Pros & Cons on Growing Older

Photo Credit: Wix

How do you feel when your birthday comes around? Are you someone that enjoys celebrating it with as many people as possible for a week or a month? Are you someone that pretends it's just another day? Maybe you're somewhere in the middle. No matter how different we may feel about our birthdays, we do tend to create our own views about them. Perhaps these views have simply been passed down to us by family traditions, or we have branched out with new ones.

Let me ask you a few questions I ask myself more as I grow older: what are your thoughts on presents? Should you just tell your loved ones what you would love to receive or should gift giving be more about what someone wants to give to their loved one? Should there be a cake and candles? How should a birthday be spent? Perhaps most of us would agree spending our birthday with people we love is the best way to celebrate. One thing is for sure though, we tend to have expectations and sometimes that can lead to disappointment.

There are some birthdays that it's so easy to be happy, and others a bit harder. We know life is tough sometimes and there's nothing like a birthday to point out our internal happiness barometer. It's in the name itself of the celebration, "Happy Birthday", right? The good news is that Jesus 'kept it real' in the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5. In several verses Jesus paired a negative situation with a positive one and called the people in those situations "blessed" or "happy", depending on the Bible translation you read.

THE PROS

I remember being so excited to reach my twenties. I wanted to look and be older. It was seen as a blessing in my young perspective. I try maintaining this perspective still today, albeit a bit morbidly, by reminding myself that it is a blessing to reach old age since there are many who didn't or won't get the chance to. Or as Psalm 90:12 (NIV) puts it, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." That word, "wisdom", I am reminded about ever since I first started to get my "wisdom" grey hairs. THE CONS

Let's just go ahead and start talking about grey hairs and all the health downhill surprises that come with age over here under this title section. I remember debating on plucking my first grey hair. Then, debating on whether I would dye my hair every month, and wondering how I would respond to people asking me why I wouldn't. It appears to me in the culture that I find myself in that middle aged women and grey hair should not go together. It appears to be a sign of not taking care of yourself and maybe a threat. Will my husband still love me as my youth's beauty begins to fade like the beauty of a rose does.

Proverbs 31:30 (NIV) states, "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting: but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. To that, our Hollywood-obsessed culture-influenced selves might respond with, "Did you not know how much we would praise women (and men) for their good looks? How many opportunities they would have?" But, it is because God knows our human condition that He made sure we would always read and learn that as beauty fades, keep in mind that the fear of the LORD is what truly matters in this life. Even when it isn't praised on this earth.

It's not uncommon to see this dynamic in some spheres where men are dominant in leadership roles. It may be discouraging to women for sure because of the implications that might follow affecting them, but to men specifically as they see how certain men move up the promotion ladder in churches or ministries whose lives don't truly reflect the fear of the LORD, and here they are, "lowly" in the eyes of men. But the same encouragement goes to men found in the Proverbs verse above. The fear of the LORD is what truly matters. Live this way no matter the lack of recognition by people.

One more "PRO" or maybe a few more: I'm grateful to God that the older we grow leaning into this fear of the LORD, helps us learn from the mistakes of our youth and the more recent "yesterdays". We get to have a deeper relationship with Him also. We reap the reward of learning more about His Word and we get to pass these things on to others as well. That should be enough to keep us grounded no matter how not "happy" our birthdays might make us feel sometimes. Another year God has been faithful to us, and another day we get to walk with Him. We really are blessed.