...of wanting simplicity

Am I getting old, (set in my ways), or learning to be content? I have been getting irritated with complication lately. I just want simplicity in my life!

“Old people are set in their ways.” I have no clue where I first heard that but it has been proven to have some truth to it. Try showing a seasoned person a “better” way of doing something. In your mind, you think that you are making life easier for their ailing bodies. However, they resist, claiming that they like things as they were in “their day.”

They also claim that our new gadgets are too complicated, but ignorantly, we disagree. My great-grandmother is 101. She is currently living with one of her daughters and son-in-law. Before she left her home at the age of around 86, per the decision of a few of her children because they assumed that her failing eyesight was hazardous, my great-grandma was more active than she is now.

Great-grandma’s home was nostalgically dressed with an icebox, wood-burning stove and a pecan tree outside. This meant that she had to chop wood, collect fallen pecans and carry buckets of warm water from the kitchen to the living room where the washtub was. My grandmother and great-aunts first decided to replace the icebox with a modern-day refrigerator/freezer. The wood-burning stove was also replaced with an electrical stove/oven unit. Then, of course the pecan tree had to go because, “Mamma don’t need to be pickin’ up after no pecans,” said her daughters. Finally, an extra room was added on to accommodate the new bathroom equipped with a toilet, sink and bathtub. All of which was to “make things easier” for great-grandma because they were connected to a water line.

Not too long after these changes, my great-grandmother’s eyesight and health began to worsen quickly. Of course, most family members did not believe that it had anything to do with her life being “taken away” from her. Her daughters had now decided that she needed to be cared for because they feared for her safety. She was removed and has lived with two daughters since then. Life has become complicated for her and I believe that she is no longer content. Those modern-day gadgets, intended to makes things easier for her, destroyed simplicity, which which great-grandma had become “set in her ways” about.

Paul stated that he had learned to be content in all situations because he had been allowed to experience hunger, prosperity, and suffering. Paul knew how to live by humble means, and because of that, he can do all things through Christ, (Philippians 4:11-13).

So, it’s okay for seasoned folks to be “set in their ways,” because they are content.