• You Will Meet An Old Lady

  Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 3, 2010 (message contributor)

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  Scripture:  Luke 6:43-45

  Tags:  Character

YOU WILL MEET AN OLD LADY

You are going to meet an old lady someday. Down the road ahead, 10, 20, 30 years; she’s waiting for you. You will be catching up with her. What kind of old lady are you going to meet? That is a rather significant question.

She may be a seasoned, soft, and gracious lady. A lady who has grown old gracefully, surrounded by a host of friends - friends who call her blessed because of what her life has meant to them.

She may be a bitter, disillusioned, dried-up, cynical old buzzard, without a good word for anyone or anything - soured, friendless, alone.

The kind of old lady you will meet will depend entirely upon you. She will be exactly what you make of her… nothing more, nothing less. It is up to you. You will have no one else to credit or blame.

Every day, in every way, you are becoming more and more like that old lady. Amazing, but true. You are getting to look more like her, think more like her, and talk more like her. YOU ARE BECOMING HER.

If you live only in terms of what you are getting out of life, the old lady gets smaller, drier, harder, crabbier, more self-centered.

Open your life to others, think in terms of what you can give, your contribution to life, and the old lady grows larger, softer, kinder, greater.

The point to remember is that these things don’t always show up immediately. But they will - sooner than you think. These little things, seemingly so unimportant now - ATTITUDES, GOALS, AMBITIONS, DESIRES - are adding up inside, where you cannot see them, crystallizing in your heart and mind. Some day they will harden into that old lady; nothing will be able to soften or change them then.

Time to take care of that old lady is right now, today. Examine your motives, attitudes, goals. Check up on her. Work her over now while she is till pliable, still in a formative condition. Day comes swiftly soon when it is too late. The hardness sets in, worse than paralysis. Character crystallizes, sets, gels. That’s the finish.

Any wise business person takes an inventory regularly. Merchandise is not half as important as the person. You had better take a bit of a personal inventory, too. Then you will be much more likely to meet a lovely, gracious old lady at the proper time.

-- Author unknown

German Proverb: "When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost."

(From a sermon by Christian Cheong, True Seekers - Character, 6/13/2010)