how DO we age with grace?

Aging with grace just doesn’t happen on its own. Like everything else worthwhile in life, it must achieved through planning and conscientious effort.

The girl in the picture still exists – deep down in the heart of a pushing-60 grandmother—who’s learned the secret to a happy life despite the aches and pains that age brings: “Though our outward nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Someone once wrote, “You can take no credit for beauty at 16. But if you are beautiful at 60, it will be your soul’s own doing.”

            Lord, help me to be beautiful on the inside, where it really counts. Amen.

Special-Tea: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Canning partner

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. 

– Ecclesiastes 4:9 (NIV)

When we planted our garden in the spring, we had no idea of the harvest we’d get. Last year we lost all our tomato plants—four dozen—to blight. We managed to harvest some potatoes, even though the blight killed the plants before the tubers were done growing. The peppers, on the other hand, did great. They were plentiful and enormous.

This year was the other way around. The peppers were scarce and small, and the tomatoes—well, let’s just say the Lord has restored what the locust (last year’s blight) had eaten. To date, we’ve canned 20 pints of green beans, 27 quarts and 10 pints of pickled beets, three pints of relish, 21 quarts of pears, 31 quarts of tomatoes, and 32 pints of tomato juice. To that add green beans, peas, and corn we’ve put in the freezer. More tomatoes are ripening, but after we can 11 pints of whole tomatoes for chicken soup, we're done.

Notice I wrote “we.” Not “I.” Up until this year, I’ve done all the canning. But when the regular English teacher at the Christian school resigned two weeks before school started, I was asked to fill in until a permanent teacher could be found. How could I say no? The school is near and dear to me. I was involved in getting it established in 1997, served on the board of directors for four years, then taught English for five years. Two of my grandchildren now attend.

So the first day of school found me in a classroom instead of in my writing room writing or in the kitchen canning.

But I’ve got the most wonderful husband in the world. He’s always supported me in anything I’ve ever done. He hasn’t just helped me to can. He’s learned how to do it himself.

Last Saturday while I went to town for groceries (stores, I learned, are great places to shop at 6:30 a.m.), he dug up, cleaned, and prepared beets for cooking. Then, under my instruction, he skinned, quartered, and packed them in jars that he’d washed while I paid the bills and balanced the household budget. I then prepared the pickling solution, which I added to the seven quarts and 10 pints he had ready, and put on the lids and bands.

We had two canners going at the same time: the water bath canner outside on the burner on the grill and the pressure canner on the range in the kitchen. Then we canned 13 quarts of tomatoes. He was going to leave that job to me—I always take a whiff of the tomato when I cut it to check for rot, and he wasn’t sure about that part of the process. But he ended up doing the tomatoes, too. All I did was add the sugar and salt, and put on the lids and bands. On Monday we did pears.

OK, I admit, I was a little territorial at first. I mean, the kitchen has always been my domain. But I had too much on my plate not to accept his help. Turns out he became more than a helper—he became my canning partner.

And isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?

Dear God, thank you for the life partner You’ve given me. Amen.

Special-Tea: Read Genesis 2:18-24

    

Air purifier

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to thy word. – Psalm 119:9 (RSV)

After my classroom was moved to the second floor of the front of the school building—right along the main street of town, a major artery for heavy truck traffic—I developed puzzling symptoms that came and went. Fatigue. Congestion. Watery eyes. Dry throat. Itchy, red spots on my skin. Mild numbness in my left arm. Difficulty concentrating. Occasional dizziness. Feeling as though I had a mild case of the flu.

Since no one else at school complained about the symptoms I was experiencing, I blamed them on getting older. By the end of that school year, though, I felt just awful. I attributed it to burnout and determined to spend the summer regaining my health. I went on a three-day, blood-purifying juice fast. I bought a water purifier for drinking water and a filter for the water system. I began to feel better. I had energy. I slept well. I could think again. All those baffling symptoms disappeared.
   
Then August came. The difference in my health within a week after I returned to school was abrupt and left no room for doubt. I suspected the black, soot-like dust that blanketed everything in my classroom—residue from the exhausts of trucks with diesel engines that changed gears right in front of the windows of my classroom. I’d been breathing that stuff for seven hours a day, five days a week, for three years.    The administration and I got busy. We sealed up every place where we suspected exhaust fumes could get in. A bigger, more efficient air purifier was purchased to complement the smaller one I’d been using. I replaced the air filter in the small air purifier, which was caked with soot. My symptoms abated.

Purity is hard to come by these days. Despite controls that limit the pollutants and environmental toxins that are byproducts of progress, the air we breathe and the water we drink are not as pure as they were in pre-industry times. That’s why bottled water and air and water purifiers have become so popular.

Spiritual purity is hard to come by, too. Just living in this sin-polluted world leaves a residue of sin-soot on us all. How do we attain and maintain the spiritual purity God requires?

By using the filter of God’s Word. We attain spiritual purity, the removal of all the sin dirt we’ve accumulated over the years, by asking Jesus, the Son of God, to be our Savior and accepting His death on Calvary’s cross for what it was: punishment for our sins: “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). 

We maintain spiritual purity by reading, meditating on and obeying God’s Word, which brings revival, wisdom, joy and enlightenment (Psalm 19:7-8).

In an unstable, imperfect, sin-polluted world, God’s Word is the only filter that works.
       
Father, help me to recognize when sin is polluting and poisoning my soul. Help me to deal with it before its debilitating effects ruin my life. Amen.
     

Special-Tea: Read Psalm 19:7-10

NOTE: This occurred several years ago. I've since resigned from teaching to write full time.