The Wrong Kind of Nostalgia

Posted on July 26, 2026 by Barbara Harper

A few years ago, we visited the Mast General Store downtown. I was hit with a wave of nostalgia as I came to a section of toys from not only my children’s childhoods, but from mine as well. I didn’t know some of those toys were still made.

Little Golden Books have a warm place in my heart because I read many of them to my kids, and I remember some from my childhood.

Going through boxes in our shed, My husband and I discovered high school and college notebooks as well as letters from our parents and cards our children had made for us when they were small.

When we talk about the price that things used to be, I’m reminded that the half-pint milk cartons served at our school cafeteria used to be five cents. I remember when McDonald’s first became a company, their commercials said that you could get a hamburger, fries, and a soft drink and still get change back from a dollar.

I remember as a child in southeast Texas, hardly anyone had central air conditioning. After dinner in the evenings, people would bring lawn chairs out in the front yard and visit with neighbors while kids rode their bicycles up and down the street or ran through sprinklers. My dad took kids for rides on his little motor scooter.

We often look back on the past through a rosy glow. The “good old days” seem simple and idyllic.

But were they?

I see acquaintances my age on Facebook posting memes saying we need to get back to the way things were years ago. Our childhoods would have been in the 60s: the era of the Viet Nam war, civil unrest, the emergence of “free love” and the drug culture, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Cold War. Though our own neighborhoods seemed peaceful, the world at large was not. And who knows what we’re forgetting from our own childhoods: fights with siblings, school cliques, feeling left out.

It’s not wrong to ooh and aah over our old baby pictures or talk fondly about how things used to be. But the wrong kind of nostalgia errs in a few ways.

One error is a condescending attitude that everything was better back in our day, and everything should be done the way we did it. I’ve seen snarky memes that say things like:

“We didn’t need to take water bottles with us everywhere we went. We drank from a hose and lived to tell about it.”
“We didn’t have coping skills. We had chores and a ‘You’ll live.'”
We didn’t wear helmets on our Schwinns. A fall and a few scrapes, and we were back to riding our bikes again.”
“The world wasn’t wrapped in bubble wrap. We slid down hot metal slides and got splinters from wooden swings. That made us tougher.”
“We didn’t go to Urgent Care for every splinter. Mom got out her tweezers.”

Some changes are good. Not everyone was so fortunate as to survive a bike wreck without a helmet on. Honestly, I cringe a little at the photo of us on the scooter without helmets. Urgent cares have been a great option when the doctor’s office isn’t open and one wants to avoid emergency room costs. People probably did have coping skills of some kind. These sayings mix truth with error, but they also seek to look down on everyone younger. How are we supposed to mentor or model Christlikeness to them or encourage them with attitudes like that?

Another nostalgic error is discontent when we long so much for past days that we can’t enjoy the present. Jen Wilkin writes in None Like Him: “There is a difference between missing the past and coveting the past. The antidote for covetousness is always gratitude: We can combat a sinful love of the past by counting the gifts we have been given in the present” (p. 75).

We fail to appreciate what we have and what we’re to do in the present if we are preoccupied with the past or think it’s all-around better.

Sure, young people do things differently than we did. But we did things differently than our parents did, too, didn’t we? If we’re always talking down to them about how our ways are better than theirs, we’ll just widen the generation gap. Where there are legitimate causes for concern, we do better to approach people where they are in love and speak from Scriptural truths, not cultural contexts.

Ecclesiastes 7:10 tells us “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

There are things God wants us to remember and learn from the past and to anticipate and plan for in the future. But He has given us this present moment to live and serve in, to love Him and others.

Ephesians 5:15-16 tells us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” The KJV phrases it “redeeming the time.” To quote Jen Wilkin again, “Redeeming the time requires being fully present in the present” (p. 76).

May God give us grace to enjoy His blessings and lessons from the past, but to be content with where He has us now and about His business ministering to others.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

(Special note: I don’t usually post on Mondays, but I’ll have a special announcement tomorrow.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Here are a few posts that stood out to me this week:

Goodness That Grants and Denies. “I am voicing my confidence that God will respond to my prayers with an expression of his goodness. That goodness will be revealed in one of two ways: by granting the petition or by denying it. Whether he gives exactly what I ask for, whether he gives me nothing at all, or whether he gives me something else entirely, I can be confident that he will give what is good and what is best.”

