Reimagining Age

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 118 – Reimagining Age

Elisa Morgan & Eryn Eddy

Elisa: The real legacy of life is not really in what we’ve achieved. I mean those things are important, but the real legacy that lives on beyond who we are is our inner character, is in our fruitfulness, is in our — how much are we like Jesus, you know, and how much have we depended on Him in an intimate relationship in such a way that He’s grown His qualities, which are eternal, in us. Will my grandkids remember me for being the president of a nonprofit, or for always saying yes to an idea they had? You know will…will my husband remember me for making a great meal… haha… celebrating his birthday, or for helping him when he was sick? You know it…it’s… there’s this shift that happens; because, yeah, our bodies are going to betray us and change. And if we only focus on them for our entire existence, we’re going to be super disappointed until we recognize that they are the container. They’re the container for the real essence of who we are.

[Theme music]

Intro: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His. Find out how these realities free you today on God Hears Her.

Eryn: Welcome to God Hears Her. I’m Eryn Eddy.

Elisa: And I’m Elisa Morgan. How do you feel about your age? Are you excited to get older, or do you wish you were younger? What if we told you God is working through you just as you are?

Eryn: Today Elisa and I want to share what we’ve learned about aging and how God has a plan for us as we get older.

Elisa: Join us on this episode of God Hears Her to learn how aging is actually a blessing.

Eryn: So this past weekend, Elisa, I was with six little girls, ages 10 to 15…

Elisa: Whoa!

Eryn: …It was a slumber party…

Elisa: Fun!

Eryn: …and I was one of the chaperones kind of, just helping the mom out with brownies and pizza and all of those things. And … and these little gir… I mean they’re just so sweet and…

Elisa: I don’t know if they’d want you calling them little girls.

Eryn: I know, I know! Little young women… Young women…

Elisa: Okay, there you go.

Eryn: Young, young women…

Elisa: Okay, okay.

Eryn: …ten to 15…

Elisa: Yep.

Eryn: …And I am just looking at how sweet… I’m…I know I keep saying little girls. It sounds condescending, but I think … I’m 34, so I’m young.

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …But then I’m around, you know, 10-, 15-year-old girls, and I’m like Oh wow! Like they have no idea the life that is…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …ahead of them. There’s so many influences in their life, and I’m just seeing it in what they’re talking about and what they’re interested in. And they’re talking about social media to boys to, you know, boys not growing; and they’re tall, and the boys are short in their class. And, you know, we’re just…

Elisa: [laughing] Yes!

Eryn: [laughing]… They were talking about that. We’re talking about the boys, that they’re like, Oh yeah, no, we don’t talk to him. He’s trouble. You know and…

Elisa: Ohh!

Eryn: …and they’re just…they’re just sharing all of what they’re seeing and…and what they’re learning and growing from. And one of the girls loves this game called “Roadblocks.” And it’s like a little video game on your phone that you do, and…

Elisa: Okay.

Eryn: …and they do dances. So she knows these dance moves to songs, so she’s teaching us dance moves to songs. And I realized, when I was there and I was doing these dances, I felt … [laughs] … I felt so old!

Elisa: [laughing] Oh! Yep!

Eryn: I was like Okay, wait, I know I have dance moves in me…

Elisa: Mm-hmm. Yeah, you do.

Eryn: … I’m 34!

Elisa: Yeah, sure you do.

Eryn: Totally do!

Elisa: Yeah, but…

Eryn: …But when I’m doing them with an 11-year-old…

Elisa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Eryn: … I’m like Oh my gosh! I feel so old! I shouldn’t even be dancing… [laughing]

Elisa: It’s like me at every wedding I go to, you know. I think that I’m looking pretty good, and then I realize I… No!

[Laughter]

Elisa: I’m really out of it. Yeah. I just don’t fit. Yeah.

Eryn: I just all of a sudden was like I felt levels of irrelevance …

Elisa: Mm.

Eryn: …like I felt irrelevant. I felt…

Elisa: Ooh, wow! That’s a big word. Yeah.

Eryn: I know. I’m like I don’t know some of these things that they’re talking about…

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Eryn: I’m like Have I been living under a rock? Like…eh…

Elisa: It’s really scary, Eryn, because you’re the one I go to for relevance… [laughter] … and you’re feeling irrelevant. Uh-oh!

