Old As You Act

January 7, 2023

When I was growing up, many times I heard someone say, “Act your age!” Sometimes it was directed toward me and sometimes toward someone else. If it was to me, the instruction indicated I was acting less mature than my age level (at its best). If I was nine, I should act like the world’s most mature nine-year-old. If I was sixteen, goodness, don’t act like a small child that needed adult supervision!

Now the roles are reversed. The shoe is on the other foot! I expect kids to grow out of certain bad habits at the proper time. I want those who want to be considered grown up to act like an adult.

I’m afraid I carry it too far. I’m impatient when young adults make poor choices, even though they are acting like I did at their age. I forget how much I have learned by years of mistakes. Is it foolish for me to expect someone decades younger than me to act like they are my age? Yes!

Turn it around one more time: When will I learn that I’m not as young as I used to be? I’ve got to be more cautious and careful. I should act my age! I’m not as strong as I was thirty years ago, or as limber. My balance is not quite as good. I need to know when to ask a younger person to help me. I’m hearing it again, like I did as a child: Act your age!

Okay, I may or may not start acting my age. Older people are expected to have wisdom, so I’ll do like it says in James 1:5, “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously without finding fault, and it will be given him.” On the other hand, if acting my age means acting slow and deliberate, I’ll lean on another verse, John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”