End of Life Decisions and the Christian Family. “This event was traumatic for our family, especially for me. I know we are not alone. End of life experiences can put families in very difficult situations. They receive advice from medical professionals that can often be more harmful than helpful. I cannot give all the answers for the questions families have in such situations, but I do think there is some biblical wisdom that applies. Here are some things to remember.”

Intrusive Thoughts and Gospel Hope, HT to Challies. “Intrusive thoughts are a silent struggle for a growing number of people I talk with. Not that I think that more and more people are struggling with intrusive thoughts; I’m just hearing it from more people who, after knowing me for a long enough period of time, are willing to open up about it.”

Six Ways to Shepherd Kids Through Loss, HT to Challies. “Shepherding our kids through pain and suffering is hard. For parents, it can feel like we carry a double portion of grief—our own and that of our grieving kids. Whatever may come, as parents we are called to lovingly ‘train up [our children]’ whom God has entrusted to our care through every high and low (Prov. 22:6). What a privilege to walk with them, pointing them to Christ, despite the pain that often accompanies this calling.”

The Remarkably Ordinary Church, HT to Challies. “It’s also a challenge for those of us who attend such churches. Sometimes we show up with unspoken demands that things impress us. Instead, we end up listening to imperfect preachers and average sermons, sometimes leaving disappointed. Stop focusing on what doesn’t matter. Aim to be easily edified. Show up with the intention of glorifying God and being fed by everything available in that service.”

For Such a Time as This: Faithfulness Where You Are. “It’s easy to read Esther’s story and assume that ‘for such a time as this’ applies only to extraordinary moments. Will we boldly speak up in our secular workplace when we see wrongdoing? Will we tirelessly defend the defenseless, call for righteousness, and speak the truth even when it costs us? Yet I wonder if we’ve unintentionally overlooked a broader application.”

What Your Social Media Feed Is Teaching You About Love (And Why It Is Not the Whole Truth), HT to Challies. “The Bible does not romanticise human relationships. It presents them honestly—fractured, imperfect, and often costly. This is not a bug in the design. It is the ground within which love is meant to be practiced.”

My Infertility Didn’t End in Pregnancy. HT to Challies. “There have been times when, as a writer and a Bible teacher, I’ve been asked to meet with this young woman or to email that young woman to give some advice and hope to them regarding their infertility. The truth is, no woman wants to hear from me on this. She doesn’t want my advice. I am her worst nightmare. I am the one the doctors warned her she was unlikely to be.”

A Pastor and a Salesman Get into an Uber. HT to Challies. “Christian neighbors invited them to church in 2025, but the first seeds were planted inside his car.”

“Activity in the King’s service will not make up for neglect of the King.” — Derick Bingham

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 24, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I’m pausing in the midst of life’s busyness with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to remember and share the blessings of the week.

1. Jason’s birthday. It’s always a joy to celebrate his special day.

Mittu made this adorable cake:

2. Timothy’s end of school year party. He actually finished a few weeks ago, but this was our first chance to celebrate. He didn’t just finish the school year–he finished the sixth grade! Thus Jason 3-D printed this topper for the chocolate cheesecake Timothy requested–not only for the change in grade level, but for whatever the “sixes and sevens” thing is all about. :).

Mittu made this cheesecake as well. She’s batting 1,000!

3. My heroes. I was on my way to a ladies’ potluck dinner and prayer meeting at church when this happened:

My GPS was sending me a way I don’t normally go. I almost went the usual way, but there was not a lot of time to decide whether to take my usual exit or not. I decided to go with the GPS, but it took me on some back roads, where I must have hit something that put a hole in the tire. I called Jim, and he drove out to where I was and talked with me via cell phone the whole time. Then he called a tow truck. We waited half an hour or so, then we got a text that the tow was going to be an hour.