[Laughter]

Eryn: You go “Uh-oh!”

Elisa: But…but…but I know what you mean. I do go to my grandson who’s 17, almost 18, and …uh… he helps me with relevance quite a bit, you know, when I don’t understand anything… [laughter]… about the next couple of generations. I go young-young-young…

Eryn: And then you think about: Life has gone by so fast! And now I’m hearing these statements, and these are statements maybe I once made…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …or thought…

Elisa: Sure.

Eryn: It’s… I want to talk on this episode about aging…

Elisa: Mm-kay.

Eryn: …and how you receive it and hold it and just accept it. We are aging … I…I, naturally, am like Oh, 50, 60, 70… but then there’s also aging of 20, 30, 40…

Elisa: Right.

Eryn: …cause we just… We are always aging. [Laughing]

Elisa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Eryn: And you’ve shared some…some words, and even in some of your experience in like the class that you took. And I just want to dive into it. When did you start recognizing that you were aging?

Elisa: Mm. Oh! Wha… you know, puberty! [Laughter] … I mean, honestly, your body starts doing these things. You know like What is this? [Laughing]

Eryn: Yeah. Yeah.

Elisa: And even if your mom has had “the talk” with you, and…and back in my day, you…ss… watched the movie in science class or health class or whatever. You’re still like What is this? [Laughing]

Eryn: Yes.

Elisa: And I think …um… aging is so tied to our bodies, like you were talking about. You’re in fifth grade, and you’re taller than all the boys. I mean I was five-foot-two in fifth grade. That’s crazy!

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …I’m five-foot-three now, so I mean I was like a giant, you know? It’s so tied to our bodies, and…and so then puberty we start into that journey. But…but then maybe we…we hit — I don’t know — womanhood, of becoming pregnant or not, and that journey. An…and then we start seeing the wrinkles or the saggy baggies or the lumpy bumpies, or you can call them all kinds of things. Acne, you know, back in that day… Our bodies are constantly cuing us, because they’re constantly changing. And then, you know, at some point — for some, tragically, it’s very early; for others it’s midlife; and for others it’s old age — but they begin to betray us. They begin to diminish. They begin to turn against us, and whether it’s with disease or dementia or weakness, we’re just floored by the reality that we’re not invincible. We’re not…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …as eternal in our physical being as we always thought we would be.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: When did I first notice it? That’s a big, long answer to your question, but — and I notice it every day. You know I’ll go and think… I’ll look in my mirror, and I think well, that looks okay. And then I’ll put on my glasses … [laughing]… and I’m like Oh, jeez, I got a few hairs that need to be plucked here, you know or… [laughter] … or I, you know, I really didn’t wash that part of my face — Oops! Or my eyebrows, there is a pencil line where there shouldn’t be… You know it’s just like Bleh! So, you know, I’m constantly having to face it.

Eryn: So you hit on something. When you are younger, like in your, you know, puberty state, it feels like you’re progressing, right…

Elisa: Yeah!

Eryn: …to a goal…

Elisa: That’s good, Eryn! Yeah.

Eryn: …where you think you’re progressing to this goal. And then it’s like you hit the goal…

Elisa: Uh-huh.

Eryn: …And then the goal feels like it’s deteriorating.

Elisa: Uh-huh.

Eryn: It takes a turn. Like what once would be celebrated in our bodies now is not celebrated…

Elisa: [whispers] Exactly!

Eryn: …and we should feel ashamed of, or we have a…a negative view of it, because it’s not at its peak. It’s not as…at its prime. And, I mean, that’s true, and…eh… you can look at your arms and the way the skin starts shaping. And you can look at, you know, underneath your eyes. I’m at a age right now where a lot of my friends are doing Botox, and they’re doing injections in their face to appear younger. And…

Elisa: Mm. Mm.

Eryn: …I have no judgment towards that. It’s…

Elisa: Right.

Eryn: …not about that. I will choose, but it’s… I have no judgment towards somebody doing that, but it is… We start to recognize Oh, we are now digressing. We think we are digressing…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: And maybe, physically, are we? I mean I guess it’s how you look at it and how you accept it.

