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| 2010/03/23 08:41:00瀏覽1520｜回應2｜推薦12 | |
| Twenty years ago when I first joined a Christian fellowship, I remembered while sitting there, I looked around the circles of women in the room and thinking, “Ｍan, these people are ancient. How in the world am I going to associate with them?" I was young and radiant, going to college at the time, and ready to take on the whole wide world. I was not going to spend my precious moments of life conversing with these "old" Christian women who knew nothing about my life. Despite my bias against the older women, I continued going there out of obedience to God, but deep inside of my heart, I concluded that I would not have anything in common with these ladies. As time passed by and I grew mature, I realized that I had wasted ample opportunities that God had given me to learn from these older women. Their gentle and sweet spirit, the faith that helped them withstand life's storms, the humility that distinctively marked their characters, their trust in the Lord that's solid as rock, and their obedience to God out of love not of fear, all these things could have been tremendous life lessons for me if I had only taken a few minutes talking to them. Years later, I find myself belonging to a group that mostly comprises women of middle ages. They are working women as well as housewives. I learned my lesson. Each week as I join them for a Bible study, I would listen carefully to what they have to teach me. Their testimonies challenge me to see the truth of Scripture, the love of God and the life of Christ through their eyes. As they share how they have taken God's word and applied it to their daily challenges, it opens my eyes to see the places where I've been resisting Him. Often times, it is not "what they said" that taught me. It is "what they are" that taught me! It is their readiness, their availability to God when He called them to serve a younger woman by coming along side her for whatever she's going through in life. I recently read some interesting statistics about the Facebook users in the U.S. Shockingly, the stats showed as of February of 2009, the Facebook reported that women over 55 is the fastest growing segment compared with every other age/gender demographic. That tells me that women over 55 are still very vibrant and active in the social circles. There is more mobility, more money around, more leisure, more health and strength--resources which if put at God's disposal, would bless younger women immensely. Soon I will be categorized in the the "older women" group by some young gal. Before that time arrives, I hope I would have stored up some wisdom to pass on to the young ladies that God carefully places across my path. I'm reminded by a very dear sister of mine who said the other day, we are not called to convict the world, but we are called to teach. Lord, may you grant me a teachable heart, so that I may teach.
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| ( 心情隨筆｜雜記 ) |