Jason was a couple of miles away at the church and had asked if there was anything he could do to help. So at that point I asked if it would be too much to ask for him to swing by and pick me up and take me home. So he and Timothy came. But it was just about time to pick up Mittu from the ladies’ prayer meeting, so we went to the church first.

By that time, I was getting a little light-headed and then headachy because I hadn’t eaten yet. So Jason went in and made up a plate from the potluck leftovers and brought them out to the car for me. Afterwards, I realized I could have gone in and done that. But I was still a little rattled.

When Mittu came out, they took me home and shared some of the leftover cake from the potluck with us, and I shared some of the broccoli salad that I had made for it with them.

Then Jim texted and said the tow truck was now expected to come at 11 p.m–we had first called them around 6:45. Poor guy!

I’m thankful for everyone going out of their way to help.

4. Warranties. We had just gotten those tires recently, so the repair and the tow were covered.

5. Friends who pray. A decision came up unexpectedly this week, and I was thankful that I could email a couple of friends and ask for prayer about it.

How was your week?

The Spy Keeper of Marseille

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Barbara Harper

In The Spy Keeper of Marseille, a novel by Roseanna M. White, Zelie Bellerose is the widow of an Army officer in France with two young children during the German occupation of France during WWII. She becomes involved in the Resistance, with her children safely away from the area with her mother. When their leader is imprisoned, Zelie is the only one who can step in and take over the network. But this works to her advantage, as no one expects a woman to be in that position.

Marcel Laurent was a well-known concert pianist, but enlisted the the French army. He was captured and imprisoned in a POW camp for a year. He is freed in a prisoner exchange with the help of a wealthy businessman involved in the Resistance. Marcel is recruited to join them. He applies to be the conductor of a youth orchestra, picking up intel he hears, sharing news in code in the orchestra’s weekly broadcasts. To his surprise, a Nazi SS officer is assigned to oversee the orchestra, causing Marcel to have to exercise extreme caution.

Zelie and Marcel share a love for music, and that and their meetings for the Resistance draw them closer. But then a stunning betrayal threatens the whole alliance.

This story is based on real-life Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, who set up and then ran the Alliance network of spies in France during WWII to get information to MI6 in England. These spies were not professionals. The idea was to place people in areas like restaurants, museums, concert halls, etc., where Nazi visitors might be more relaxed and less on their guard, and pick up information they might let slip. Then they transferred anything pertinent through a series of secret radio transmissions.

Once again, Roseanna has written a gripping story with relatable characters. Their religion was Catholic, which is accurate for the time and place. But I disagreed with a couple of points.

And I thought there were a couple of implausible occurrences in the plot. Zelie’s son seemed much more mature than an average ten-year-old. And I wouldn’t think some of the operatives would discuss and choose new call signs in front of children. Though the children were away from the main action, there was still an underlying danger that they could be traced to Zelie. So it seems the adults would have kept much more from the children who, in their innocence and naivete, might share information they shouldn’t.

But other than those things, I enjoyed the story very much.

I listened to the audiobook which was nicely read by Megan Tusing.

Kinder than They Deserve

Posted on July 19, 2026 by Barbara Harper

When someone makes a cutting remark to us, we want to slice them back with our words. When they speak unkindly to us, when they are dismissive or make us feel stupid, often our first instinct is to answer them back in like manner. “Oh yeah? Well, you . . . “

I’m not confrontational by nature, so I may not say what comes to mind. But I’ve sure fed retaliatory thoughts for hours after a negative encounter.

Yet I am often convicted by Colossians 4:6: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (NKJV).

Christians use the word “grace” a lot. There are many ramifications of what grace means in the Bible, but the standard definition of grace is “unmerited favor.” Though the word isn’t used in Romans 5:8-10, the concept is: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Titus 3 provides another clear illustration. Verse 3 says we “were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.” Then there comes a turning point: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (verses 4-7).

If we understand grace as God’s favor shown to us when we didn’t deserve it, then what does it mean to let our speech be with grace?

Well, the grace that God shows to us, we show to others. We don’t react negatively to negativity. We forgive because He forgives us. We love out of the overflow of His love for us.

