I have followed your commands,
which have kept me from
going along with cruel
and evil people.
Psalm 17:4
One of my favorite verses of scripture is Proverbs 20:29b ...
the gray hair of experience
is the splendor of the old.
Nowadays, I resemble that remark! I look splendiferous ... or maybe ... I'm just thankful for the hard earned wisdom that comes from experience.
I say this, while I'm not that old, I still have enough of a vantage point nowadays to look back on my younger years.
By now I've had lots of experience in following my wisdom vs. following God's.
I'm blessed to say that my parents put me on a sure enough path that I didn't "go[] along with [many] cruel and evil people." Nevertheless, I must also admit that I was blind enough to follow too many wayward ways and selfish desires. I did what the world promoted. I lived the way I wanted to live. And I justified it all by going to church on Sunday and saying, like Little Jack Horner, "What a good boy am I."
As the years went on, I became a parent. I wanted better for my boys than some of the mistakes I chose for myself. I learned, as my wife likes to say, that "God's way is the best way." I was a way better way of figuring out how to raise kids -- clear, consistent, and life-giving. And it turned out to be a clearer, more consistent, and rewarding way for me to live too.
I knew God from my youth, but with each gray hair, I learned to "follow[ His] commands." I learned that there's more freedom, joy, and reward from not "going along" with the world, not being led by my desires and emotions ... and going His way instead.
In a sense, life is easy now. And that's NOT because circumstances are easy. But because with each gray hair I've learned a little better how to walk in His footsteps.
And when I'm going His way, the road is easy (or at least much easier) and my burdens are light.
In Christ's Love,
a prince whose
silver hair is his crown
translation: a child of
the true King (thus a prince)
who has learned to trust
his Father as he's aged
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