Growing Older
The bible tells us that a long life is a blessing from God: Psalm 91:14-16 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Now that I am in my 70’s I am able to know firsthand the differences between being young and getting older. I recall how easy it once was for me to lose weight. I could lose 5 pounds a week on a low carb diet. In fact, I was a bit of a snob judging people who were overweight. I could not understand why they allowed themselves to be overweight 😊 Then as I got older my low carb diet was no longer bearable. I would feel so sick that I could not maintain it. I tried starving myself, but that could not be maintained long enough to be a solution.
I recall wondering why older people took so long to get up from a sitting position 😊 Now I know why 😊 The bible tells us that bodily exercise profits little (1 Timothy 4:8). It does not say that it is not profitable. It is saying that compared to spiritual matters it is not as important. Though I must confess that I have used that statement to defend my lack of regular exercise 😊 I stand on the scripture that states that my youth can be renewed like the eagles Psalm 103:5 “Who satisfies your mouth with good things. So that your youth is renewed as the eagle’s”. God has led me to certain supplements that have helped me in the aging process. I found one that helps to delay and reverse the effects of arthritis. I just recently found one that is a natural muscle relaxant to help with aches and pains.
I suppose it would be unrealistic to not expect to feel any of the things that aging causes. If there was no aging process, we would live forever in our earthly bodies. However, there is one thing that comes with aging, and that is wisdom. We should be learning from our mistakes. We should also be taking in more and more knowledge, so we are wiser than we once were. I guess it is a trade-off. One thing for sure, aging will make us look forward to the new body we will receive when we go to be with the Lord 😊