SEVENTY THINGS I WANT TO DO IN MY REMAINING DAYS
Up-Dated at 80 Years
(Do, Go, Become, Learn)
(Do, Go, Become, Learn)
(These items were written
from 2005 to 2007 and in 2017 and now- in 2018- may be updated on the
progress I have made or am making: “doing”, or “done”.)
Teach us to number our days
That we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Psalms 90:12
- Spend time with my grand children and great grandchildren, learning to really know them as well, and tell them all the wonderful things I have experienced and learned in my life.
- Write my biography for who ever might want to know what my life was all about. (Nearly up-to-date on this.)
- Learn to relax when I have to.(Quite well)
- Write essays of things important to me as long as I can. (doing)
- Cultivate a life of thought and word and relationships worthy of my eternal goal.
- Travel to Canada again where we lived for 2 years. (Done)
- Accept the aging process to the end and celebrate God’s goodness in it all. (Doing)
- Revisit Belize periodically as long as I am able to see the personal growth of the persons we knew in our life there. (Done)
- Exercise an optimistic view of life regardless what happens to me personally.(Working on it)
- Learn from those older than me, how to grow older gracefully.
- Dispose of as much of our wealth as I can for service in the Kingdom and to others while I live, laying up treasure in heaven.
- Have my hands in the soil and cultivate plants, perhaps have a green house as a living room in my retirement home. (Doing first part)
- Be more and more, a person of prayer, especially in intercession for the church, missions, and our family. (Doing, and for the world of need)
- Be a person of interest to my posterity so that they will want to know what the basic motivations of my life have been. (Doing)
15. Live a life of
good physical and mental health and function well into my later
years, perhaps in the models of my Uncle Manasseh and Grandma Bender.
16. Become a writer for the
public on social issues such as education in Belize and
materialism and provincialism in the
States.
17. Radically diminish my
accumulated possessions so that my posterity will only need to sort
through what remained significant and essential to my life when I am
leaving. (Struggling here)
18. Rewrite my will and keep it
updated about every 10-15 years. (Working on it)
19. Keep my wife happy while
following the call of God in my life.
20. Help my children
and grand children come to a life of meaning where they can also
relax and see the lighter side of life and have a sense of humor
about life in general.
21. Enjoy as many fruit trees I
can in Belize and if there is time left when we get back to the
States, do something of that there- maybe with miniature or dwarf
trees. (Done, doing)
22. I would like to read the Bible
regularly or through in one year to catch all the little details
I may have been missing and as a challenge to discipline myself to
daily reading in the Scriptures.
23. Keep my mind active and
vigorous through reading mature stuff, writing, and relating to
people with precise, creative, poetic and acute verbalization.
24. Live in Belize as long as I can,
health and marital happiness permitting. (Done)
25. See my great grandchildren
growing up as true children of God. (Just beginning!)
26. Grow in the image of Christ,
bringing all things, mind, feelings, and heart into his likeness.
(Still working at it!)
27. Learn to be more understanding
of my wife even when I may not understand her.(Making Progress)
28. Learn to keep my head when all
around me are losing theirs and blaming it on me; learning rather to
be scapegoat when one is needed.
29. Keep my self esteem intact when
others doubt its worthiness, with an open mind.
30. Refuse to stop doing something
constructive just because people think I should be retiring or
operating a rocking chair.
31. Cultivate mental astuteness and
alertness in every way possible- reading, writing, perhaps
memorizing, and deliberate analytical thinking, keeping up with world
events, and delving into subjects of new interest. (Doing)
32. Maintain conversational
spontaneity and develop it more fully with all ages of persons and
backgrounds. (It's not easy)
33. Staying in the mainstream of life
of family, church, community, not withdrawing.
34. Learn to play several musical
instruments reasonably well, like violin, guitar, or keyboard.
35. Communicate on the internet,
perhaps blogging, and especially making available to the internet
public, my writings about my family biography, devotional materials
and other matters of interest that I write. (Doing, esp blogginssics I have
never read such as Robinson Crusoe, and non classic of the Left
Behind series, #15-30, and some others.
38. To constantly see new believers in
the fellowship where I am as long as I live, specifically the boys
who stayed at our home for a good while and all the single mothers we
have helped a lot.