I like to think of it as being kinder to other people than we think they deserve. Of course, we should treat every person with the respect of an image-bearer of God.

But when someone isn’t bearing that image well, we don’t respond in kind. The Internet has made harsh speech the norm rather than the exception since we can’t see the hurt in others’ eyes or when we know they can’t hurt us beyond flinging words back at us.

But when we speak with grace, we respond kindly even when others are harsh. We remember God was kind to us when we didn’t deserve it.

Proverbs 15:1 says, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” Responding softly can often disarm a person’s anger and diffuse the tension.

But grace isn’t just about conflict avoidance. Ephesians 4:29 tells us, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” We build others up with our speech instead of tearing them down. We “minister grace to the hearers,” as the KJV puts it. Hopefully, the grace we show others, even when, especially when, they don’t deserve it will point them back to the One who gave grace to us and wants to give it to them as well.

Gracious speech isn’t dull, wishy-washy, Pollyanna-ish, never taking a stand. Colossians 4:6 goes on to say our gracious speech should be “seasoned with salt.” Ephesians 4:15 talks about “speaking the truth in love.” Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

We have to share truth, even when it hurts, because it would be even more hurtful to the person not to share it. But we don’t wield truth like a club. We share truth graciously, in love, hoping for their reconciliation.

May God give us the grace to be kind and gracious to others, even when they don’t seem to deserve it, because He was kind and gracious to us when we didn’t deserve it.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 18, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Here are some of the good reads found this week:

A Godly Grief. “Have you ever done something you said you’d never do? If your answer is yes, you aren’t alone.”

Does the Day End in Night, or the Night End in Day? HT to Challies. “Every day ends in night, and every night ends in day. These cycles have been circling for longer than anyone can remember, and they will continue long after our own lives are forgotten—but they cannot continue forever. Someday, the cycles must finish. And will they finish with an everlasting day, or a never-ending night?”

The Real Reasons We Don’t Read the Bible, HT to Knowable Word. “If we’re honest with ourselves, a lot of modern American excuses boil down to one: I’m just too busy right now. Really? Am I really too busy to hear from God? Am I too busy to have my soul revived by his living and active word? Am I too busy to receive the wisdom I desperately need in all of my busyness? Am I too busy to have my dim eyes awakened again to ultimate, spiritual reality? Am I too busy to have my easily distracted mind focused on the most important things? Am I too busy to taste the sweetest honey and receive the finest gold?”

Could Your Devotional Material Be Hindering Your Spiritual Growth? HT to Challies. “The danger is not that Christians read devotionals. The danger is that we begin to treat them as a substitute for reading Scripture itself. The danger is that we slowly become content with someone else’s digested thoughts about the Bible, while rarely learning to feast on the Bible for ourselves.”

What’s Really Holding You Back? A Biblical Look at “Limiting Beliefs.” “In the self-help world, it is common to hear the term “limiting beliefs.” Limiting beliefs are defined as any negative thoughts or assumptions that are holding you back from the life you want. More and more, however, I am hearing this phrase on the lips of Christians. And I have some concerns.”

Scattered. “It’s a strange feeling when you shift from having a tight little family unit that moves through the world together to this scattered collection of human beings who wave to one another from a distance. In some ways it feels like I’m picking up pieces of a former life I once knew and trying to make them fit into a new puzzle. Those pieces don’t connect anymore, and my brain is trying to keep up with the change.”

3 Helpful Instructions on Keeping a Journal. “Having written a couple hundred pages of theologically-dense teaching on God’s providence, [John Flavel] closes with a simple plea to Christians to maintain a journal that records specific instances of God’s compassion and care. He does not advocate a tell-all diary, but a prudent, humble, and appropriate record of our experiences and observations of God’s providence. He suggests that keeping this kind of journal can benefit and enrich not only ourselves but also other believers.”

The deepest waters I’ve had to go through have taught me the deepest lessons.–Elisabeth Elliot

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 17, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I’m joining Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to pause, share, and be thankful for the blessings of the week.

1. Camp leftovers. Jim had some burgers, potato salad, and baked beans leftover from the guys’ camping trip last week, so we enjoyed those for lunches. Then he also had some teriyaki chicken leftover that he grilled for dinner one night.

