Age-Earned Respect

Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:32

Now that I am nearing the silver status of my existence, I feel that I have earned some respect from those younger than me. Of course, respect based simply on the grayness of my hair or the wrinkles under my eyes is really no respect at all in this day and age. You see, in America, the aged are more often left on their own than revered. Age no longer means what it once meant.

But, it should. As a matter of fact, it should mean more now than at any other time in the history of our great nation. It is now, when our country is in turmoil that we should turn to the aged and wise for guidance. We should lift them up and seek their wisdom before it’s too late. Instead, we treat them like fools and hide them away in old folk’s homes or retirement villages. And there we leave them, to be ignored and forgotten.

In doing this injustice, we deny God’s command to respect the elderly. We forget from whence we gained our abilities to survive, at the same time eliminating the link to the past the next generation so desperately needs. This trend will mean the undoing of our future.

We need the aged and wise to help us remember our roots and our mistakes, lest we make the same mistakes again. We need the aged and wise to remind us of how we got here, and Who is ultimately responsible for our prosperity. We need the aged and wise to stimulate the voice of the Spirit that calls to us to do God’s will. Without the aged and wise, that voice is waning. Before long, it will be silent.

The aged and wise have earned respect. And so has God. It is up to us to renew that spark of respect and reverence in this generation before the fire goes out, and the elderly are forgotten altogether.

I know that I don’t want to be shoved into an old folk’s home or retirement village and forgotten. I have a lot to pass on to the younger generation, and I do not want to be disrespected or silenced.

Help me Lord, to instill in the younger generation a desire to respect the elderly not only for their age, but for their wisdom and what they can pass on to help the youth of this country survive. Dear God, we need their wisdom and their example, lest we stray by our own disrespect.