The month of January flew past like a jet in the night. The older I get the faster time seems to go by. Speaking of getting older and time flying by faster, as we get older, we don’t want to slow down but we want to slow things down – it’s kind of an oxymoron.

There are things we want to speed up – like healing from a wound or surgery. The things we want to slow down are aging and time. If you break it down to what we can control, aging and time are definitely 2 things out of many that we cannot. All you can really do is choose to find ways to find joy in aging and in those moments as time passes.

Choosing to live a physically healthier life will reap many benefits and, in those benefits, you will have much more joy than pain. Activities like riding bikes with your grandkids and being able to volunteer with organizations that need physical labor to help the needs of the community are two examples of things that can bring joy – but only if you’re physically able.

Just as in our physical life, our spiritual life choices are in our control. When we make time for God and we strengthen our faith, there is joy even during a hard time. That faith and the joy we know from that is what will get us through hard times. When we choose to not make time for God, we tend to focus on the negative and fall away to a point where we feel hopeless.

“6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Corinthians 2:6-7

The choices we make to keep our physical bodies strong to bring us a greater ability to enjoy life in its fullest is in our control. Choosing to keep our spiritual life strong is in most definitely in our control. As a matter of fact, we are called to become more like Jesus and to become more holy and this will take exercising the mind, body, and spirit. Time may still fly as we get older but it is a greater jet ride with joy and that can only come from strengthening our faith, living a life with God as our pilot!

Marcia K. Gibney
Director of Recreation Ministry