2. A light cooking week. Besides the camp leftovers, Jim was away Wednesday night for a men’s get-together at church, so I didn’t have to make dinner. Then another night, I was tired at dinner time and asked if we could get something out.

3. Getting shower curtains and liners cleaned. I saw some time ago either from Martha Stewart or Hints from Heloise (remember her?) that you could wash plastic (or vinyl?) shower curtain liners in the washing machine with towels, and the towels help scrub them plus keep them from bunching up. I usually use rags rather than towels so I can use bleach without messing anything up. We have hard water here with lots of minerals which leaves a white residue on things that’s hard to get off. The spray cleaners only go so far. So every now and then I’ll toss the curtain liners in the wash, and then wash the shower curtains in a separate load. Two of my shower curtains need to be ironed. So all of that, plus stretching to get them all off their hooks and back on again, took a chunk of time. But it was satisfying to get it done.

4. Killing a bug on the first try. That may sound silly. 🙂 But I do count it as a blessing! When I walked into my bedroom last night, I saw a centipede scurrying across the floor. They move really fast, so I didn’t know if I’d have time to grab some tissues and then smash him. I thought about just letting him go, but then I’d wonder where he was and when he was going to come back out. Jim is usually the designated bug killer (it’s a subdivision in our marriage vows under “love and cherish” 🙂 ). But he was asleep. For some reason, the centipede just stopped as I walked past him. So I got a couple of tissues and aimed for him, thinking he’d take off before I reached him (which is what usually happens). But I got him on the first try.

5. Some productive afternoons. I had gotten discouraged after a few days of not getting things done that I needed to. One or two of those days, I was sleepy and took a longer nap than I wanted. But I had several productive spurts this week and got most of my to-do list crossed off.

How was your week?

Assorted Stray Thoughts

Posted on July 15, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Occasionally I’ll assemble some mostly unrelated odds and ends of thoughts to share here.

Do you prefer different genres in what you view versus what you read? I watch shows about space and police or detective work with my husband, or superhero movies with my sons. I enjoy them, but I rarely read books on those topics. I like classics and movies made from them, but I usually indulge in those shows when Jim is not home. But occasionally I’ll ask him to watch one with me.
__________

For years, those who write on the Internet have been advised to use shorter paragraphs and lots of white space. We’re told that those who read online like to be able to skim and find main points. They’re supposedly turned off by dense paragraphs.

But lately I’ve seen examples that seem to take that instruction too far. I’ve seen several posts lately that are made up of one-sentences paragraphs. I find that hard to read. It looks more like a list. Paragraphs group sentences around a single topic. But a list of single sentences looks like random thoughts strung together.

On the other hand, I read several blogs that use long paragraphs, and they have plenty of followers and views. I think content trumps form.
__________

One of those phrases that rubs me the wrong way is, “If I can do it, you can, too.” I know it is meant as an encouragement. It’s saying, “I’m just an ordinary person, and I did it. So go ahead and try–it doesn’t take any special skills.”

But we can’t all do everything everyone else can do. We have different gifts, talents, motivations, personalities, time constraints.

I haven’t come up with an alternative though. Any ideas?
__________

For people who post videos and podcasts, I love when they include the transcripts. I am much more likely to read than watch or listen.
__________

So far, I have not used a Large Language Model AI like Chat GPT. I’ve read some legitimate uses of them, and I may look into them at some point. I don’t have time for the learning curve involved just now. But mostly, I don’t want to outsource my thinking. When I write something and have to revise it several times, my brain is working and I am processing as I go.

I’ve already experienced some thinking damage from that just from spell checkers (which are a smaller form of AI). I used to be a pretty good speller. But I’ve relied on spell check so much that I often don’t recognize misspelled words, can’t think of the right way to spell words I should know, and don’t catch the misuse of homonyms, which spell check also misses.

I also don’t like that AI seems to be pushed on us everywhere. Even Facebook offers to make up an AI-generated comment for us. Pretty soon, we can just let our AI bots do the talking. 🙂
__________

Tim Challies wrote a post a few weeks ago saying that we can often get by with a smaller house than we think we need. He’s right. Thinking about his post inspired mine on No Perfect Homes Here.

