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I used to think the older you got, the more you felt like you were just middle aged.  At 35, you aren't 70 - thus middle aged.  When you are 50 a century is still a half century away. This morning I'm in a group of middle aged children.  They figure finishing high school puts them right on the edge of eternity.  Our Sunday School class is grades 4-7.  One young man has never understood the word quiet.  The five women are smiling and trying to do what is right.  The brain has good answers until you push for a definition.  The contortionist loves to skitter all over the classroom. That's my fun group - all of them just barely old enough to know everything, but certainly wise enough to think they do.  And middle aged!  Now, since I'm a few years older than they, I wonder how they will survive the old age of 21?  Progressive memory - that's what we need.  As we get older our understanding of age grows with us.  Until, as we approach our death, we do realize that we are just middle aged - when you consider we have eternity to still complete!

Well, I retreated! The result was a time of rest and relaxation - along with great inspiration from our speaker and great conversation with fellow church workers. Not to mention great food and safe travel (even though we did have a flat tire!). We arrived home last night and I headed into this new day at full steam. I was at work by 7:00 in this morning and headed home by 6:00 at night (with lunch in between).  Rather enjoyable day, but by 6:00 I was slowing down.  So, I'm resting once again! Home with my wife and resting!  Not a bad thing!!

The next few days are designed to be restful.  Tomorrow morning - before the sun is up we will be headed east.  We'll pick up our Associate Pastor and his wife and drive til mid afternoon.  Then we will enjoy the Elkhorn Resort for a few days as our district pastor's retreat.  Hopefully we will arrive back rested and ready for the next season of our church life. May we have a time of grace and experience the goodness of God's sabbath!

I was just reading in Josh and Sean McDowell's book on "12 Unshakeable Truths", a nugget on Proverbs 22:6.  This verse is often loosely rendered, "train up a child in the way they should go and they will not depart from it when they get older,"  Most people take this to mean "get them into a good Sunday School, youth group and discipleship program."  None of these are bad things, but . . . The word used for "training" a child uses the same word as an archer learning to shoot his bow.  Each bow, in the days of the writer of Proverbs, was unique.  Each bow had its own qualities and strengths.  The archer had to learn how to use that bow effectively.  When he switched to another bow, he had to shift his approach. This verse actually talks about making sure you know your child thoroughly.  To train up a child is to understand them well.  They are different than other children we may have.  What works for one doesn't work for another.   This is more about learning who your child is compared to figuring one size of "teaching and training" fits all! Which begs from each of us the question, "Am I listening, observing and caring about each child I deal with?"