If you are
not a little old lady, God wants you to become one.
A couple
months ago someone wanted the people of our church to pray for her because “the
little old ladies at Old Union really know how to pray.” And they do.
Not all of our little old ladies are little. Some of them are men. But the little old ladies of Old Union bring
years of devotion and love for God into everything they do. Our church would not be the spiritual
powerhouse that it is without them.
Young
families are great. Everyone likes the
energy and optimism that they bring, and they give us hope for the church’s
future. But our seasoned, spiritually
mature members have spent years in the Lord’s presence, seeking his will and
offering their lives to him. They provide
a faith foundation and a spiritual strength that guides younger Christians and
undergirds the church’s activities and fellowship.
There are no
shortcuts in becoming a little old lady.
It takes decades of time spent every day in prayer and Bible reading. It takes years of worship and decades of
fellowship with fellow disciples. But
eventually, perhaps when your hair is gray and your joints creak, you become a
little old lady. You become the most
powerful resource that our church has in its service to God.
If you are a
little old lady, you may think that your years of usefulness in our church are
over. You can’t teach Sunday School
anymore because you can’t keep up with the children. You can’t sing in the choir because your
voice has given way. You don’t have the
stamina to help with the church dinners.
You can’t go on mission trips or take meals to the homeless
shelter. But when you became a little
old lady, you became one of the most important, most valuable members of our
church. You can lift us up in
prayer. You can seek the Lord’s blessing
for our church as we seek to honor him.
You can show the rest of us, in your words, your deeds, and your very
demeanor, what it means to be a child of God.
Without that, our church is nothing.
If you are
not a little old lady, don’t be discouraged.
Because you are part of Old Union, you are a little old lady in training. As you spend time with the little old ladies
around you, their wisdom and maturity will rub off on you. As you worship and serve and seek to follow
God, you will gradually get better and better at it. You will learn how to love others by
encouraging them with your prayers and kind words of support. And eventually, by the grace of God, you will
join the elite ranks of the little old ladies of Old Union Church.
