Little Old Ladies in Training

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.