Happy Birth Day!

"Will you be my mentor?" she asked timidly, biting her lip.

I have loved my spiritual daughters through dating, marriage, childbearing and child raising. I have loved them through the difficult opportunities brought on by disease, poverty, broken bones, broken engagements, war, divorce, mental illness, prison stays and widowhood. I have loved them through the celebratory opportunities of engagements, weddings, missions, birthdays, singlehood, answered prayers, fame and riches.

I have prayed for daughters on 6 of the 7 continents and have one now who is dreaming of research in Antarctica. (And, no, I don't think I would visit her very often!) I've discovered the easiest lessons to teach are housekeeping and cooking while the most difficult to teach are faithfulness to committments and preparation for death.

The sacrifices are huge, beyond measure and frequent. The rewards are huge, beyond measure and frequent. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I take my motivation and committment from a single man, the apostle Paul. It's a life committment, a father/son relationship through thick and thin that he offers Timothy. It's neither temporary nor easy, but it's wonderful.

Younger women are frustrated by the lack of older women who are busy with the jobs, hobbies, and activities they are able to enjoy in later years...older women who have known Father for decades, kept house, raised children and learned from life and marriage.

Older women confide their frustations. They would love to mentor someone, but nobody has ever asked them. What I know is this: The younger women are in their bedrooms crying, lost, hoping for a miracle that you will find them, love them, teach them. Be brave and compassionate enough to seek them.

If you are a woman who is seeking to love God with all your soul, then you are old enough and wise enough to teach a younger woman, to love her. Look for her. Find her. She's praying for a miracle. She may have been praying for you to come since she was a very little girl. She needs a spiritual mother. She needs you.

I looked deep into her big brown eyes, so hopeful, so trusting, so young. Her heart was wide open. So was mine. I didn't know her very well, yet I already loved her, wanted her. My heart tugged and I pulled her into my embrace. I watched as tender tears began to fill her eyes and, holding her face in my hands, I smiled at my newborn.

Congratulations, it's a girl! Happy Birth Day!