Continues Improvement

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I have seen the God-given task with which the
sons of men are to be occupied. He has made
everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put
eternity in their hearts, except that
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no one can find out the work that God does from
beginning to end. I know that nothing is better
for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their
lives, and also that every man should
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eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his
laborit is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 310-13
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Biblical Guidance Through the
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Age Mid-Life


30 100
15? 50, 60?
Mid-life period after younger adulthood (after
parenting)prior to old age.
Mid-Life
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Challenges of Mid-Life
Life Turned Out Different
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• If a man reaches
• forty and yet is
• disliked by his
• fellows, he will be
• so to the end

Confucius Analects, vol. ix, bk. 17. ch. 26
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Challenges of Mid-Life
Life Turned Out Different
Aging of the Body
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• Hercules in Mid-Life
• You began better than you end your last deeds
  yield to your first the man you are and the
  child you were are not the same
• Ovid, Heroides,
• epist. ix, l. 24

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Challenges of Mid-Life
Life Turned Out Different
Aging of the Body
The Battle with Cynicism
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Remember now your Creator in the days of your
youth, Before the difficult days come, And the
years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure
in them. Ecclesiastes 121
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At fifty one can no longer love Napolean
Bonaparte, To Gaspard Gourgaud, April 7th, 1817
While exiled on St. Helena
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Challenges of Mid-Life
Life Turned Out Different
Aging of the Body
The Battle with Cynicism
Relationships and Responsibilities
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Youth is a blunder, Manhood a struggle Old Age
a regret Benjamin Disraeli Coningsby, bk iii,
ch 1
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Biblical Guidance for Mid-Life
Renewal of the inward man 2 Corinthians 416
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Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our
outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is
being renewed day by day.
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Perishing

• Greek word diaphtheiro, when used in reference to
  material things, can refer to decay and wearing
  away.
• What moths do to clothing or rust does to metal.
  
• Our bodies are running down.
• The text says of the inward manit is being
  renewed day by day.

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Grow up as soon as you can. It pays. The only
time you live fully is from thirty to sixty The
young are slaves to dreams the old servants of
regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their
five senses in the keeping of their wits.
Harvey Allen, Anthony Adverse, ch. 31
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Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these
things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace,
without spot and blameless and consider that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation 2 Peter
314-15
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You therefore, beloved, since you know this
beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your
own steadfastness, being led away with the error
of the wicked 18 but grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To
Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. 2
Peter 317-18
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Biblical Guidance for Mid-Life
Salvation is Nearer Now Romans 1311-12
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And do this, knowing the time, that now it is
high time to awake out of sleep for now our
salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armor of light.
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When I can look Life in the eyes, Grown calm and
very coldly wise, Life will have given me the
Truth, And taken in exchangemy youth
Sara Teasdale Wisdom
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Since you have purified your souls in obeying
the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of
the brethren, love one another fervently with a
pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of
corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the
word of God which lives and abides forever 1
Peter 122-23
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Biblical Guidance for Mid-Life
Rejoice in the Lord Always Philippians 44-5
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Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say,
rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men.
The Lord is at hand.
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Knowledge and timber shouldnt be much used
until they are seasoned Oliver Wendell Holmes,
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, VI
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For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, is working for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 417
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For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans
818
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all
comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort those who are in
any trouble, with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God. For as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our
consolation also abounds through Christ. 2
Corinthians 13-5
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Biblical Guidance for Mid-Life
One Must Provide for His Own 1 Timothy 58
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But if anyone does not provide for his own, and
especially for those of his household, he has
denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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It is usual to associate age with years only
because so many men and women somewhere along in
what is called middle age stop trying Henry Ford
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For what will it profit a man if he gains the
whole world, and loses his own soul? Mark 836
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Biblical Guidance for Mid-Life
This World is Passing Away 1 Cor. 729-31
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But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so
that from now on even those who have wives
should be as though they had none, those who weep
as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as
though they did not rejoice
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Biblical Guidance for Mid-Life
This World is Passing Away 1 Cor. 729-31
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those who buy as though they did not possess,
and those who use this world as not misusing it.
For the form of this world is passing away.
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