Getting Old

Psalms 71:18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

My oldest Daughter turns eighteen today.

Alisha Marie Hopper 1999

I look at old pictures and wonder where the years went. I also wonder if I've given her the skills she will need to survive outside the doors of my house. Not just the regular things, like cleaning, cooking, raising children. But how will she follow God?

My prayer is to continue training her until I give her hand in marriage, and she becomes one with the man God has chosen for her.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

We can debate all day on the exact application of the last statement, but I see the first statement as a command.

She still has a few years left in high school. I will never regret the year we had to hold her back. It not only allowed her to catch up in school, but it adds years for us with her at home.

We already pray for her future mate to be a Godly young man, and for God to lead him to Alisha in God's time.

She will always be my little Cookie. I gave her the name the first time I saw her devouring cookie after cookie. At first I called her Cookie Monster, but later shortened it to Cookie.

Metropolis, IL 2010