2. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• Good morning!
• Will you ever grow old?
• Yes, you will, if your
wish comes true.
• For nobody wishes to
die young.
• That means we want to
grow old, doesn't it?
3. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• I know that growing old,
stiff, gray-haired, and
feeble is the least of
your ambitions.
• But more and more
people are growing old,
and more and more
people are actually
having a good time as
older people, believe it
or not.
4. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• I'd like to pass on to you
the secret of being loved,
respected, and happy
after sixty-five.
• No, you haven't much
interest now in the
subject.
• I don't blame you, for I
don't have too much
either.
• I tell myself it's a long way
off but its only 4 years
away.
5. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• So, don't worry about
growing old.
• That happens
automatically, without
any effort on your part.
• But just take this bit of
information I'm about
to give you, tuck it in
the back of your mind,
and keep it safe.
6. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• The secret is this: The • If you're kind, generous,
kind of person you are of service to others,
now is very likely the charitable, brave, and
kind of person you will honest now and during
be when, you're old. the next few years, then
• Sounds complicated, I you'll be a very lovable
know. person when you're
• But it's true, just the sixty-five.
same.
7. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• In a way, people are like
autumn leaves.
• Each fall, green leaves
turn into their various
lovely colors.
• Scientists are puzzled as
to why one turns brown,
another red, another
yellow, and so on.
• But they think they turn
these colors because of
the different chemical
content in each leaf.
8. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• For example, the maple is
about our most beautiful fall
tree.
• Its brightest colors are red and
yellow.
• The maple leaf has a high
sugar content—filled with
sweetness, you might say.
• If your life is filled with
sweetness—with the kind
of thoughts, acts, and motives
you'd be proud of, then your
autumn years, the last ones in
your life, will be beautiful.
9. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• On the other hand, I
notice that individuals
who're unkind, stingy,
and mean during their
youth and adult lives
are cranky old people—
the kind you have to
leave alone.
• These people have
thought, all their lives,
just about themselves.
10. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• I know a man who • I also know a woman
bawls his wife out if who likes to bake
supper isn't ready cookies and goodies for
exactly at six o'clock. children.
• How'd you like to live • I can predict that she'll
with him when he's make a lovely old lady.
seventy years old and
meaner than ever?
• What a grumpy old
character he's going to
be!
11. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• Right now, today, • Do you want to be loved,
tomorrow, this week, this respected, and liked when
year you're determining you are old?
what kind of old person • Now's the time to start!
you'll be.
• Just as the tree stores up
in its leaves the chemicals
that give it an ugly or
lovely color in the fall, so
you're storing up the kind
of life that will be ugly or
beautiful years and years
from now.
12. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• John17:15-19
• I pray not that thou should take them out of the world,
but that thou should keep them from the evil.
• They are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world.
• Sanctify them through thy truth (Bible): thy word is
truth.
• As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I
also sent them (disciples = you and I) into the world.
• And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also
might be sanctified through the truth.
13. Autumn Leaves and Elderly People
• Prayer: Dear Lord help us to sanctify our lives
and be better people now, so that we are
good people and sanctified when we are old.
• Amen.