Elisa: Yeah. I think it’s really helpful to reimagine or reimage how we view aging, as so connected to the physical.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: So, you’re right, it’s like a goal setting. It’s an achievement. It’s an excitement that we are old enough to look a certain way. And then we hit this kind of a turn, and it’s a downhill slide. But the reality is there is a lot to celebrate in it. And the reality is aging is probably as much, if not more, about our internal being…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …as our external being…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Okay. I’m sixty…mm… I can never remember. [Laughter] … I think I’m 66. So I’ve been thinking about this a whole ton. And, as we’ve talked many times, you know, I… I in my personality, I like to achieve things. That’s…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …that’s my whole thrust of who I am, my personality…

Eryn: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: …And so, as I have looked at getting older, I’ve been going, Ugh! What am I gonna do when I can’t achieve things? You know people talk about retirement, and I’m like That sounds like death to me. You know…eww! I can’t retire, you know, stop; because it’s like…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …if I stop achieving, I’ll stop being, is how I’ve looked at it.

Eryn: Yeah. Hm.

Elisa: In reading I’ve been doing, and in talking with others – and lots of therapy, as we always talk about, you know – and lots of therapy, I’m coming to understand that the real legacy of life is not really in what we’ve achieved. I mean those things are important, but the real legacy that lives on beyond who we are is our inner character, is in our fruitfulness, is in our — how much are we like Jesus, you know, and how much have we depended on Him in an intimate relationship in such a way that He’s grown His qualities, which are eternal, in us? Will my grandkids remember me for being the president of a nonprofit, or for always saying yes…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …to an idea they had? You know will…will my husband remember me for making a great meal… haha… celebrating his birthday, or for helping him when he was sick? You know it…it’s… there’s this shift that happens; because, yeah, our bodies are going to betray us and change. And if we only focus on them for our entire existence, we’re going to be super disappointed until we recognize that they are the container. They’re the container for the real essence of who we are.

Eryn: Oh! I love that! They are the container…

Elisa: I love that, too, Eryn. It…eh… If you look about, you know, when Paul writes about “you’re the temple of the Holy Spirit,” in 1 Corinthians. You know he uses the word “vessel.” And A vessel is a container. It’s…

Eryn: Yeah, that’s right.

Elisa: …you know if you think about going to your bathroom, and you’re going to see a toothpaste tube. You’re going to see a cup for taking your meds. You’re going to see a… a Kleenex box holder. You’re going to see a perfume dispenser. You know each one of those containers is unique. And it’s designed — think about this — to give us access to whatever that thing is that it’s holding.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …You know the cotton ball holder. You lift the lid off, you take one out, easily, you know. The Kleenex thing, it pops right up so you don’t have to dig around in it. You know the toothpaste…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …you squeeze it so it co… Each container gives us access to what’s inside us…

Eryn: Mm.

Elisa: …Well, what about our physical bodies? What does it contain? Our physical body contains the spirit of our living and loving God. You know and how do I give other people access to God? My…my body’s super important. Yeah…

Eryn: Wow.

Elisa: …but it’s not just a body. It’s a container for God on this planet, for now and for later. And…and you brought this up, you know, how do we celebrate aging, if you will …eh… When we understand what our body’s purpose is, you know, when we understand … I mean, I’m sorry but a… a wrinkle can offer an a-may-zing visual of our God’s faithfulness. My 7-year-old grandson calls my hands, which are very veiny… You know some people have veiny hands. I do, and I have a lot of loose skin on my hands. Well, when my hands are down, you know, all the blood will rush down there. And he’ll grab my hand, and he’ll push on the veins. And then he’ll call them, “Yaya, why you have all those wobblies?” [Laughter] And I just look at my wobblies, and I think, Yeah, I remember looking at my mom’s wobblies and thinking they were weird. And now I look at my wobblies, and I think, They’re okay. You know there’s blood in there, and that’s a good thing. [Laughter]

Eryn: I love that! I love that he calls them wob… cause they wiggle a little bit.

Elisa: They do.

Eryn: Like I mean I have them on my hands, and when…when I get hot, like a… They’ll…they pop up…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …you know?

Elisa: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The wobblies.

Eryn: I love that he calls them wobblies.

[Laughter]

Eryn: So it sounds to me that aging is also perspective in the way that you … in how you accept it…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …You can accept it and be negative towards it and have negative self-talk towards it, almost become obsessive over it.

