Here are some common thoughts on aging

I am in the way?  A feeling of uselessness especially after a life of keeping busy, going places, leadership
I blew it?  Some would like to go back and try to do it over again or maybe feel guilty about things in their past. Maybe how they raised their children or managed their affairs.
I have been given a raw deal?  There is a feeling of bitterness and resentment that results in self pity. Placing blame on other people or past experiences.

Scriptural realities worth considering

Read   Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Good Advice  verse 1. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth.

The term remember means "to act decisively on behalf of someone." In other words Solomon is encouraging us to act decisively on behalf of God here on Earth while we are young.
Don´t make mistakes that will be carried over all thru your life.
Some Inevitable Issues we must face In our scripture text   Ecclesiastes 12:2-6 Solomon builds an analogy between the deterioration of a house and the aging of a body.
First emphasizing the mental process and then the physical.
Mentally he describes how the crisp, razor sharp light of understanding begins to fade and how gloom and depression often is very much a part of those growing old.
Then he mentions the body ailments first the trembling of the lips, hands and head, and then the stooping or bowing of the legs.
We begin to see these things in our bodies and we can no longer do the things we used to do.
Ecclesiastes 12:4  "The grinding ones stand idle" this refers to the teeth which are fewer and weaker.
"And those who look through windows grow dim."  Ecclesiastes 12:3 our eyes which fail us.
Ecclesiastes 12:4  "When the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low." We don´t hear as well and maybe going deaf.
But maybe the slightest noise may wake you up sleep is easily disturbed.
Ecclesiastes 12:5 "Men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road." As we get older we become more preoccupied with possible dangers.
The hair turns lighter or gray like the color of an almond tree in bloom.

There are other signs of aging

• It takes longer to get from one place to another, no more children. Then Solomon reminds us of our mortality Ecclesiastes 12:7
• "Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto the God who gave it."
  So remember God before the end   before a stroke or heart attack which can take us without warning.

Life´s Final Factor

For so many death is gloomy, grim without any hope.
Solomon tells us "Then the dust will return to the Earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto the God who gave it."
This is our hope for the child of God  for those of us who remember their Creator  For those who don´t, life is only vanity!

There are three things all can learn from Solomons wisdom

• I am not getting any younger
• God has designed me to be empty without Him.
• Now is the time to prepare for eternity.
• Old age is golden I have heard it said, but sometimes I wonder as I get into bed My "ears" on the dresser, My "teeth" in a cup, My "eyes" on the table until I wake up. Ere sleep comes each night I say to myself, "Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?"   Yet I am happy to know as I close the door, My friends are the same as in days of yore.

Here are some more signs of old age just a little humor on these!

• Your back goes out, more than you do.
• The gleam in your eye is the reflection of the sun on your bifocals.

Loss of hearing is just another sign of old age.

• Three senior citizens are walking along together and one says;   Windy, ain´t it?
• The next one says;   No, it´s Thursday!
• The third man says;   "So am I, Let´s have a Coke"

 

Author Unknown

Since I have Retired from Life´s Competition. Each day is filled with complete repetition. I get up every morning and dust off my wits. Go pick up the paper and read the O-bits, to see if my name is there to know if I am dead. I get a good breakfast and go back to bed. The reason I know my youth is all spent, my get up and go, has got up and went.

Bible Studies Home

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.
3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.
4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
back






















Ecclesiastes 12:2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.
3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.
4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
back





























Ecclesiastes 12:3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.
back




































Ecclesiastes 12:4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
back






























Ecclesiastes 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.
back































Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
back

Last updated on September 15, 2005