I’ve noticed something about men and women as we grow older—while our husband’s testosterone levels drop, so too do our estrogen levels. While our husbands start to slow down, our lowering hormone levels that made us want to cozy up the nest for decades, now make us speed up, grow more confident, downright assertive in many cases. How many of us ladies in our forties, fifties, even our sixties, start new enterprises, take up demanding responsibilities in the community or our church?
At the start of my fifties I began my long-desired writing and speaking career, and while things were challenging, God gave me the strength to rise to that challenge, and I thoroughly enjoyed reaching those long-sought-after goals. Oh my, I felt fulfilled. I was woman. I was strong. I was the Proverbs 31 gal, like many of us are.
But fifteen years after the fact, I also discovered that it was hard to shoehorn leisure time into my schedule. When was the last time I relaxed, took a day off? Sometimes months would go by.
This past spring it dawned on me that my dear husband was suffering from loneliness due to my extremely busy schedule. The wrongness of this hit me between the eyes. Something had to change. But what?
I was scheduled to do a bunch of speaking engagements on Vancouver Island in June, and off we went. At least my husband had the opportunity to travel with me and we enjoyed that.
While I chatted with various ladies during my speaking engagements that week, it was as if I ran into two different sets of women. Six of one and half a dozen of the other, you might say. The first group warmly reminisced about the wonderful holidays they had camping with their husbands over the years.
The other group shared that quite recently their husbands had passed away, unexpectedly, suddenly, and all these dear husbands were around the age of sixty.
This too hit me between the eyes. My husband was sixty. On the way home from that speaking trip I felt the question echo in my mind. What was I waiting for? The Lord encouraged me to take time to go away camping with my husband. That week we purchased a brand new little travel trailer.
On our first trip in July we drove through the majestic Canadian Rockies, and at the summit of Roger’s Pass I noticed a large artillery gun. I asked my husband why on earth that was there, and he explained that avalanche control experts shot artillery shells into the snowcaps to trigger avalanches. They did this to carefully control the snows from building too high and thick and thereby causing a fatal avalanche.
I mulled this over and compared that to the changes I was making in my life. My marriage had to come first, even at the expense of my writing and speaking ministry. So, like the avalanche control experts, I chose to cut back on my writing so I could spend more togetherness time with my husband.
My little novelette Heavenly Haven is the culmination of all that thinking. I hope and pray that my characters, Jack and Shaina, will inspire you to keep your priorities in line as well.
A woman’s work can and must stop at times. God insists we take time to rest with Him. He also wants us to keep our priorities in line. Take heart from the story of Mary and Martha from Luke chapter 10, NIV.
“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’”
‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”
Thank you so much for being here today, Christine. Readers, check out Christine's novella Heavenly Haven:
Avalanches happen to other people, not us. Marital problems happen to other people, not us, especially nine days before Christmas. At least that’s what Jack and Shaina Burke thought.
Married for ten years, avalanche control expert Jack, and Shaina, only wanted to celebrate their December anniversary in a romantic way, until the shifting snows on the mountain bring havoc tumbling down upon them.
Heavenly Haven is available as an Ebook on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Kobo.
Christine Lindsay would love to connect with you on her website www.ChristineLindsay.com,
or drop by her blog for inspiration www.ChristineLindsay.org
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