ELDERLY ONES -VALUABLE MEMBERS OF OUR CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD

JEHOVAH loves all his faithful servants, including those of advanced years. According to a national estimate, however, every year nearly half a million elderly people in the United States suffer abuse or neglect.  Similar reports from around the world indicate  that abuse of the elderly is  a global problem.  At its root its what one organization calls "the pervading attitude among many people . . . that older persons have outlived their usefulness, are unproductive and over-dependent ." 

Jehovah God treasures his loyal elderly servants. He focuses on "the man we are inside"-our spiritual condition-rather than on our physical limitations. (2 Corinthians 4:16)  In his Word, the Bible, we find the following heartwarming assurance: "The righteous himself will blossom forth as a palm tree does; as a cedar in Lebanon does, he will grow big.  Those who are planted in the house of Jehovah, in the courtyards of our God, they will blossom forth.  they will still keep on thriving during gray-headedness, fat and fresh they will continue to be, to tell that Jehovah is upright."   (92:12-15)  A consideration of these verses will reveal aspects of the valuable contribution you older ones can make to the Christian brotherhood. 

Next time: "Thriving During Gray-Headedness" 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2004