Shirley W. Mitchell is known as a "Lace Over Steel™" Woman. What is a "Lace Over Steel™" Woman? A Woman who has a positive outlook towards "Ageless Living"! Shirley's Passion and Faith equals her Glow in Spirit - a Life-Long Committment to The Teachings of Experience. A Deep Creativity to Empower those to Reach for the Stars by Sharing Their Life Experiences, Defy Expectations and to Help Transform Every Stage of Their Lives. To Stimulate their Passion, Dreams, Faith, to Achieve the Greatest Return and Ignite the Spirit Within. With a writing career spanning over 40 years, Shirley W. Mitchell's amazing life now encompasses being the Author of Five books, Co-Author of Three books, an On-Line Syndicated Column, On-Line Newsletter, Two weekly Syndicated Radio Shows, and an On-Line System consisting of 25 Websites, 13 BLOGS, and membership in over 21 Social Sites. She has Five more books in the process, with two of those coming out soon. In the early years, Shirley wrote for, or had articles published in Progress, Christian Life, Sonlite Gospel, The Messenger, The Shantyman, Mature Living, plus several other publications. The articles and information within this Site will hopefully be an inspiration, motivation and remembrence of Life Experience for our viewers.

The Shantyman, Founded in 1923, is published bi-monthly by Shantymen International, Shantymen's Christian Association of U.S.A. 2476 Argentia Road, Suite 213 Mississauga, Ontario L5N 6M1. Arthur C. Dixon, Editor-in-Chief; Margaret Sharpe, Managing Editor and Inge Tysoe, Technical Consultant.

God's Ageless Woman November-December 1995 Vol. 71 Num. 6 - God's Ageless Woman © by Shirley W. Mitchell, The Shantyman Riding my bike down the rocky path to the barn, my long brown hair streaming behind in the wind. I could feel my fertilizer bag dress flapping against my bony knees, I was fifteen years old, but I knew in my mind that I was a child of the King  Why? The night before, in the silence of my heart and the silence of my bedroom, I had said yes to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Though I was wearing a dress I had sewed myself, from colorful primed fertilizer bags retrieved from the cotton fields, I embraced a feeling of royalty. Now, forty years later, as I write, this reality is indelibly imprinted in my mind. I live with the luxury of knowing that I am a member of the roval family of God! The secret to being fabulous after fifty comes with being "born again" into the royal family of God - as a believer, and as a child of the King. You can jump deeper into life with great anticipation, even if you are fifty years young, by nurturing an intimate relationship with God's Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the life preserver who will save you from sinking into the sea of aging, and empower you to swim victoriously with the hope of eternal life. I locked in my mind the hope of eternal life while attending a small country church with my family. Each year the members of Mt. Vernon Church were revived spiritually while emphasis was placed on the importance of being born again. Returning home from one of these services, I felt an urgency to secure my soul for eternity with Christ. We lived on a cotton farm in a square white house, with four equal rooms, built by my dad in the middle of the potato patch. That hot August night, while I was lying in my small stuffy bedroom, I felt the minister's words like a laser beam burning through my mind. He had proclaimed from the pulpit: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16 KJV). The minister assured me that the blood of Jesus would wash me white as snow. An Old Testament prophet said: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be like wool (Isaiah 1:18 KJV). In the silence of my bedroom and in the silence of my heart, I said yes to Jesus. In my mind, I saw white snow and white wool. I knew my life had been cleansed. There were no scarlet sins staining my life. My sins had been covered by the blood of Jesus, forever! If I died before morning, I knew I would go directly to heaven to heaven to be with Jesus, and live forever. This is the secret to being fabulous after fifty. You need to know the Spirit of God living inside you, to know God, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide, teach and comfort you. Peggy Noonan, author of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, speaks for the baby boomer of the twenty-first century. As a speech writer for former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, she went back to her Bible. In her book she gives optimistic advice: ... "give your love and know your God and do your work. And be good to your troupe, all those people who give your life meaning." Peggy Noonan has cut to the core of the search for true successful aging.  We get to know God through reading His living Word, through praying, and spending time with Him. We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this wild, mean world without knowing intimately God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God created the earth. He made you and me for His pleasure. "Tho art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created"...Rev. 4:11 KJV When we disregard God, and the study of His Word, we stumble and blunder  around with no sense of direction. Without God you and I will waste our lives and lose our souls. What would you lose if you said yes to Jesus? Nothing! What would you gain? Abundant and eternal life.

