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Act Your Age!

Our old gas powered mower finally bit the dust. But it did last for 18 years so I think we got our money’s worth.

As I was considering a replacement for it, my wife and my son encouraged me to buy a self propelled mover. They said it would make the mowing go so much easier, especially for someone my age!

While the cost was quite a bit higher for a self propelled mower, I did go ahead and get one. After opening the box, I did the right thing and started reading the Operator’s Manual. I figured that I may as well put it together right since it did cost me a pretty penny.

The Operator’s Manual, quite early in the opening section, mentioned some statistics for mowing accident. It turns out that men aged 65 and older top the charts for the highest number of mowing accidents.

Following that ugly truth was a laundry list of warnings for those men over 65. The warnings included descriptions on how to prevent accidents. As my eyes started glazing over and I was about to dismiss it all, reality struck like a ton of bricks, that’s me, I’m over 65! I can’t just ignore it all and assume it’s just for the other guys out there! I decided right then and there to pay attention to what was written.

Sometimes we do need to look into a mirror and see who we are. I am over 65. That’s reality yet it can be hard to accept when I don’t always want to acknowledge my age.

In the book of James, there’s a warning involving a mirror. It’s not that we shouldn’t look in a mirror and see all those wrinkles, but the warning has to do with looking and then forgetting what we saw.

The passage refers to those who hear the word of God but don’t obey it. They are like the man who looks in the mirror and then goes away and forgets what he saw. His attention span to do what needs to be done is definitely short but certainly not sweet!

But James goes on with this: “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer that acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:23)

There are blessings when we see what we need to do and actually do it. If I read the cautions for my new self propelled lawn mower for those over 65 and I follow them, the blessing is that I will likely reduce the possibilities of an accident.

But if I read the cautions and then just ignore them or forget about them, the probability goes way up that I will be part of the involved in an accident statistics. And that’s not something I want, especially at my age!

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