“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”. Ecclesiastes 12:1 NIV
Seneca has always been a very energetic dog. She was able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and go from roof top to roof top as gracefully as Spiderman’s dog. We worked hard to contain her. She wasn’t left in the yard to run free as the fence was just a suggestion to be ignored. She always knew she had disobeyed but stubbornly went her own way unless she deigned to do your will when it suited her.
Like many of us, Seneca is slowing down as she ages. Her arthritis is being treated but she frequently needs help into the car. We let her out in the yard now without supervision and she enjoys her new freedoms.
Recently, the family received a text from my son saying that Seneca had jumped the fence. Was she punished? Were we upset? No! Text replies were sent saying, “Great”, “Yea!”, and “Praise the Lord!”. Our priorities and outlook had changed. What we once regarded as important had been replaced by joy in Seneca enjoying the energy and agility of youth in her senior years.
Ecclesiastes 12 can be rather depressing. It tells you to remember your creator in the days of your youth and then goes on to list quite a few health issues we face as we enter our not-so-golden years. Verse 3 mentions the grinders cease because they are few which is a poetic way to say that you’ve lost most of your teeth. The windows grow dim refers to your eyesight and songs grow faint means your hearing is not as good as it once was while verse 7 has us as dust returning to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Yes, as we age our priorities change but we are encouraged to remember our Creator in the days of our youth. Hopefully, we grow wiser with age and God will always be a priority in our life.
As adults, we have a responsibility to teach by word and example the love of God to those we come in contact with each day. Then, they too can pass on to another generation the love of God so that we would all remember our Creator, God, and King in whatever stage of life we are in at this moment.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ends by saying, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil”.
God is number one and that will never change. Make Him your priority in your youth and in your senior years and your outlook will never change!
Just Another Dog Devotion 