Skip to main content

The Woman I Want To Be

 Yesterday morning I went to my outdoor aqua cycling class. This class involves stationary bikes in the outdoor public pool, an instructor, some music, me, and a bunch of grandmothers. Yes, it's me and a bunch of grandmothers. Between finishing our workout and doing the cool down, our instructor asked "if I get the waterslide going, would any of you want to go down it?" Immediately five or six women expressed great delight at the idea.

As I watched the first woman come down the slide, screaming with happiness, I thought about how that's the type of older woman I want to be. These women, ranging from their mid fifties to mid seventies, show up to class with smiling faces and hair done. They are classy, happy ladies. They crack jokes and talk about their families and discuss where to go for lunch on Friday. 

In my seventies I want to be the woman who can still do an exercise class, who has friends to get together with, who laughs, who is up to have fun.

But I don't only want to be a woman in her seventies who can get on the floor and play with my great nieces and nephews--and get back up again--I also want to be like my grandmothers with their quiet spirits and firm faith. 

If I want to be able to do Pilates in my seventies I need to do them now...and if I want to be patient, kind, peaceful, and gracious as an older woman I need to cultivate and pray for those characteristics as a younger woman. 

I think it's worthwhile to spend some time thinking about the older women (or men) in your life that you want to be like, what about them makes you want to follow in their footsteps, and how you can begin to do so now. The seeds we sow now will grow into something else later on, and now is the time to be intentional about what seeds we sow. 

In forty years I don't want my niece to come home from a coffee date with me and say to her daughter "I went out with Aunt Becca today" and her daughter reply, "I hope you didn't go alone. I know how difficult and persnickety she can be." I want the conversation to go like this: "I went out with Aunt Becca today" and my great niece reply "oh, I wish I could have come along! She's so lovely. She walks so closely with Jesus and is kind to everyone. What did you talk about?" 

I want to be a godly, kind, healthy older person, because that is the type of old person who pleases the Lord. But really, I also want to be a godly, kind, healthy young person, because that type of person also pleases the Lord. 

To be a woman who pleases the Lord. That's the woman I want to be. 

What I'm Reading 

    • Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It's our book club read this month. 
    • A Smart Woman's Guide to Hormones by Lorna Vanderhaeghe and Alvin Pettle. I'm skim reading this one because it uses quite a few technical words. So far I haven't found it terribly helpful. 
    • The Gentlewoman's Choice by George MacDonald. I've begun reading this before bed and honestly I just love George MacDonald. He had a huge influence of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

What I'm Loving

    • My fish. 
    • With motivation from my friend Abby, I'm trying to nurture my curly hair so that it's actually curly and not just a frizz ball. If you have any tips or trips please share them.
    • Weekly video calls with my sisters. I have 2 sisters and we all don't live close to each other so we (try to) video call once a week. 
    • Lindywell Pilates and aqua cycling. I went on vacation last week and coming back I realized I need to get back into exercising. 


"Commonplace though his thoughts were, he would not risk encountering her scorn. He knew she was capable of it, for Hester had not yet gathered the sweet gentleness that comes of long breathing the air of the high countries." The Gentlewoman's Choice by George MacDonald, pg. 57 (high countries meaning Heaven)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Your Purpose?

 A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness.  I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder,  when I get to Heaven if I'm  going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Body Image (1)

Contentedly situated in lawn chairs with our toes in the sand and the baby playing on a blanket at our feet, my friend and I watch her girls digging holes or running between the beach and the lake. Periodically, the girls run up to us to display the shells and rocks they've found. At one point, as the girls surround us, one of us adults comments on the baby being chubby (which she is, as a baby should be) after which one of the girls looks at me and says, "you're kind of chubby." She wasn't trying to be rude or smart, she was just being bluntly observant as children are. As I looked at I her and considered an answer, I thought of the baggage of body image that women have carried for generations, and I thought, I don't want her to carry this baggage too. I want better for her.   I replied, "you know, being a little chubby is actually a good thing. Our bodies function better and it helps keep us warm." This deep lesson was probably lost on her as she s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Two Worlds, One Family

After reading that title, are you singing the Phil Collins song from Tarzan? I was. In my head. During prayer meeting. The theme for prayer that evening was the 3rd commandment; you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain . We bowed our heads and began praying around the circle. My dear friend sat beside me and prayed for her children and the children of our church. She prayed that they would never a know a day not loving the name of the Lord, that they would cling to Him and honour Him all the days of their lives. I went next. I prayed for my coworkers, so many of them living far, far from God, so many enslaved to sin. I prayed that they would know Jesus, honestly ask Him to forgive them, and then live the rest of their lives loving His name and bringing that Name glory. The same desire spurred our prayers, but the places we dwell in had a huge effect on how we prayed. And that's when that song from my childhood came to mind. The truth is that we are one family, my f...
Post a Comment
Read more