But there’s a flip side to that thought.

When my husband was anticipating retirement, I expected that we’d probably have to downsize. Two factors prevented that. One, he took advantage of lower interest rates to refinanced our mortgage a few years earlier. And, two, the housing market went crazy.

Our house now is valued at twice what we bought it for. That sounds nice, except that, if we sold it, we’d have to look for another place that costs just as much.

My youngest son bought his first house a couple of years ago. Though his house is about a third the square footage of ours, his house payment is the same amount.

So financially, it makes more sense for us to stay put for now than to pay as much money for less house.

One advantage, though, is that we bought this house with aging in mind. Our two previous homes were split-levels, and I was beginning to have knee problems then. We specifically looked for a house with no stairs when we moved here.

Another advantage is that when people come from out of town to visit us, we have plenty of space to put them. We have an official guest room, plus futons in two other rooms that make into beds. Visitors save money by not getting hotel rooms, and we have more visiting time with them.
__________

This Facebook post made me laugh:

__________
On a final note, I don’t usually post on Mondays, but I’ll have a special announcement on July 27. 🙂

Aging Is a Series of Relinquishments

Posted on July 12, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Sometime in our thirties, we realize we can’t do everything we did in our teens and twenties. My sons that age have joked about throwing their back out when they sneezed or turned quickly.

In our forties, suddenly our body chemistry changes. I never had problems with dairy products until I was forty. When I asked my doctor why I suddenly did, he just answered “hormones.” I also became allergic to penicillin and sulfa around that time, though I had taken them for years before.

It seems the older we get, the more we lose physically. Our energy diminishes. Our health may go downhill. Our looks melt into wrinkles and greyness. Our vision and hearing may become problematic. Eventually, we might have to give up car keys. Our decreasing mobility may require walkers or canes.

In some ways, we might feel we’ve lost our identity. Women facing the empty nest and men facing retirement may struggle with who they are and what to do with themselves. We may not be able to participate in the ministries or activities we always used to.

We might feel the sting of lost influence as younger people think we’re out of touch and seek their peers’ advice and fellowship instead.

And, if we live long enough, we might lose our homes and end up in a facility. I remember when my mother-in-law moved into assisted living, I was sad that her life was now reduced to one room.

We may lose our privacy and dignity if we can no longer take care of our bathing, dressing, and toileting. And we may lose our memories if we develop dementia.

This all might sound really depressing except for a few factors.

I heard someone on the radio years ago say that one reason our bodies start falling apart as we age is to make us willing to let loose of them. We have such a strong survival instinct, and we often want to stay for our families. But gradually we admit that heaven looks much better than life here.

God is gracious to make us aware of our mortality in increments. As we face each relinquishment, we’re geared a little more toward eternity.

I like to think of it something like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. It doesn’t need its caterpillar appearance any more. It doesn’t need the chrysalis. It would look absurd if it tried to hold on to its old “house” while flying around with its beautiful new wings. Whatever we relinquish here, we won’t need in heaven. As C. S. Lewis wrote in Letters to an American Lady, “There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

And those who know God have his promises in our old age:

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 5:1-5).
“Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).
“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:14-15a)
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).
“They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him (Psalm 92:14-15).

When we took care of my husband’s mother, she slept most of her last two years. I wondered how this verse played out in her life–how was she still bearing fruit in that condition? Part of it was her testimony all her life until that time. Part of it was her lack of complaining and her willingness to undergo whatever she had to. And part of it was the peace that hospice workers and caregivers sensed when they came to see her.

I’ve often been inspired by the poem from William Newton Clarke:

Gone, they tell me, is youth.
Gone is the strength of my life:
Nothing remains but decline,
Nothing but age and decay.

Not so, I’m God’s little child,
Only beginning to live;
Coming the years of my prime,
Coming the strength of my life;
Coming the vision of God,
Coming my bloom and my power.

To be sure, I still don’t look forward to the process of death or the decline that leads to it. The Bible calls death the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), so it’s right to think of it as such.

