hey old lady… I’m watching you.

Yeah you.

Rumor has it you’re feeling a little over the hill and useless these days…kinda washed up and no longer needed. I heard you’re  thinking about settling back and trying to be satisfied with watching “The Price is Right” and old re-runs of the Golden Girls. Heck, you might even check out “The Young and the Restless” to see if they’ve embalmed ol’ Victor yet.

You think nobody’s paying attention.
You think nobody sees you and you’re not contributing much to the Kingdom anymore. You think your voice doesn’t matter in this youth-driven culture so maybe you don’t matter to women like me. Well. You’re wrong. Because Old Lady,  I’m watching you.

Love in the hands of God

 I see your heart when you think no one else is looking. Sometimes you write it down. You spill your guts, your doubts and your fears and I see the way your faith has shaped you at every stage of life.  I see the joy you’ve cultivated along the way. I’m noticing the words you use– and especially the ones you don’t. Your love for Jesus shines through each one of them and the way you write and speak encourages me to keep the faith and continue on just one more day.

I see the way you raised your children and though you made mistakes, you hung in there and you’re generous enough to share it all with women like me.  You’re gracious with your advice and encouragement and so willing to pray with us through each stage and step of the way. I see you now welcoming  grandchildren into your arms and I’m watching intently because I’m closer than I’d like to imagine.

I’ve noticed how you open your home and your heart  to hurting women of all ages, inviting them into your living room and always making space for one more. How you show up for the bright eyed children at the primary school sharing pieces of yourself and THE wonder of the Greatest Story ever told.  I appreciate how, after all these years,  you’re still an active student of the Word, excited to dig in and learn something new and dying to share it with anyone who will listen. 

I’m grateful that it’s often me.

The great good of sharingI’ve experienced the midwifing power of your prayers Old Lady, as you’ve shined God’s Word down some very dark paths with only enough light for my very next step.

 I’ve paid attention as you’ve patiently demonstrated to a generation of women what it means, for better or for worse,  to be a good wife by staying faithful to Jesus…even when it’s hard

And Old Lady, I see it in your eyes: you’ve experienced the glow of revival and the pain of loneliness from serving in quiet places or another country and have Gospel-loved a people so very different from you in order to make them eternally family. You lived your Gospel amongst them for such a long time and now you tend to their sick from an ocean away. You love and you give because He first loved and gave.

And you’re still doing it.

I have tasted grace in your presence and my heart beats with the shared rhythm of our Father for the lost and dying world all around us. 

Oh I feel it too dear Lady. The world we live in is not kind to the sick and the aging and the enemy wants you to feel cast aside. But even though you move a little slower these days, I’ve watched you roll up your sleeves, baring your scars for another to see so they can know there’s a measure of healing down the road. I’ve beheld how you gracefully carry a diagnosis that’s much too big for you to bear

so you’ve  given it to Jesus.

 You are modeling how live  through it joyfully as best as you can for all the world to see…not how brave you are, but how strong and faithful He is no matter what.

I see your peaceful and knowing smile.

The Greatest Good 2

Yes Old Lady,  I’m watching you because I’m the first follower of Jesus in my family for generations and all my women have gone and left me to figure out so many things  on my own. It’s been this way for a long time and in some ways, it’s always been this way.

So I need you Faithful Lady. I’m watching carefully because I need to know these things. I need to ask the questions and get the answers…at least the right ones. I need you to show me how it’s done…not perfectly or flawlessly but

faithfully.

I know it’s not easy but there’s so much at stake.  So please don’t quit Old Lady. Because I’m getting older and lately, I’ve noticed those young girls are watching me too.   That’s why I’m going to keep on watching you.

Dancing (while watching),Lorretta signature

 

23 thoughts on “hey old lady… I’m watching you.

  1. Oh, this post makes me smile and makes me grateful for all the “old ladies” who have impacted my life… and dream about the someday when I’ll be that old lady, too. Such hope and wisdom and vigor in these words today. Glad to find you through Emily’s link up.

  2. Lorretta, I love this post! I’m visiting from Imperfect Prose. While I’m not an old lady yet (at least in my mind!), I’m inching that way and there is so much truth in your words! Your website is beautiful, too. Thanks for sharing!

  3. What a wonderful encouragement and how-to all at the same time – I’m smiling at the reference to embalming old Victor because I started watching that show when I was caring for my own grandmother – who was a treasure… And tears are falling at the love in every word of this – you not only write about Gospel-love, you write with love. Blessings! Janet

    1. Ha Janet I am so blessed by YOU! Because you are the first one to pull out my reference to “Victor” which means you are a CHAMPION in my eyes!:) I was amused to discover he was still shuffling around the set when I went looking up something a long time ago. Either they have a lot of shows pre-taped or they have a good set of “look alikes” 🙂 Be blessed Sister!

  4. Encourging words! I especially like this line:
    “Yes Old Lady, I’m watching you because I’m the first follower of Jesus in my family for generations and all my women have gone and left me to figure out so many things on my own.”
    It’s so good to have examples of women living out the faith, when you have none in your own family.

    1. Yes. You know, at one time I was SO bitter about not having the right set of “tools” and people in my life and cried out to God. And He has been faithful in ways I do not have space to account for all at once. But I’ve noticed a number of women who give their all to Jesus up until a certain point and then, one by one, they take a seat on the sidelines and it’s heartbreaking to me because it’s not over yet…and I need them..a lot. God is good. Bless you!

  5. You have ready my mind. I feel the age coming quickly, in fact it is HERE, and there soon will be no one older than I. Who will be mentoring me? It is a honor to be there for the younger women and so much to learn from them, yet I miss the Isabella’s and Bea K’s in my life. I just need to remember what a privilege it is to open my heart and doors to those with less years of life lived with Jesus.

    1. Hi GrammaT…and what I pray you will hold on to is the very thing my Mentor-momma tells me, which is how very much she in turn receives along the way from her times of giving and sharing. I know it will never take the place of the “trickle down” but I guess it means we all get to drink from the Well instead. Hang out with me and lets do this thing! Bless you!

  6. Was just directed to this blog post by a friend via my FB feed…what a treasure! I am a women’s ministry leader and you have powerfully articulated here the beautiful truth that we are called to bear fruit “even in our old age” and how impactful it is to the multi-generational church when women of age walk ahead of us in grace and beauty leading by example. I WILL be sharing this. Thank you!!

    1. Bless you Lea. Seriously..it’s a wondrous thing to behold the interweavings of our faith when we stop letting things –especially those we can not help (aging, sickness, etc) separate us versus allowing them to bind our cords tighter. I am not joking; I need all the Old Ladies I can get! 🙂

  7. Oops. I lost my connection, so I don’t know if my comment is waiting for approval or if it got lost. Anyway, thank you for this, Lorretta. Thank you for reminding us that when we weary and feel we’ve lost our words or worth, there are others who watch and listen. That there are eyes, seen and unseen, who are following us and cheering us on. I need to come back to this often.

  8. What an encouragement. Lorretta, and a reminder that when we weary and fear we’ve lost our worth, there are still eyes that see and watch. There’s a cloud of witnesses, visible and invisible, cheering us on and applauding seeds we don’t even know we’re sowing. Thank you for this, dear friend.

  9. Thank you, Lorretta, for the amazing words God puts on your fingertips! I am very humbled! You will truly be an amazing “old lady” some day! May His Name be Glorified! Carol

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