Finishing well: Seek God and help others do the same while finishing

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

As a baby boomer, I am spending quite a bit of time thinking about aging and helping those who are aging. When I was younger, I thought that 40 was old. Now that I am in my middle 50s I can see that the next 30 years will go faster than the last 30.

Psalm 90:10 tells us that the years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength 80; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

We do not know when our time on earth will be over but we can do some practical things to help us finish well while we are on this earth.

Sometimes as believers we can be so spiritual that we are no earthly good. When we believe in Jesus we begin a faith walk that has trials and troubles along with the encouragement that Jesus has overcome the enemy. If we wrongly think that we can get through life without dealing with problems we will not develop into mature believers in Christ.

As we face struggles in aging and helping others as they age we can draw on the power of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom and encouragement of others who are in similar situations.

I believe that we reap what we sow. If we want someone to be concerned about us when we are close to reaching the finish line then we should be concerned about others as they near the end of their lives on this earth.

We are to honor our parents if we want a long, good life. What does that look like and how do we do this?

There are many ways to honor our parents and each of our actions will be different but there are a few general things that all of us can do to assist our parents as they age.

If you are still holding a grudge or resentment against your parents forgive them. When we forgive we are setting ourselves free.

Recognize that your parents are probably not going to change. Change is difficult for all of us when we really want to change. As we age we can experience problems controlling our tongues so we need to pray that the Lord will set a curb at our lips if we are going to say something that should be filtered.

Let us remember that the Lord did not bring us this far in our journey with Him to leave us or abandon us when perhaps we most need Him. God will be faithful to each of us. Our job is to seek Him as we endeavor to finish well and help others do the same.

May God bless you big.

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This is first in a series of articles by Kevin Barsotti of Ark Church looking at issues of aging in the light of the teachings of the church.