Honor the Elderly
Hey, little buddies!
A few days ago, a friend of our family went to heaven. His name was Charlie Reed and he was 93 years old. Mr. Reed was a soldier in World War II. That’s a long time ago now, but there are still some old soldiers living who fought for our freedom in that awful war.
One of my daughters was a special friend of Mr. Reed. She named her treehouse “Reed’s Cabin” in honor of him and asked me to build a ramp so that he could get into it. He felt very honored by that. Mr. Reed used to tell us stories of the way things were when he was a young man. It was very different then. Mr. Reed could remember when there were no refrigerators and people had to buy ice to put in ice boxes to keep their food fresh. He said it was considered a very neat thing for the kids to follow the ice wagon when it came around and get little bits of ice to crunch on. Ice was hard to come by in those days.
Mr. Reed also told us of what America was like long ago in other ways. People then were generally more honest, more godly and more diligent. Families were closer, too. It was good to be reminded by Mr. Reed how good things can be because that tells us how good they can be again if we will obey God.
Do you know some old people? Are there old people in your church or neighborhood that you should get to know? Most elderly people are lonely because their children and grandchildren don’t live nearby. They would love to have a young friend like you. I hope you’ll make the effort to honor them.