Aging Gratefully: Make Peace With Aging & MidlifeНамуна

On the game show Supermarket Sweep, contestants rush through the aisles of a grocery store with a checklist, tossing in items as they try to beat the clock. Their faces reveal the blend of stress and excitement that comes with racing to a big finish. My life has felt like that game show. I rushed through school and skipped out of college early too. Check the box. Move on. What’s next on my list?

I jumped to the next thing, then the next. I met my husband at thirty and thought the marriage milestone would free me to slow down and savor the years. But it didn’t. By our fifth anniversary, we had four children aged four and under. My life goal changed from finding the next career opportunity to getting babies to sleep through the night. As soon as this one could walk or this one could buckle his car seat, then I’d be able to rest.

Now, as I watch my children continue to age, I’m reminded daily of how I am aging too. I’ve surged into a new stage—midlife. Some days I’m still racing so hard, I don’t recognize it or stop to be grateful for it.

Unless we are intentional, our lives will continue like the frenzy in those last few seconds before a buzzer signals the game show is over—and we’ll miss what’s most important in life’s second act. Life keeps ticking away, and the number of boxes to check only grows. Get them graduated. Get them out of the house. Get the next promotion. Celebrate the big birthdays and anniversaries. Take care of parents. Be present for grandchildren. And while we may long for a pause in our pace, the only pause that comes is hormonal, which can further complicate everything!

This devotional is designed to help you find encouragement and inspiration to discover delight in midlife, later life, or anywhere in between. Aging is more than transitioning to comfortable shoes and monitoring the Weather Channel for rain. We don’t slow down as we see more years behind us than ahead of us. We speed up. Not with the kind of frenetic flurry that characterized our twenties. Not like we’re contestants on a grocery store game show, desperately accumulating possessions and experiences before time runs out. Instead, we run with purpose.