If we live long enough we all will become old. Hair will turn gray; that is, if any is left! Bodies weaken. Eyesight dims. Hearing fades. Memory fails. Don’t get upset, that’s the way of life! It’s according to nature. As someone has said, “Getting old isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative!”

But, as we grow old we become more vulnerable, more gullible, more easily deceived. Unscrupulous characters often prey upon the elderly. Often they are cheated out of their life’s savings. So, we older folk need to be careful with whom we deal. Don’t trust everyone and don’t believe everything you hear – especially the lies of Satan.

These I picked up somewhere in my reading years ago and would give the credit, but I’m too old to remember where I got it!

Satan says to old people: ”You are all washed up and useless.” Don’t believe it! It’s a lie of Satan!! God says: “The righteous. . .shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” (Psa. 92:12-14) Some of the world’s great accomplishments have been by those past the age of retirement. Noah was six hundred years old before God called him. Abraham was about one hundred years old when Isaac was born. Moses was eighty years old when God sent for him to lead the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Although Moses made several excuses when God called him out there in the wilderness, he never did say, “I’m too old!” And neither should we.

Commodore Vanderbilt added a hundred million dollars to his fortune after he had reached the age of seventy. Col. Sanders was flat broke at the age of retirement, and then made a fortune in the fried chicken business. Tennyson wrote Crossing the Bar at the age of eighty-three. An eighty-year-old friend, Keith Coleman, is still in real estate, and says he hopes to retire before ninety! Sister Annie Johnston recently celebrated her 103rd birthday and hardly ever misses a church service!

Another lie that Satan tells old people is: “You are too old to learn anything. After all, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Paul was an old man when he wrote to Timothy from a Roman prison asking him to bring him the parchments (2 Tim. 4:13). What do you suppose he wanted with them? To read, of course. Senior citizens, read. Read for enjoyment. Read for instruction. Read your Bible. Read and think. One never gets too old to learn. Like all muscles, the brain is a muscle in need of exercise.

Here is a lie that you may have heard: “You deserve honor simply because you are old.” That’s not true. Honor comes from service rather than from longevity. Proverbs 16:31 says that the “hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Methuselah lived 969 years, but so far as we know, he never accomplished anything except to celebrate a lot of birthdays. Science has been able to add many years to life expectancy but this is useless unless we learn to add life to years. It is not how long we live, but it is how we live that really counts.