Where are All the Aunts?
Yes, that’s right—on this International Women’s Day, I’m looking for some older women in my life. With only two blood relatives in that category—God bless them—I need a few more to call “aunt.” Everybody does! Do you mind? Oh, does it make you feel old? Or you don’t want to make me to feel too young…or heaven forbid, like a child?
On the contrary. Whatever your age or mine, I’ll gladly listen to whatever you want to share with me. Learn everything you want to teach. At 60, I’d be delighted to discover another treasure like the wonderful women who encouraged me when I was a teen and then a new wife, mother, and missionary. And I’d be honored to share anything I can that might be of value to you.
In Chile, everybody calls the older ladies tías—“aunties”—and it doesn’t mean you’re old, just older. While the bedridden 90-year-old may seem old to me, my teenaged daughter is old to her Sunday school students. I’m tía to my daughters’ friends, and thank the Lord I can claim some tías of my own.
The point is, you need both older women and younger women in your life, and we’re all the older woman for somebody. The Apostle Paul charged those who are wiser and more mature to reach and teach the others (Titus 2:3-5). How I need them! How I need to be one!
“Children have more need of models than critics.” –Joubert
How many nieces do you have? I just counted a total of 25 nieces/stepnieces between my husband and me. (Then there’s the 12 nephews, not to neglect the boys.) I love talking to them all. To be sure, with that many and living in South America as I do, I don’t know them all as well as I’d like. That’s why I adopt more wherever I go.
And I pray for them. I’ve been blessed with great riches and I need to re-invest, as my aunts (both the DNA matches and the DIY mentors) did in my life. This post would stretch into screen after screen if I recounted all they’ve done for me, but among other lessons, these amazing women taught me:
- How to enjoy life’s simple pleasures
- How to show gratitude for God’s daily blessings
- How to share generously out of scarcity or abundance
- How to offer quiet words of cheer and inspiration
- How to continue learning into old age
- How to express kindness and warm welcome
- How to balance work and home
One of my goals in Seaglass Blog is to connect with and inspire other women. In fact, my Diana Delacruz persona is an aunt writing the family stories as a legacy for the next generation. Not as a rambling crab railing about “today’s youth,” but as a caring sister out to make an impact by shining rather than shaming.
God can transform your family, beginning with your generation, as you model love for God, commitment to His truth, and joy along His way. Welcome to the glory of living godly womanhood together. You can call me Aunt Diana, and I don’t care how corny it sounds.
Thanks Diana for sharing the importance of Aunts in our lives. I have several Aunts and Great Aunts that have been significant in my life in so many ways and I hope that my role as Aunt, Great Aunt and now Great Great Aunt within the family will be a positive one. So too, with the many friendships I have with women both younger and older than myself. May we all be the positive influence in the lives we touch short-term and long-term.
Yes, what a blessing the older women have been to me (including those from my husband’s family!) I too hope to be remembered as a positive role model. Thanks, Heather, for who YOU have been in the lives of others.