May is Older Adult Month on the theme, ‘Become Your Legacy.’

Each May, the Older Adult Ministry Cabinet of the Church of the Brethren’s Caring Ministries sponsors Older Adult Month. The theme for 2009 is "Become Your Legacy."

Rachael Freed, founder of Life Legacies, has described legacy as the "footprints we leave behind," evidence that our lives have had meaning and that we have made a difference to the people our lives have touched. "Becoming your legacy" is a life-long process, one that we begin as children and continue throughout our lives as we lead the way by example, teaching and living life faithfully and striving toward the "hope to which we have been called."

Resources have been created to help congregations explore "the hope to which you have been called" and ways to live out and preserve your legacy. Resources include "Sharing Our Legacy in the Connected Age," "Living the Legacy: A Four-Session Study Series," and "Sharing Wisdom through Stories: Grandparent-Grandchild Conversations" as well as worship resources, Sunday school and small group study sessions, intergenerational activities, and personal reflections available at www.brethren.org/oam. Click on Older Adult Month to download and print materials or contact Caring Ministries at 800-323-8039 for paper versions.

In a related event, the Church of the Brethren’s Health Promotion Sunday on May 17 is on the theme, "Coping with the challenges of aging." When we think of the aging process we tend to think of events that generally occur later in life (which, depending on one’s perspective, could mean anything from age 30 on). Regardless, it’s important to keep in mind that aging begins as soon as we are born--how we face challenges throughout our lives plays a significant role in the options we have as we grow older.

Recognizing that reality, the theme of this year’s Health Promotion Sunday could just as easily be "Coping with the challenges of life." This year's resources support different components of a healthy life as it is lived over many years. Materials are offered on aging in its more traditional sense, as well as reissued materials from previous Health Promotion Sundays on the importance of family in creating and sustaining emotional health, the role of wellness in aging well, and the crucial nature of our faith communities to the health of our spirit.

-- Kim Ebersole is director of Family Life and Older Adult Ministries for the Church of the Brethren.

Source: 4/22/2009 Newsline Special