“Life is like riding a bicycle, you don’t fall off until you stop peddling.” -Claude Pepper

Did you know that Laura Ingalls Wilder published “The Little House in the Big Woods” when she was 64? Arthur Rubenstein performed in Carnegie Hall at 89. At 82, Winston Churchill wrote “A History of the English-Speaking People,” in four volumes.

I love the stories of people who accomplish amazing feats in their senior years. One of my favorites is that of Grandma Moses:

Ann Mary Moses gave birth to ten children; five of them died. She and her husband worked as tenant farmers while raising their family. In her hunger for beauty, she began embroidering.

After her husband died, her fingers became stiff with arthritis and she could no longer accomplish the embroidery stitches. Searching for a way to use her creativity, she began painting colorful pictures on barn-wood.

After the age of 70, she produced more than 1600 paintings. When she was 100 years old, she painted book illustrations for “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

When interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on his radio program, Grandma Moses said, “If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens. I would never sit back in a rocking chair waiting for someone to help me.” In her autobiography, “My Life’s History,” she wrote, “I look back on my life like a good day’s work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented; I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”

Ann Mary Moses lived to be 101. Her work is still in circulation today.

I know many people who are pedaling along just fine in the aging process, then wham – suddenly life knocks them off their vehicle. Even though they feel like giving up, they struggle to recover and then pedal on.

Our Pastor, Jack Giles, has survived two incurable diseases, (cured by God) and recently suffered the loss of a dear loved one. Yet, at 85, he continues to feed, house, and repair souls while sharing the Gospel of Christ.

Our friend Sonny Evans, a former Marine who served in the Korean war, recently recovered from a stroke, and now, at 89 years old, goes to his office at Ellis Optical five days a week and works as an efficient bookkeeper.

Although we do not all have the artistic gifts of Grandma Moses, the world is waiting for those special contributions each of us is born to make. When we are older, our possible contributions may look small, so small that we could overlook the responsibility.

But I know grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren to become godly citizens and contributors to a Christian society. I know mothers and grandmothers whose prayers for their family members are availing much.

Best-selling author Mark Batterson writes about his grandfather who would take off his hearing aids each night, kneel by his bed, and pray very loudly for his grandchildren. Mark says, “My grandfather died when I was six, but his prayers did not.

There have been distinct moments in my life when I’ve received a blessing I didn’t deserve, and the Holy Spirit has whispered these words: Mark, the prayers of your grandfather are being answered in your life right now.”

And then, there is the story I’ve written previously, of the two Scottish Island ladies, both in their 80s, who prayed until a revival occurred and changed their entire community. We seniors are capable of amazing accomplishments in the realm of prayer.

The prayers of God’s people avail much. Let’s pray every night at 8:00, asking God to heal our troubled land.