Caregiving-Advice From Older Women (Revive 17) 10/09/17

Last weekend, my friend Kim and I were able to get away for a weekend retreat to Indianapolis. We attended the Revive Our Hearts Conference for women in leadership. It's called Revive 17. The theme this year was mentoring.

There were 2,900 women in attendance, a great mix of older and younger women. God allowed me to have two encounters with older women that spoke to me right where I was at the time.

Encounter 1:

The same two women sat next to us through the whole conference. They sought us out on the second day because "they liked our Minnesota accents". We never knew their names. They were friendly yet guarded. At the end of one of the teaching sessions, we were given time to pray with those around us, and we did so. The lady sitting closest to me intensely started telling Kim and I that we should cherish the relationships with our mothers right now. Her mother was gone now. She died with Alzheimer's disease as part of her story. In the end, she did not remember her daughter or know who she was.

She said, "You don't know how long your mothers will be around. Spend time with them now. Forget the past. Enjoy them now. Talk to them." She kept repeating her advice with urgency. I am particularly tender to this kind of advice at the moment, so tears streamed down my face the entire time she spoke. I kept saying "Thank you. We will. Thank you."

I appreciate advice given to me out of the experience of others. It's raw and pure and meaningful. I also realize that nothing happens without the ordering of God. God speaks to us in His Word, He speaks to us in the beauty of the creation that He made, and at times He reaches down and speaks to us directly through the words and experiences of those around us.


Encounter 2:

I was in the bookstore looking at the Bibles. I have a project I'm working on right now and was looking for another journaling Bible. The woman next to me was also looking at the Bibles. We shared a few words about why we were each looking at the Bibles. She had her eye on a large print Bible. It was a nice one. I encouraged her to buy it. We were separated for a time, each looking at products and moving around the room. We found each other again right before we were about to make our purchases. I said, "I see you decided to get the Bible. I'm glad." Then she said words I will always remember:

She said, "Yes. It will probably be the last Bible I ever buy."

I was not expecting those words. It was clear by her reaction that my shock at hearing those words showed on my face.

She said, "It's okay. I just turned 70 years old. I don't think I'll buy another Bible in my lifetime. Then she held my hand in hers and said, "You remember this some day. Remember the woman in the bookstore who isn't afraid to die. Look back and remember this time. You'll be in this spot someday."

I said, "I will. And please write something in that Bible that will mean something to your children, words specifically from you." This referenced a conversation we had earlier about the reason I was making my Bible purchase. She said, "I will."

It was a sweet moment and a short beautiful conversation. I will always remember it.

Katrina's Musings (A Visit With A Friend)

My young friend, Katelyn, and her family were in town visiting last week (they moved to North Carolina about two years ago). It was a fun day. We made a visit to a chocolate shop in the twin cities area and then had lunch together. I think I was supposed to be with her for about an hour or two, which we managed to cram into about 4 hours (too many things to catch up on). I'm grateful for the relationship God has given us, and I look forward to seeing what He does in Katelyn's life as she moves from girl to teenager to young woman.

An Afternoon Project 09/14/11

Last Sunday, Charity, Emily, and Katelyn (young friends from church) came home with me after our morning church service. We ate lunch together, and they spent the afternoon helping me prepare a project for an upcoming church event. I didn't invite them over because I needed the help (though I certainly needed the help, and they were incredibly efficient and a huge help to me), but I invited them over because I enjoy their company AND projects such as these present opportunities to build relationships (and I'll take that any day over completing a project quickly). Conversation flows when women, young and old alike (relatively speaking, I would be the old in this particular scenario) are engaged in a hands-on project. As suspected, much conversation was had around the project table.

Mentoring Musings 01/27/11

For today's Mentoring Musing I'd like to offer a reflection from my own experience.

As I was growing up, inevitably, I met people who left a negative impression on me. As I think of them today, I have the tendency to think of them as the same person I knew then with exactly the same qualities. Then I think of the person I was then. I think of what my life was like before God regenerated this wicked heart and made me a new person. Even as a Christian, I know the person I am today is different than the person I was 5 years ago.

When the opportunity arises now to meet people from the past, I try to take into account that they have had many life experiences since I last knew them and have likely matured in ways that I cannot imagine. I try to extend to them forgiveness and grace, as it has been extended to me.

And then I start asking questions to find out about the person they are now. And I listen.

Young person, you would do well to store this information away for later use as you will surely not escape the need for it in the future. (Listen to the woman in her 40's and you might not have to repeat her mistakes).

Mentoring Musings 01/20/11

I ask the children of religious parents to mark well what I am saying. It is the highest privilege to be the child of a godly father and mother, and to be brought up in the midst of many prayers. It is a blessed thing indeed to be taught the gospel from our earliest infancy, and to hear of sin, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and holiness, and heaven, from the first moment we can remember anything. But, oh, take heed that you do not remain barren and unfruitful in the sunshine of all these privileges: beware lest your heart remains hard, impenitent, and worldly, notwithstanding the many advantages you enjoy. You cannot enter the kingdom of God on the credit of your parents' religion. You must eat the bread of life for yourself, and have the witness of the Spirit in your own heart. You must have repentance of your own, faith of your own, and sanctification of your own. --J.C. Ryle

Note: Impenitent means: Unrepentant, hard of heart.