The older woman

On being a fruitful tree in “late autumn” | Andrée Seu

The older woman" is the target of a twin cultural broadside: the stereotyped battle-ax of a whole industry of mother-in-law greeting cards, and the taboo seductress. Mammy Yokum of L'il Abner or Mrs. Robinson of The Graduate.

The Bible takes a different view. Older women are to "train the young women" (Titus 2:4). There is an expectation of progress in the Christian life, not just a treading of water till Christ returns: "And we . . . beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18). "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord" (2 Peter 3:18).

Someday, in spite of all your tummy tucks, liposuction, organic food offensives, and fitness workouts, someone will walk up to you and say, as a woman said to me last Sunday: "Would you be willing to mentor me?" And then you will realize that the jig is up: You are officially an "older woman." When that happens, I hope you will have better things to say than the stuttering disclaimers I use to recuse myself. You will not want to be one of those "fruitless trees in late autumn" (Jude 12).