Elisa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Eryn: Or you can accept it and still be a good steward to your body, but knowing that it’s a container for all of the things that you’ve learned, the wisdom that you have the Holy Spirit residing in you. That’s so hard to accept. My grandma, she’s 92…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …She’s a go-getter…

Elisa: Yeah, she’s awesome…

Eryn: …And she’s just… Her accomplishments are so inspiring to me, as a young go-getter. And I still, to this day, can have conversations with her about … She’s sharp as a knife. She can talk about, you know, when she first met Ronald Reagan. And…and she can talk about, you know, policy and businesses and all these like fancy things. Anyway, …uh… I was… I’ve been caretaking for her.

Elisa: Mm.

Eryn: …And… cause she had a fall. She broke her shoulder, and she broker her arm. And I’ve been helping her just walk to the bathroom, make sure she doesn’t fall. …uh…

Elisa: Sure.

Eryn: …She can’t use her arm, so she can’t grab anything. And…

Elisa: Ah, yeah. She needs you.

Eryn: …She will say things about her… When she looks down at her hand, she’s like “Ugh! These are terrible!” [Laughing] You know she’ll say things like… like I had to help her with a bath. And she’s like “Ugh! This is what you have to look forward to…”

Elisa: Aww!

Eryn: …like you know, and she like says these like things that she’s just like “Ugh! Look at my body!” [Laughter] … And I’m just like, “Grandma, you’re still beautiful!” cause it’s… to me it is that she… I mean I know for her it’s different, cause she’s like, “I live in this!” And she’s like she knows what it used to be. And for me it’s beautiful cause it is the container of all of the wisdom that she continues to pour out and to share with me.

Elisa: But it’s hard, Eryn, and…and you’re right. And here’s one thing that…that I’m learning, and I’ve learned it from other people, is when we…we look at our diminishments — which I think is a gracious way to talk about the stuff that we don’t like…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …within our aging bodies — to actually thank them. Thank these parts, you know… I’ve never been pregnant. You’ve never been pregnant. We’ve talked about this, but, you know, as you…as you look at a woman’s body, we often look down at our abdomen and think Bleh! You know What hap…what are these stretch marks? And…and, instead of ugh-ing it, thanking them for being a place that brought forth life…

Eryn: Mm.

Elisa: …As you look at the age spots on your hands, thanking those hands for all the things they’ve carried. …eh… As we look for the…the wrinkles around our mouth, thanking them for the smiles, you know, and…and for the…the warmth that we’ve been able to give out to others. I read a… a book — I think it was Anne Lamott — talked about how much she disliked her thighs, her ”jiggly, wiggly, ugly thighs,” she called them. And she was in her 50s, I think, during the season she wrote this essay. And she called… She started calling them “the aunties” — or probably she called them the “onnties” [British accent?]. … [Laughter]… And she talked about one time she took the shuttle bus from the hotel where she was staying to the beach. And she just wore her one-piece swimsuit and some tennis shoes, and she didn’t cover up her ”aunties.” And she…

Eryn: I love that.

Elisa: …decided to look at them as this beloved set of old aunties who’d been in her life always, and had always been there for her, and loved her. And she just walked proudly with her aunties onto the beach, and then got back on the bus and went back home, unapologetic for their lumpy bumpiness and their wiggliness. And I just giggled, thinking about: What if we look at our aging bodies — whatever age you’re at, whether you’re at the pubescent What is this? stage, or you’re at the elderly stage of, you know, What is this stage? you know, you know, just going, Okay, but this is my body, and I thank you for being my life, being with me a hundred percent of my life — a hundred percent you’ve been there for me.

Eryn: I love what you’re saying, Elisa. It’s honoring. It’s…it’s just showing honor to your body by accepting and celebrating, instead of meeting your body with negative self-talk. I think that’s so empowering what she did. And I think, by her example, it empowers other women to want to do that too…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …instead of feeling ashamed for how our bodies are aging, it’s to feel empowered that This thing holds a lot of information and wisdom and experience. And somebody told me… I would talk about my smile lines. I was like, “By the time I’m 40, my eyeballs are gonna be drowning in my eyes, cause I have so many smile lines from my eye.”

