An old dog and a new trick

“You can’t teach an old dog a new trick.” How many times have you heard that saying? You know what it means. As you get older, it gets harder to change your ways. But sometimes people do make changes when older, but more often they don’t.

Since Donald Trump arrived on the scene running for president back in 2014, many Americans have agreed with his stands on policies, especially when it comes to economics and the border. And they like his rough and tumble style of politics.

Well, up to a point. There have been countless times over the past ten years, I have heard Trump supporters wishing President Trump would not say some of the things he says because it turns off a lot of average voters.

Then came the assassination attempt of President Trump this past summer. Thank goodness it failed, but it was close, real close. After a near death experience like that, often people reevaluate their lives and their actions. Many wondered if they would see a change in President Trump’s behavior. Maybe a little less harshness and a softer tone. But after a short while, at least to the general public, there has appeared to be little change.

Why is that? Why is it when people get older, it is difficult to change behavior patterns? And that’s not only for our ex-president and soon to be president again. Why is it hard for an old dog to learn a new trick? Since I’m considered an old dog by many, that’s a good question for me to consider.

A couple of weeks ago I read what I think is a good answer in a devotional. The paragraph appeared in an “Our Daily Bread” devotion by Mike Wittmer. He wrote, “By the time we reach old age, we’re largely set in our ways. We’ve had a lifetime for our choices to harden into habits that calcify into character—good or bad. We are who we’ve chosen to become.”

That quote is worth examining more closely. Our lives are really just a set of choices. Choices we make every day, and we make many of them every day. (You’re making the choice to read this column right now.) Some of those choices are big, and we know they are going to have an impact on our lives. They may be like choosing to marry someone or not, or taking that job or not. We know, or should know, that choices like that will have a large influence on the type of person we may become later in life.

But there are countless other choices that we make along the way that are not near as obvious, but those may actually go further in determining what kind of old dog we end up being. How we react to situations, what we do with our time, who we choose to be around are some of those types of choices we often make without much thought.

But, like the devotion stated, those choices become habits that become ingrained into who we are. We end up being what those choices have made us by habits we have developed. It’s what we are, and what we are is our character. As Wittmer wrote, “We are who we’ve chosen to become.”

So, what’s the solution? What type of old dog are you going to be? If you are younger, it’s much easier and simpler. Just make the right choices. Okay, it may be simple, but it’s not easy. But it’s much easier when you are younger before those habits that become your character become embedded in you. In the devotion, Wittmer quotes 2 Peter 1:5, where Peter encourages his readers to “make every effort” to develop those positive character traits that honor God, and it does take effort.

For the rest of us, who may be considered as “old dogs,” we have to decide what type of old dog we are going to be. And making the change to being the person we want to be, and should be, can be difficult. Our “make every effort” may be even harder because of years of hardened habits.

But there’s an addition to the old dog saying that I heard several years ago that should encourage us older folks. It was, “They say you can’t teach an old dog a new trick, but ain’t it nice when he learns one.” Yep, it can end up being nice for you, and, by the way, for those around you