the Present and the Past

A month and a half have gone by since I turned seventy. Recently I came across a letter I wrote to my grandmother when she had celebrated her 90th birthday. It was clear how my words applied in some measure to myself. I was 25 when I wrote these words to my grandmother in honor of her birthday. Little did I know how much encouragement I would receive from my own words 45 years later.


Recently I saw a movie in which a man told a woman that she wasn't just 40 years old but that she was also 40 carats. By this he meant that just as a diamond becomes more valuable with each carat,Grandmom each year you become more precious to me.

More importantly since you are a Christian, each year God takes the joys and sorrows of your life and uses them to make you more and more like His son, Jesus Christ. Even when you are unaware of it He is working to make you into a more obedient child of His. Just as we can't deserve to be saved by Jesus from our sins neither can we merit any of the wonderful things He does for us or the ways He changes us for our good and His glory.

We can only thank Him for His work and pray that we will be better able to to love and serve Him.

Isaiah 40:30-31  Even youths shall faint and be weary,
                           And young men shall fall exhausted;
                           but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
                           they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
                           they shall run and not be weary;
                           they shall walk and not faint.



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