Elisa: [Laughing] That’s awesome!

Eryn: And I…

Elisa: Drowning! I love it!

Eryn: [laughing] They’ll be drowning. And it’s like Can we see Eryn’s eyes? No. I have smile lines. And somebody told me, they said, “It’s just an example of how hard you pray.” [Laughing]

Elisa: Aw, that’s so sweet! I love that.

Eryn: And I started to just accept and receive it, instead of be like I need to… And I know some women do preventative care, and…

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Eryn: …and, again, I’m not at all judging that but…

Elisa: Yeah. Yeah.

Eryn: …I’m like I’m just gonna accept these little eyes and these little lines. And…and I love the… what somebody said, “It look…it’s that you’ve just…you’ve been in a season where you’ve prayed really hard.” Like, well…

Elisa: That’s precious.

Eryn: …I actually have…

Elisa: Have…

Eryn: …and I’m so glad these are a reflection of that. [Laughing]

Elisa: Yeah, that’s beautiful. That’s good.

Eryn: But is there somebody, cause I…I am so grateful to have you in my life, and to have a few other women that are just mentors and thought leaders and just women that have poured into me that are years ahead of me and taught me how to respond and…

Elisa: Mm. Mm-hmm.

Eryn: …how I’ve met this crossroads and this life experience. And I wouldn’t have been in this crossroads until I’m at this age. And…and so women have taught me things. Is there somebody in your life that you have had that modeled that for you? Or was it an absence of that, that made you passionate to speak into women and open doors for them, which I’d love to go into that, because your humility with what you’ve experienced in life, and how you pour into me, and how you also create opportunities for other women – you’re so openhanded with that. I’d love to kinda go into that. Has there been somebody, or has it been an absence of somebody for you?

Elisa: Yes. …  [Laughing] … Both!

Eryn: Yes and both?

Elisa: Yes, yes — yes and both! Yeah, that’s such a great question, Eryn. My best friend is ten years older than me, and you’d never know it, but she has modeled really well. Like I would be dismissive and a little degrading, talking about being old when I was younger…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …And she would just go “Hey, you know, you’re gonna be here. Don’t go too hard on that.” And, you know, she’ll…she was gentle with me, and she was also _______ to me, which I loved as well.

Eryn: Aw.

Elisa: But she has helped me, and she’s actually a survivor of cancer for like 15 years. So I’ve watched her really grapple with struggling with various physical challenges and, you know, and how heroic and brave she has been. And then I have another friend who’s about 15, 20 years older than me. And… and… and she’s been so gracious in her own right. She’s a business owner and entrepreneur, and …um… I didn’t know her as much in that season of her life, but she just turns around and encourages me as if whatever. So…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …so here’s what I think I want to say: There are stages of human development. Erik Erikson talks about these. He was a developmental psychologist. And to understand what challenges we’re facing in a given season are really helpful. It… I mean like maybe you’re looking way back, in infancy, it’s like the challenge of trust versus mistrust. Or then you get going into preschool, and initiative versus this hesitancy. And you keep going – adolescence identity is what you’re trying to work on, and then young adulthood, intimacy, how to form relationships. Okay, then middle adulthood is this growth and contribution to our world versus sitting on the back burner all the time.

Eryn: Mm. Yeah.

Elisa: And then maturity or “becoming an elder,” I’ve started calling it, is really an integrity of character, or depression and despair. Like my life matters, or it didn’t. So you can look those up later…

Eryn: Wow!

Elisa: …but…but it… We are naturally progressing through these psycho-social, if you will, stages. And so when I’m your age…

Eryn: This is so good.

Elisa: …I need to be working on intimate relationships. I need to be building. I need to be achieving. I need to be establishing. I need to be investing, you know, all of that. Then when you…you get a little bit older, I need to figure out how to give back…

Eryn: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: …like, for instance, in early later life – we’ll call it that – my goal is really to…to invest in everybody around me. And then as I get just a little bit older even than that, I need to divest of myself…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …you know and…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …and give it back to other people. So I think kind of legitimizing…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …the aging transitions really helps us embrace them. To give an example, I… I… I used to be like Oh, I want to be the star! I… I want to be the star! I’m built to be a star. God made me to be the star. And I was the…

Eryn: And this is what I’ve done with my life! Right? Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah. [Laughing]

Eryn: Right.

