The wisdom of the elderly

This question is for those over 90, for even if you are younger & feel old, you are still collecting wisdom. Perhaps when you hit 90, you can sort out all the wisdom you have gathered & narrow it down to the most precious tidbits.

When your children were born. Everyone warned you to enjoy every moment of their little lives for they grow up too fast. We were never told that all of life goes too fast.

When you are closer to death than birth. You may wish someone had imparted this wisdom to you in your younger years, "Enjoy the good parts longer. Don't rush through life."

Having lived in many different states, and different houses along the way, is there a special house you would have liked to have spent more years there? Or a special church you would like to go back to, but you know it would not be the same anymore? Maybe the building was boarded up a long time ago. Where did the people go? Oh, how the heart yearns to have grown old in fellowship with those people... at least now, when we look back.

We, humans, have a tendency to rush through life. We can't wait to grow up, leave home, have a successful career, a family of our own, for the kids to grow up & leave home, grandkids, great-grands, and the big one... to check the Obits daily & be relieved (or disappointed) our name is not there...yet.

What was the big hurry? It is said, "It is better to have a good life, than a long life." I know there are times in my life that, I wish I had skipped (but since they did not kill me, I guess they were needed to make me stronger? Or at least that is the cliche we are always given at such times).

But the really good memories, how I wish I had cherished them instead of rushing to whatever was next. I wish they had lasted and lasted and lasted... much longer.

But, the "Truly #1 Wisdom" I have to impart now, (I am cheating, as I am not 90, but this is a constant) is that I really wish I had had back then, the one pearl of great prize is, "Get a personal relationship with Jesus, before you leave the home & family you grow up in. Sure they will always be your family, but they won't be going out in the world with you. It is a complicated, beautiful, yet sprinkled-with-evil world out there. A simple one-time error in judgment can mess you up for a lifetime. Just sayin', you need Jesus... we all do.

And don't take side trips along the journey without him. He can't protect you if you don't stay under his wing.

Matthew 23-24 "... as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, how often I have longed to gather you... and you were not willing."