Young and Old

Life, when you are young, is about the most important things in life.  It's about enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It's about running around and around your yard because you can and you love it.  It's about having your mom and dad hold you and tell you stories about you that they portray through a made up character.  It's about forgiving quickly and moving on to something simple and wonderful.  It's about knowing all of the primary answers to gospel questions.  And then, we grow up.  We serve missions, get married, and have kids.  We experience many joys and at the same time we complicate our lives with all of the many "things" we feel like we should do.  We cloud our lives with things that don't matter.  And, we spend great amounts of time in important things like school and work in hopes that all the hard work will pay off.  And after many years, we become old.  We are no longer in school.  We don't have to work because we are retired.  All our kids are grown up.  We no longer fret about what we look like and are simply grateful we are healthy enough to still be walking around.  Life becomes simple again.  But this time, life is simple because we've lived it and have realized that everything we knew as a child is true.  We more fully let go of the world and become closer and closer to God.  So today, I'm grateful for my childhood, my adulthood, and the days when I will be old.