An Older Woman Ahead of You
“There is an older woman up there ahead of you
That you ought to know
She looks somewhat like you
She has your eyes, your nose, your chin;
And whether she loves you
or hates you,
respects you or despises you
Whether she is angry or comfortable
Whether she is miserable or happy
Depends on you
For you have made her
She is you grown older.”
Sometime before the new year I was contemplating my life and things that I knew I needed to work on - so many things - where do I start? Many times I have thought at this age and time of my life I would be the faithful, gracious, kind, loving, courageous woman I wanted to become when I copied this poem into my journal while serving my mission . . . and find myself so falling short of where I wanted to be forty years later. I was talking to Heavenly Father about my shortcomings and what I thought I needed to work on~ so many things, it is sometimes overwhelming.
A few weeks later, sitting with some friends, one of them said she had been thinking a lot about being "Gracious" and asked us what we thought that meant. We all chimed in and then the discussion changed. A few weeks after that we were all together again and Paula told us that being gracious was still weighing on her mind and it was something she was working on, then she turned to me and said, "Sandy, I think of you as being someone who is gracious." Well, after I pulled myself up off the floor, I remembered a prayer a few weeks prior to that and realized that Heavenly Father, was answering a prayer, just letting me know that I am at least headed in the right direction, even if I still have a long ways to go . . .