And I don’t mean to give the impression that aging is all negative. There is a settledness that comes with aging. We don’t know everything, of course, but some of the issues we wrestled with in younger years are no longer a problem. Our limitations make it clearer what we can and can’t do, so it’s easier to make choices and to say no when we need to. We’ve developed some degree of wisdom by walking with the Lord for so many decades. We don’t need to go at the driven pace we used to.

We’ve experienced a few of these relinquishments. We hope to escape some of them and we hope that others are two or three decades away. We’ve talked about various scenarios that might play out in our final years–if he should go first, if I should, if one or the other of us needs more care than the other can give. We’ve shared our preferences, but, truly, we may not have any control when the time comes.

But whatever happens when, God promises His grace through it. We don’t have grace for it now because we don’t need it yet. Until then, each reminder that I have an expiration date spurs me to make the most of the time I have left. I pray along with the psalmist, “So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” (Psalm 71:18).

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Some of the good reads found this week:

The Best Man in Hell, HT to Challies. “John is known all around town as an upstanding citizen. As we look into the future, John lives a long and happy life. And when John dies, he’ll be the best man in hell.”

“I’m Not Feeling It Today”: Bad Reasons We Neglect the Bible, HT to Challies. “By nature, I’m not someone who values discipline and routine. I despise dead ritual and lifeless liturgy. But my love for spontaneity has steadily drawn me over time to recognize, and appreciate, how the power of habit can serve spontaneous joy rather than replace or suffocate it.”

Rugged Love and Your Prodigal, HT to Challies. “Most of our wandering is routine, even predictable. We envy. We lust. We overeat. We nurse resentment. We grow impatient when life doesn’t unfold according to our plans. Then we confess, receive forgiveness, recalibrate, and move forward. This is ordinary sanctification. But there are times when ‘prone to wander’ takes a particularly obstinate and destructive turn.”

Mothers. Let Your Tears Water the Seeds Planted, HT to Challies. “Monica is the kind of mother that I have ministered to on a great many occasions. You know your God loves you. You know God loves your child. You see every sin. You see the pain caused by their actions. Augustine writes openly and honestly as a broken, lustful, and prideful man. Yet time and time again he returns to his mother’s heart and concern for him.”

Hope and Lament in Suffering. “A true biblical position on suffering is not binary; it upholds both hope and lament.”

The Discipline of Darkness. This was a message by Adrian Rogers that I heard part of on the radio one day. I thought it was so good that I looked it up online to read the rest. The link goes to an overview page, but there is a place to click to listen to it or to read the outline and transcript. “Sometimes, I think, we over-promise in order to somehow get people to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a distorted idea that if you become a Christian, it will be all joy and all light and all sweetness, and just roses all through life. There’ll be no sickness; there’ll be no sorrow. We’re just going to go through life in an ever-ascending scale of health and success. And then, we’re going to die at a serene old age, and then have a glorious exit and go to Heaven. It would be nice if it happens that way; but, folks, it generally does not.”

Why Did God Give Us Mosaics? “If I were to hand you a box filled with shattered glass, another filled with shards of pottery, and a third filled with broken seashells, and then tell you to create something beautiful, you might scoff at me and doubt that it could ever be possible. You might laugh at the absurdity of it. Yet these mosaics prove that in the hands of a great artist, incredible beauty can arise from what appears to be little more than chaos, waste, and fragments.”

Cultural Enemies, HT to Challies. “Many Christians seem more intent on fitting into culture, or at least getting its affirmation, than opposing it. And the entire idea of being an enemy, or having one, seems out of sync with the Christ life.But it isn’t. Jesus made it very clear that He did not come to bring peace but a sword. Little wonder His own life did not end with a coronation but rather a crucifixion.”

Encouragement for Heading Off to College, HT to Challies. “If you are heading to university in the fall or if you love someone who is, I want to offer you a handful of lessons I have watched unfold in higher ed for decades. These lessons relate to a young person’s pursuit of wisdom, growth, community, and rest. These are the rails that keep life steady in this new season and beyond.”