If you are a woman in midlife have not passed your “Best Used By” Date! Here’s why.

Perishable food items will come stamped with a “best used by” date. It’s not a hard expiration date but it is considered to be the product’s prime.

I have two refrigerators. When someone in my family is looking for something, I will say “kitchen ‘fridge” or “back fridge”. Every once in a while, I have to schedule a cleanout of that back fridge.

Most of the stuff in there is a backup for what we use most. An extra orange juice, bulky produce that was on the meal planning list, the 12-pack of La Croix, stuff like that. There are also the condiments and opened jars of olives, sauces, and such that don’t get used on the daily.

When things have been in there for a good while, I need to check the “Best Used By” date.

Ever feel like your “Best Used By” date has passed you by?

I believe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that life is an ongoing journey. Even when we die it is a new beginning! We do not have an expiration date. Where did we get the notion that at some point we are not culturally relevant or needed? Who is to tell us we are too old, too late, too out of touch, too whatever…? You don’t need to listen to that opinion. God does not describe retirement, expiration, or irrelevance; in fact, he promotes the opposite.

We all feel, deep down, that there is something more we are called to do.

Unfortunately, you often let the voices of the past or your nay-sayers in the present talk you out of what you know in your gut.

I especially see this in women that I have talked to that are in transition and moving into a new season in their life. You want to feel competent and just when you feel like you have figured out the game and you are playing it well, the rules change. Isolation from a pandemic. A company downsizes or a closure you didn’t expect. Divorce, scandal, death, and crisis without warning leave you scrambling to define your new normal. Kids grow up and move out and you are feeling a little lost and useless.

Just like the back refrigerator, your life needs a good cleanout. The things that are expired- no longer fit your current season- need to go. What is in the back corner that has been overlooked, (or stuffed behind intentionally) that needs to be dealt with? Get excited about the fresh ingredients that will stock your shelves for your new life recipes.

If you are in a transition, for whatever reason, and feel out of control; here are some steps you can take to clean out the old to make room for the new:

EVALUATE, CLEAN OUT OR REFRESH

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