Today I'm honored and blessed to welcome veteran author and sister in the Lord, Janet Chester Bly, as she shares about how we can all be fruitful, no matter our age or ability.

Janet, take it away!

Thanks, Donna. Happy to be here to share with your readers.

We heard a series of sermons on spiritual gifts. My mind buzzed with ministry possibilities. On the last Sunday of the series, Mildred, an elderly friend in her late eighties, passed me in the hall. I greeted her and she didn’t seem her usual, perky self.

“How are you really doing today?” I asked.

She clutched my arm. “Oh, I’m doing just fine, thank you, only …”

“Only what?”

Her eyes searched mine. “You’re still active, able to do things. I don’t begrudge that. But I have just as strong a desire to serve God in this season of my life as ever. However, there’s nothing I can do anymore, is there?”

“Sure, there is,” I answered, but I couldn’t think of a thing. I promised her I’d pray.

Some time later, I got a call from Mildred. “Janet, do you know where I can find Christian storybooks?” Her words spilled out in excitement. “You know those children I’ve complained about in that new apartment building behind my house? The ones always running through my garden making noise. Well, several of them were playing in my front yard.”

“I decided to pull a chair on the grass and read awhile. Before I knew it, all three sat quiet as can be beside me, so I began to read out loud. You know what? They’ve been coming back every afternoon and bringing their friends. Today I had a dozen.”

I rejoiced at God’s provision of an unexpected ministry for Mildred right outside her front door.

“They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green” (Psalm 92:14 NIV).

And now, a weird thing has happened to me. As I age, I want so much to grow in wisdom and graciousness. I don’t ever want to be ‘retired.’ As long as I have breath, I want something productive to do, to look forward to.

When he was sixty-eight years old, Lord Palmerston sighed and said, “I am getting old; I will be laid aside. There will be no further use for me.”

Not long after, Lord Palmerston did research at a library and discovered a biography of John Wesley. He learned Wesley preached and taught with unabated strength at the age of eighty-six, which fascinated him.

Then he found a book on the life of Cato, who influenced the world much more after his eightieth birthday than during all his younger years. In the same library he came upon the life of Julius Caesar, who never soldiered or even visited a military camp until forty-nine years of age.

Lord Palmerston realized the world’s greatest accomplishments happened by people between fifty and sixty years old. He concluded, “I did not get what I went to the library to secure, but I secured what was far better—hope.”

Motivation increases health, a positive outlook, and quality of life. Our last days could be our best. Our final work, the most lasting. Even in advancing years, fire can stir the spirit in spite of weary bones.

Our stories are not ended. Yet.

Janet Chester Bly

Taken from Grace Spilling Over / True Stories of God’s Tender Mercies

Copyright 2020

Janet Chester Bly is the widow of award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Together—his, hers, and theirs—they published over 120 fiction and nonfiction books for adults, teens, and kids. Janet’s most recent fiction, The Trails of Reba Cahill Series, contemporary western romance mystery, includes Wind in the Wires, Down Squash Blossom Road, and Beneath a Camperdown Elm. Some call this CowgirlLit.

Find them here: https://www.blybooks.com/genre/contemporary-fiction/

About Wind in the Wires: A cowgirl’s search for love and family. An old man’s quest to seek justice. An eerie story of lies and betrayal. Will the truth be too hard for either to bear?