We need you.

You are not forgotten.

Please, don’t give up yet…there are some of us out here who are looking for you. For your stories. For your wisdom. For your advice.

We want to know about that path that you’ve walked to earn that beautiful Crown of Splendor that gracefully wraps around your head. We want to know what made you laugh so hard that the lines of joy are now written on your beautiful faces. We want to know what made you weep. Why do you get that distant look of sadness? What was it that happened then? Will you tell us?

We want you to share your favorite recipes with us. We want to sit with you and look through your black and white photos and hear the stories of the faces of the ones that aren’t with us anymore.

I know. There are some who have made you feel unwanted. Like your time has passed and your advice is not needed. Like what you have to say is irrelevant and unimportant.

But I want you to know, and others want you to know, WE NEED YOU. Desperately. You are the ones who persevered and are persevering. You are the ones who stuck it out when times were tough.

So tell us, as you sit there holding hands with your handsome glory-crowned man…(or maybe he’s with the Lord now?) How did you do it? We want to know. Did you have to fight for your marriage? For your children? Please, tell us.

You are here, with us, drawing in breath given by the Lord, and you are a Treasure. Please don’t hide yourselves from us. You have so much to offer…things unique only to you. Stories…wisdom…joys…griefs…and yes, recipes…that no one else has to offer.

Please, let your voice be heard. Please don’t quit on us. Please keep running the race. The Lord has woven your extraordinary life together and we want to see the beautiful patchwork quilt. We want to take comfort in it…we want to wrap it around us.
Proverbs 16:31 says “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.”

(It’s true. I eagerly await my crown of splendor. Each time I find a new gray hair I smile and think of this verse. I never want to hide mine because each gray stripe holds stories, and one day I hope a younger woman will ask me about them.)

So, tell us about the way of righteousness. That narrow path that you’ve walked. We want to follow in your footsteps…those footsteps that have followed our precious Savior for so many years. Some of those footsteps, I know, are His own…from those times that He carried you when it was hard and you wanted to quit. Because we have those times too, and we don’t want to quit. We need your voices telling us to keep going. That it’s worth it. That persevering through the hard times brings about a beautiful story like yours. How will we know if you give up on us? If you are silent? We need human faces looking at us, Jesus eyes looking deep into our souls. Eyes with that light of love and understanding and compassion. We need weathered human voices that crack when they tell us to keep going. It’s hard, child, but keep going. Because Jesus is worth it all. Please, tell us.

Tell us your stories. We are ready to be quiet. We are ready to listen. We have been arrogant and prideful and humbly apologize, and plead with you now to let us listen once again.

Thank you.💗

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. Titus 2:3-8

**To the ones who are eagerly (or not so eagerly?) awaiting their Crown of Splendor…seek out the wise. Seek them out, the ones with the Crowns of Splendor on their heads. Seek out the ones with laugh lines and smile lines, maybe grief lines…the ones marked by years gone by. Forge a relationship with someone older and wiser than you. Many of them are silent, and they may not share their wisdom unless we ask. They have grown tired of the younger ones who “know better” talking over them and silencing their wise advice with youthful arrogance. The pride and arrogance of younger generations has caused them to decide to be silent.**

“There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Proverbs 12:18

So make eye contact and smile, let them know that they are seen. Be silent when they speak. Listen to their stories. Ask them questions.

We need the ones who have journeyed the path of righteousness ahead of us to teach us…and they need to know that we need them. To be reminded that they are a treasure.

Let this be the year that the generational bridge is rebuilt.

Blessings,

Nicole Dotson

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Colossians 3:16-17