39. To see and enjoy fruit from the
some 30 different fruit trees I have planted in Belize, and have a
new orchard of considerable variety of fruit trees, should I ever be
able to do so back in the States. (Also in 21 above)
40. To start looking forward to the
next life with anticipation, imagination and confidence. (Doing)
41. Structure my values and activities
so that I will have minimal regrets the last decade of my life.
(Trying)
42. Inform and prepare my children and
grandchildren about the aging process as we are all growing older at
the same rate at what ever stage each of us is.
43, Develop a philosophy of aging that
will serve me well as well as my posterity.
44. Clean up my past emotional baggage
and the present dependencies so that I can be a stable person as much
as possible in order to face diminishing capacities in the latter
years.
45. Maintain a healthy sense of humor
about life and myself. As well as not taking myself too seriously.
(Doing)
- Consider what I want to be said at my Transitional Celebration (Funeral) keeping my legacy goals clear.47. Take my time and hike up to one or more of the beautiful, high water falls in Belize, several of which are within 25 miles from here. (A lost cause!)
48. Make better use of my time than
thinking up lists to exercise my memory and possibly bore other
people.
49. Take a leisure trip throughout
Central America.
50. Move back to Indiana while still in
reasonable health and strength in order to be a blessing to my family
and who ever. (Done)
51. See structures for some of the work
we are doing in Belize such as a youth center, a youth home, a food
supply pantry, a scholarship system.(Failed)
(Credit to IRTA Newsletter for next
items, #52-60)
52. Take care of my health with
reference to eating, exercising, napping, and cultivating healthy
attitudes of faith and optimism, humor, and forgiveness at all times.
(Doing)
53. Take deliberate care in driving and
all activities, keeping focused to avoid accidents and mishaps.
(Doing)
54. Learn some new skill or hobby when
I need to refocus from service and labor to something more sedate.
55. Avoid getting caught up with any
ailment and talking about it until family and others get bored and
tired of me.(Blessed so far)
56. Recognize that every day is a gift
of God to be used and lived in gratitude to its Giver.
57. Entertain my great grandchildren in
our home as much as possible as long as it is possible as my
grandchildren reach maturity, doing the same with them until…(6 and counting)
58. Getting professional advice on my
health regularly and using good judgment in following their advice.
- Be involved in service, hobby, or recreational organizations appropriate to my ability to contribute and receive worthwhile stimulation.
60. Use quiet times of waiting for
constructive meditation, reflection, and fellowship with God.
61. Develop new friendships as the
settings of living may shift from time to time.
62. Continue developing an optimal
marital relationship through openness to my own personality and
weaknesses, and focusing on her qualities that surpass my own,
affirming her as much as I can, speaking her main languages of love
including gifts, making up for lost opportunities of the past.
63. Maintain some goals in life
constantly so as to keep on track going somewhere, not getting lost
and sidetracked by the attractions of a secular and worldly society.
64. Go on at least one trip per year to
a place I have never been before.
65. Attend the Belize Reunion in
Pennsylvania every few years and visiting my brothers and families in
the east as well.
66. Develop new foci in my life as
situations of health and gradual retirement indicate, making use of
the talents I have to the glory of God.
67. Continue in openness to God for his
revelation of himself and his will for me.
68. Cultivate an open and supportive
relationship with my wife as long as we both shall live.
69. Be open to the correction and help
I will need from others in my waning days.
70. Prepare for the final exam.(Studying about this)
71. Take care of myself, my wife and my home as well as well as I can.
72 Following through with my Great grandchildren (6 now) and be as close to them.as I can hoping that as many as can will have some memories of me.
73. Be active and reaching out to people close to us outside of our family, like neighbors tenants, and our close Belizean friends to encourage them in the Christian way of life.
75. To seek to
be good stewards of our wealth and use it for the good of others as well as for
ourselves.
76. To encourage
a mission interest and focus tor our grandchildren and be supportive to those
sensing a call to serve in mission and church ministries.
77. Continue in a
writing outreach through blogging and other writing beyond what I have done and make use of other social
media as I find ways of doing a broader writing out reach.
78. Enjoy the
outdoors as a praise to God, sharing with him the joy of his creation and
wonder of beauty, growth, and
the cycles of life.
79. Keep my wife
as happy as I can.
80. Keep
growing in faith and knowledge of the wonders of life in a relationship with
our Heavenly Father.
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