Elisa: But then, as I’ve gotten older, I really realize, No, I’m not here to be the star. I’m here to help you be the star. I’m here to help the next person in line. I’m going to open the door. I’m going to put my foot in it, and I’m going to keep …

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …my foot in it so the next woman coming after me has a leg up, a way to get in. And…and that’s my gifting now. And it’s not a depletion and a diminishment. It’s a gift. It’s an investment I get to make in the future.

Eryn: That’s it. It’s…it’s seeing it as it’s not a diminishment to what you have accomplished in the past, what you’ve achieved, but it’s a gift. And I think that’s where we can get hung up, cause I even notice myself with like, you know, I have 22-year-olds that will talk to me about… They’re just starting to dream about small businesses, and I have had to have a conversation with myself…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …My ego…

Elisa: Yes!

Eryn: …starts to get in the way…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …of me connecting and gifting to open up doors and to do introduce…introductions to emails, or whatever it may be because…

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: …because I’m like Well, who are you? All of a sudden, I start getting like this like weird jealous like…

Elisa: Uh-huh.

Eryn: …Is that what it is? Is it ego? Is it jeal… like when we’re met with that, cause it’s hard sometimes to recognize our offerings are actually gifts. And maybe it’s not our turn, you know, is what we kinda see it as…

Elisa: We need to have a whole ‘nother conversation about this, because it…it really is our understanding of power, you know. It’s our understanding of …

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …It’s kind of like we think that there is a limited amount of power, and if we share our power with somebody else, we’re going to lose power; when, in reality, power is what you call a zero-sum game. There’s all of it, all the time, for everybody…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: And that’s…that’s something you only grow to really understand with aging, you know, to understand that if I help you, it’s not going to deplete me. But it takes a long time to grasp that. When we’re younger, you know, only four people can be the cheerleader; or only one person can be the prom queen; or only one person can be the favorite daughter; or whatever it is we’ve been enmeshed and brainwashed into. Every single one of us is the apple of God’s eye. Every single human being He’s ever imagined into being is His favorite, adored, He would’ve died on the cross for person. And it…it takes growth to come into that realization, so my helping you experience – just put it this way – God’s love, is not going to diminish His love for me. You know that’s Oh, well, I get that. Okay…

Eryn: That’s good.

Elisa: …All right.

Eryn: That’s so good.

Elisa: Well then, my helping you experience your best-ness is not going to diminish my best-ness, is it?

Eryn: Mm-mm. I love that. And so the few things we’ve talked about is, you know, seeing your body as a vessel, and seeing it as the container for what you’ve experienced. And then being able to share your learnings and to pour in is also not a diminishment to ourselves, but accepting that we can give gifts to each other as we age.

Elisa: Exactly, and maybe be all about that. One of the things I’ve come to understand, and I’ve used this term, is we “become an elder” in our…truly our older age, you know, so…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: …60, 70, 80, 90, 100, you become an elder. That’s a lot of decades to invest. And, you know, I… In my first 65 years of life, I was all about achieving things, succeeding, you know, performing. And I don’t mean that in a tacky way. I mean it in let’s-get-things-done. How many books can I get written? How many of these talks can I give? Not just so I’m cool, but that’s where I wanted to invest myself. That’s where my giftings are. Okay? But my job now, as an elder, is to bless. It is to bless others. It is to call out God’s goodness in this world. It is to speak hope over the next generation and the next generation. It is to believe their best. It is to hold a mirror of hope up to them that they can look into it and gather strength for their own journey. How can I be a blessing? Not a [in a funny voice] “be a blessing.” No, truly bless the next generation.

[Theme Music]

Eryn: Thank you, Elisa, for sharing that wonderful wisdom with us. Aging doesn’t have to be something we look at with fear or disappointment. We can embrace God’s plans for us through every age.

Elisa: Exactly. Well, before we go, we want to remind you that the show notes are available in the podcast description. You can find that and more when you visit our website at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.o.r.g.

Eryn: Thank you for joining us, and don’t forget: God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.

[Music]

Elisa: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark. We also want to thank Diana and Mary for all of their help and support. Thanks everyone.

[ODB theme]

Eryn: God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.