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Sep 17, 2023 06:00am

How Old Are You?

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“How old are you?”

I was asked this question last week, and I didn’t have a good answer. For one I was shocked that someone would ask me that, and secondly, I hadn’t been asked that question in forever. To be honest I wasn’t 100 % sure of the answer. The real worry I had was why in the world was someone asking me this question. Do I look old? Am I acting immature? (Both are accurate). Then I thought back to when I was younger–I used to love this question. Ask any kid today and they’ll love to tell you their age and usually round up. As we get older, we tend to round down and are less excited to share this number with others.

When someone asks you this question you assume they mean years, but what if they mean days?

I have been reading Psalm 90 this week. Psalm 90:12 says, Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

We need to count our days, so we can make our days count. We don’t know how many we have, but God wants us to count them, they are each important so that we can gain wisdom in our hearts.

As of today, I have been given 17,388 days. Of those days, I only remember the details of a few: my wedding day, the day my kids were born, the day people I love passed away. But all of my days have been important because they have been given to me by God to be used for His glory, even, or maybe especially, the common, normal everyday days that make up most of our lives.

Moses begins Psalm 90 by saying, “Lord you have been our refuge for every generation, before me and after me, you are God.” What a great reminder that God is faithful in the past, present, and future. He ends Psalm 90 by saying, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands— establish the work of our hands!”

This verse has turned into a prayer for me. I ask for the favor of the Lord to be on me, and that He would establish the work for me day by day. This work includes going to a job, interacting with people, cleaning up messes, doing the dishes or laundry, and all the common ordinary tasks that take on new meaning when we see them through the lens of Jesus. I

n Ephesians 5, Paul tells us to redeem the time…

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5: 15

Every parent will tell you that the days are long, but the years are short, and I think this is so true.

Here are a few tips I have found to “redeem the time.”

1. Get up earlier than you must. I know, I love to sleep in, but if I start my day in a rush I struggle. If I can get up, spend time in the Bible, and remember who I am in Christ it makes a huge difference.

2. Write in a journal. Sometimes I write what I am thankful for, other times I write out prayers, or take notes on a sermon, often I just write Scripture. There is something about writing Scripture that brings it to life and helps me remember it.

3. Write a note to someone that matters to you. We text hundreds of messages a day, a handwritten note takes a little time, but people remember them because they are rare. It does you as much good to write as it does for others to receive it.

4. Be still. This one is hard for me. I love music so I always have music playing. Sometimes it is good for me to just be still and know that He is God.

Psalm 90 teaches that we may have 70 or 80 years, some of us will have less, some of us will go into overtime. We don’t know how many days we have. We don’t know the quantity, but we can make sure the quality of the days by remembering the faithfulness of God and focusing on the work He has given us for that day.