Last week I called my mom.
I said, “Mom, we really miss you and want to see you soon!”
She said, “Jill, I’d love to come visit, but I need to check my calendar.
I’ve got so much going on with back-to-back trips and all kinds of speaking events on my schedule.”
Mom just turned 82 in August.
Apparently, she never bought into the lie that her best days were behind her.
I was in Fredericksburg, Virginia, this past weekend and witnessed a 13-year-old girl named Faith sing to a crowd of over 1,000 women with a boldness that left us all in tears with her God-given talent. She is a testament that age absolutely does not define effectiveness.
We behave how we believe, and if we believe we are too old or too young to be used mightily, then we start living that way. Little by little, it begins to seep into our confidence, and that insecurity slowly buries the very thing we were called to use to influence and impact others.
Because this season doesn’t look like the past, don’t convince yourself that the glory days are over or that your usefulness has peaked.
Do you really want to hit the stop button just because you turned a new decade?
Do you really want to stay asleep until your time on earth is complete?
Wouldn’t you rather be alive with HOPE that you have not yet lived your very best season?
I want to look FORWARD to better things.
Otherwise, I will create a mental time machine and sit in the past.
There is nothing NEW in the past.
The only thing in the past is your memories.
The new, fresh, and BETTER is in the future.
Whether you are 13 or 82, a stay-at-home mom with little ones, or have retired for 30 years; your effectiveness is UNLIMITED when you choose to walk fully in your current season. Not your past ones.
Lastly, and this point needs its own blog post, if you are on social media, the number of followers or subscribers you have doesn’t determine your reach. Nor do the number of people in your church, club, or team. You could impact just ONE person who may change millions of lives or entire generations to come.
When you start believing your life is in front of you instead of behind you, you start behaving differently. And that behavior unlocks previously closed doors when you get out of your own way and cease the self-defeating thoughts you have allowed to permeate your mind.
May you begin to live uninhibited by numbers.
May you refuse to be held down by the chains of age or amount of followers.
And in that freedom, you will discover a new hope that your BEST days, weeks, months, and decades are in front of you.
