Old, Young, or Somewhere In Between? September 19, 2014

HOW TO FEEL OLD

1. Have a baby at age 43.
2. When baby is one, take baby to park on a weekday morning.
3. Observe yoga pants clad mommies nimbly chasing and playing with their babies.
4. Count their wrinkles…. count your own.  Sigh.
5. Wonder if the “Mom or Grandma?” look in their eyes is better or worse than the “Fat or Pregnant?” look you received last year at this time.
6. Try not to grunt as you pick up your baby’s sippy cup for the 10th time.
7. Make eye contact with one pretty young mommy and ask how old her child is.
8. Notice the tired look in her eyes as she answers “11 months.” (Translation:  “The longest 11 months of my life!”)
9. Blow your cover, and answer the “Mom or Grandma?” look by letting her know that you have a grown child and two teens.
10. Smile and tell her to enjoy these days because it goes so quickly.
11. Smile again when she says, “Really?”  You know that it seems to her that the days and nights can be so long.

HOW TO FEEL YOUNG

1. Have a baby at age 43.
2. When baby is one, take baby to grocery store EARLY on a weekday morning.
3. Observe comfy-shoes glad grandmothers and grandfathers slowly walking the aisles trying to remember what they are looking for.
4. Count their wrinkles…count your own.  Smile.
5. Notice the nostalgic look in their eyes as they smile sweetly at your baby.
6. Offer to get the green beans from the top shelf for the sweet little lady smiling at your baby.
7. Make eye contact with her as she says “She is beautiful.  Is she your first?”
8. Admit that, no you have three older children, one in her twenties.
9. Smile when she says “Oh honey!  You look like you are in your twenties yourself!” Remind yourself that the eyes are often the first to go.
10. Wonder at the serious note in her voice when she looks pointedly at you and says “I bet you are enjoying every moment,” almost as if it is a command.
11. Assure her, that, yes, you are, because you know that it goes so quickly.
12. Appreciate her wisdom when she tells you “It certainly does.  Faster every year.”  She knows all too well that the days and nights seem so long, but the years can be so short.  She also knows that her dim eyes see the passage of time far more clearly that your younger eyes do.

HOW TO APPRECIATE THE IN-BETWEEN

1. Accept and enjoy this “middle age” that God has given you along with all your unique circumstances and experiences.
2. Thank Him for always knowing what will bring you joy and for His sufficiency.
3. Pray that God allows you to be that middle-aged lady, and, in later years, that little old lady, that will always encourage younger women to enjoy what God has placed in their hands at that moment.
4. Even though you are neither very young, nor very old, but somewhere in between, remember that His timing is always perfect, and that every day has at least one gift that can be enjoyed from any perspective.

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, {Titus 2:3-4 KJV}

I’m a Believer!

Laura