Over the years I have had the pleasure and honor in life to spend time with some older, dear people. Normal, regular folks that when passed on the street most of us would not give them a second glance. It is in times of one on one conversations that I realize just how much many of our older friends and relatives hope to be remembered and loved for the person they are now, not just as someone that has grown old, or even worse become a burden. Their greatest fear is not that they will not be needed, but that they will be forgotten. And that is my greatest fear in life too. We live in a fast-paced world that says the older we get, the further we get left behind. Advertising and technological advances dictate that we lose our worth in a society that can only seem to cater to the young at heart. So…I encourage you to make a conscious choice today to change this trend. Let someone that has made a difference in your life when they were active know that they are just as or more important in their older age. Sit, listen, talk, and learn. You just might be surprised when you come away from a visit more blessed than they are. And, may you never forget that one day, hopefully, you will be the age they are now. 1 Timothy 5: 1-2 tells us “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”