Turning Age 66 Today and My Thoughts Looking Back

Wow, 66 years old today. A lot of years and hoping for many more.  Papaw Hepler always told me  his granddaddy, if I can still remember correctly, lived to be 3 days past his 100th birthday. Papaw's goal was to live past 100. He died at 93, but he would probably have made it if he had not smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day and instead of drinking all that whiskey had left it in the bottles.

I have started getting in my office at 5:00 every morning to study and write. This morning I paused my writing project for a few minutes to reflect back on my 66 years. Looking back, the time has flown by much quicker than when I was way back there living it. My time is much more valuable to me now than it was back then, because I do not have as much of it left.

Reflecting back on the good times is easy, but acknowledging my failures, not so easy. But my failures have driven me to something I love doing.  I honor those failures as teachers, along with the other great teachers I have had from first grade through college. Today I am jotting down some thoughts of what I have learned, some funny, some sad, and some I just don't know how to categorize. I imagine many of you could do the same. Remember, these are my thoughts and I am accountable for them. I am going to go for it.

1. Friends are great to have, but the one's you have from childhood are always special.
2. I have had many great teachers, but my failures were the greatest.
3. I have cherished my courage to be vulnerable. My prior years I tried to please everyone.  My desire now is to please God and everything else will fall into place.
4. I try not to be as cantankerous, but it still slips up on me now and then.
5. Worry is an enemy and I am not going to give it my valuable time.
6. At 66 years old, I can't go back and start a new beginning, but I can begin today on having a great ending.
7. To the young and unmarried. Don't let your first blind date scar you for life. Go on and go on a second blind date. I did and married her. She is absolutely the best thing that has happened to me.
8. In life, we all need to hit a walk off home run, but if we never get up to bat we never will.
9. What I admire most about professional athletes, is not the money they earn, the way they play, but the discipline they have in getting there.
10. We were created by God in His image and His likeness. Don't let anyone teach you we evolved billions of years ago from some slime in the ocean. I had some college professors that probably thought I was stupid. They are dead now. Sad to say, they now know who the stupid one was.
11. I am not going to vote for someone who wants to kill innocent babies in the womb and doesn't want me to call a man a man and a woman a woman. PERIOD!
12. I don't follow the herd unless I know where they are going and I know the leader .  We have too much of that nonsense going on today as it is.
13. Live right and die right. This can only be done by living the way God has told us to live. In doing so, you will make a difference in this world and will have lived the purpose for which God has created you.
14. I am so glad that tattoos were not the fad in 1970. I would probably have gotten one, which I would now probably have regretted.
15. I have learned it is not my outside appearance that builds integrity, but what is in the heart. Remember, "The pure in heart will see God", and I want to see God.
16. You wouldn't give your children counterfeit $100 bills, so make sure you don't give them a counterfeit plan of salvation.
17. Humility, repentance, seeking God's face, and fervent prayers are the only things that will make our country better, not who we elect to govern it.
18. In 1970 there were about 90 percent or more people in this country who professed to be Christians. In that period of the seventies, prayer was taken out of schools, the law was established allowing women to murder their unborn child, and sensual living began to be the lifestyle of many.  Only a few got this started, with 90 percent professing to be Christians. I read the other day by the year 2020 that number will be around 66 percent. Old people we better watch it. It will be us next. We better get to looking useful in our old age or we will be euthanized to save the government money.
19. When I die, and I don't know when that will be, whoever does my funeral, please don't tell the audience that I was a faithful Christian and I loved the Lord. If they don't know it by then, Christ won't either. So it is not going to make much difference will it?
20. We live in a fallen world and life is not fair sometimes. 
21. Remember this. Everyone shouldn't get a trophy and everyone doesn't go to heaven. You must work for the one and live a life of gratitude, obedience and love for the Christ who made going to heaven possible.  Earning a trophy brings value to it. Christ dying in our place shows us how much God loves us. Oh, if we would only love Him as much.
22. Don't let their tattoos, addictions and felonies run you off. Yes, some are just plain evil, but some just made  several wrong choices. Christ said for us to even love our enemies and pray for them. I am not saying these are my enemies, but if I should love and pray for my enemies should I not also love everyone?
23. Looking back on my life, I have many regrets. Looking forward in life, I am going for what I used to think was impossible. I don't want to be good, I want to be great with what God has given me. I want to erase all my regrets, and to use them to propel me forward in living for God.
24. Just because I am 66 doesn't mean I am dead yet. I still have a lot of faults and weaknesses to correct with God's help. I want the fruit of God's Spirit to be seen in me, not because of duty or guilt, but because I love Him and this fruit makes this fallen world a better place to live for everyone.
25. Well, I think 25 thoughts are enough for now. Looking back is tough. Made lots of mistakes. I just have to work toward my goals today. One last thing. I want to live the rest of my life encouraging, loving and being a Christ-like example to all I meet. The greatest gift and example I can leave to my family, the day of my funeral, is many coming up to them saying, "Your dad had an influence on me to live a better life or your dad always prayed for me"..

Remember these are just my thoughts. Age has changed my thinking over the years. Hope you enjoyed reading. To my old friends, "Love you guys", you are part of my life. To my new friends, I am looking forward to knowing you better, loving you and making you part of my life.

I thank everyone who has wished me a "Happy Birthday" today and also for you spending the time to read what I write. I am working to be a better writer and the only way I get get better is to write more. Sometimes I may bore you and sometimes my writing may challenge you and me.

Thank you so much!
Rick Hepler

Please send comments to rhepler52@gmail.com .