It's our 10th anniversary today, and my husband is out of town on business.

Oh, I'm not complaining.  We've been celebrating since New Year's Eve, which was the 10th anniversary of our meeting.  Everything has been a reminder of our short and fabulous courtship, engagement and walk down the aisle, these past seven months.  

"10 years ago today we met... 10 years ago we first talked on the phone... 10 years ago today you flew back into town to see me again... 10 years ago today you took me to a Mexican restaurant and a waitress passing by our table dropped a glass of wine in your lap... 10 years ago today you kissed me for the first time... 10 years ago this weekend I realized I loved you,,, 10 years ago today we started planning our wedding..."  It's a fabulous short story, one I may regale you with some other day, but not tonight.

Tonight I want to tell you about the marvelous gift I just received, even though Matt wasn't here this evening. You see, I decided to go out and celebrate anyway!  I got ahold of a friend I've tried getting together with forever, I booked a babysitter, and dolled myself up for a fun night out.  Now what makes this friend unusually special is that her children are 19 and 21.   Which means she's walked this road of marriage and children longer than I have. What better gift could I get on our 10th wedding anniversary than to spend time with a woman who I can glean wisdom from to help me make it gracefully through the next 10 years? 

...older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."  (Titus 2:4-5)

First of all let me say that I'm very nervous she's going to read this blog and sputter, "d, d, d, d... did she j, j, j, j... just c, c, c, c... call me an 'older woman'?"  

Let's face it, our generation needs a fresh definition and picture of what "older women" look like.  I have wonderful friends with whom I share this crazy season of life, though not many who have already survived it.   "Older women" are the ones who have already lived through (at least some of...) what we are still struggling with.

We need ladies in our lives sharing stories of what life was like for them in the early years of marriage and child rearing.  

We need ladies with Jr. High, High School, and adult children to grab hold of our hands and encourage us along the way.  

We need women to tell us how they learned to communicate with their husbands.

We need ladies to share how they learned to fit themselves slowly back into their lives, after so many years of laying themselves down for their young families.  

I need women to model for me love, service, purity, and submission.  

I want to see what supporting a husband as he builds his career looks like.

I need to see first-hand how a woman can turn to Jesus on a daily basis, in the midst of her busy family life.

Tonight I got a glimpse of some of these things.  What better anniversary gift could I have recieved?  I'm built up and ready for another 10 years!  Though I hope I won't have to wait till then to get another night out with an "older woman."

If you are wondering where to find such a friendship, or tired of waiting for a mentor-friend to come into your life, don't wait any longer.  Find a lady who has walked the road you are on and start being a friend to her.  The women's ministry director at my church once encouraged a group of new moms to get out there and be a friend to "older women", rather than waiting for one to reach out to us.  She said, "Intimacy happens when just one person says "In-to-me-see" (intimacy) and the other lady responds back "In-to-me-see", and thus begins a friendship."  When we find someone who is wise and loving and kind, reach out to her.  Be a good friend.  And let her see into you... before you know it she will let you see into her life as well.  And what a gift that is.