The Gift of Love May-June 1996 Vol. 72 Num. 3 - The Gift of Love © by Shirley W. Mitchell, Shantyman The slow drip of the IV nourished and medicated my father as he lay, seemingly lifeless, on the sterile white hospital bed. Like a crown of glory, his white hair blended into the white pillow. Staring at the frail form on the bed, I couldn't believe that in his prime my dad weighed 200 pounds. I watched from a chair in the corner of the dimly lit room and remembered his younger, stronger body. My dad always had excellent posture. He walked with an aura of confidence until a stroke slowed his pace. The dim bleak mood of the hospital room changed with a mental flashback of Dad's sweeping me off the ground in his hard, strong arms as I whirled around him when I was 10. Prancing around a wagon pulled by a tractor, filled with a prized possession, my piano, I ran happily, giggling. Moving my piano from my grandparents' home next door to our new home, a house my dad built with his own sweat and labor, was a thrill for a 10-year-old piano student. My dad cut down trees from our farm for the lumber. He ordered a sawmill from the Sears Roebuck Catalog so that he could saw the lumber. We worked in the cotton fields to make the payments on the land each year. The four-room house, built in the middle of a potato patch, gave him a great feeling of accomplishment. My parents were cotton farmers and had to make every penny count. That I could own a piano and take lessons was a miracle that I thought could only be by Divine providence, brought to life by parents who dreamed and planned to make it happen. The highlight of my week came each Saturday morning when I walked two miles to my cherished piano lesson. This morning, moving my precious piano to our new home preceded even piano lessons in importance. My dad, driving the tractor that pulled the wagon, failed to see the root of an old oak tree sticking up a few inches above the ground. The wagon hit the root with one wheel, dislodging the massive old upright piano. It bounced out onto the hard ground and rolled over and over, breaking into a thousand splinters. The magnitude of my loss sank deep into my soul. I ran, screamed, and cried. My dad caught me, picked me up in his strong arms, and hugged me to him as I beat upon his broad shoulders with my small clenched fists. "You broke my piano!" I screamed into his ear. He held my trembling body firmly to his bosom until I stopped sobbing. His big, green eyes looked deeply into my bewildered, dark brown ones. His face was sad, but he said, "Before I die, I will buy you a new piano." A decade went by and another. I moved into a new home with my husband and three children. One day the doorbell rang. A piano salesman introduced himself. "Your dad has paid for any piano you would like," he said, handing me a catalog filled with all kinds of pianos. Through my tears I selected my favorite. I love playing my piano. My children learned to play on it, and now my grandchildren touch the ivory keys. That piano occupies a special place in my living room and a special place in my heart. This special place in my heart is filled with sadness, because my dad now has a new home in heaven. The sadness is for me, because I miss him. Though I am a member of the sandwich generation of the 1990s, caregiver for my parents, and have a large family of my own, losing an earthly father leaves a big hole in my life that can only be filled by my Heavenly Father. I'm glad I know Him intimately. Faith in God is an oasis of peace surrounded by the swirling sands of time. (same article on Mature Living Page)

November-December 1996 Vol. 72 Num. 6 - The Winds of Change © by Shirley W. Mitchell, The Shantyman The name on the hospital room door read "Jane Smith". Preparing herself to encourage this patient, the chaplain walked confidently into the room. Jane Smith, with poignant eyes, looked at the chaplain's feet and stated, "I like your shoes." The chaplain, moved with empathy for a woman who had just experienced the amputation of both legs, said, "I can't imagine what it must be like not to have any legs!" This statement opened a floodgate of feelings. The chaplain pulled up a chair so as to be at eye level with Jane. She listened intently to all this hurting woman needed and wanted to say. She shared in her pain, and the Spirit of love enveloped the room, driving out the dark cloud of despair. God is love, and He loves perfectly. Perfect love comforts and forgives us. Perfect love motivates us to bloom into our full potential. Perfect love brings out the best in us. Perfect love never fails. God came through this chaplain to embrace Jane with His warm arms of love. He loved Jane perfectly, and He loves you and me perfectly. Talking to God, I envision myself as a little girl crawling up into my daddy's lap. I pray, "Abba (which means "Daddy"), Father, take me into your bosom through the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus makes me pure for true communication with my heavenly Father, (rod wraps His warm arms of love around me, pulls me into His bosom, where I feel loved and safe. I can tell Him anything and He understands, because He knows more about me than I know myself. I ask God to orchestrate my life. I have faith He knows what is best for me; therefore, I trust Him with my life. My God, who created me and the universe, is not some mystical being. God is real. He is approachable. He is always there. 1 don't just know about Him. I am intimate with Him. As a graduate of The Dale Carnegie Course, I have learned to live in "day-tight" compartments. In a nutshell, this means recognizing that yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow may never come, but today is a present. Live it to the fullest. God is teaching me to live in moment-tight compartments with Him. I only have to deal with the moment, and He will be there with me. Knowing God intimately is crucial to positive aging. Knowing Him gives you and me wings to soar through our maturing life. The great I AM - the God of the Bible - will empower us to grow with vigour and with style, not clinging to youth, but anticipating new beginnings as life unfolds. I am reminded of Joni Eareckson Tada, who has turned a tragedy in her life into positive exuberant living. Though paralysed from the neck down since she was eighteen, Joni is an artist. She paints by holding pastel pencils or a paintbrush between her teeth. She praises God for the gift He has given her. Though her neck muscles often ache from hours of painting, she thanks God for the strength and stamina to continue. Each year Joni designs a Christmas card and markets it throughout the world. The painting on her 1994 cards was called The Saviour of the World. Holding a brush between her teeth, Joni painted packages under a Christmas tree, with the word JESUS spelled with children's building blocks. She wrote on the back of the card: Imagine the joy of a little child playing with his new alphabet blocks on Christmas morning. He carefully places the letters to read JESUS. And there, underneath the tree with the rest of the packages, a child reminds us of the greatest gift of all As I rendered this drawing, holding the pastel pencils between my teeth, the joy of Jesus welled within my heart. What a gift He is! Joni's art inspires many people to do as much as they can with their limitations. She encourages people to do things they can do. Let's take Joni's example and believe that anything is possible with God. He never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and for ever (Hebrews 13:8). Knowing that God never changes empowers His people to embrace life each moment, to live passionately and usefully from here through to eternity. Life brings many changes, particularly for people over fifty - an empty nest after many busy years of raising a family; the loss of a spouse by death or divorce; the loss or change of a career; becoming a grandparent - all these changes affect us emotionally, physically and spiritually. The only safe place from which to face the changes in our lives is in the centre of God's perfect will. If you know Him and trust Him, then you can face tomorrow with anticipation. Participate in the dance of change. If the winds of change are blowing you into new territory, count it all an adventure. This is the time to stretch and grow. Dare to embrace change and dream big. God, through His perfect love, renews us day by day. Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. II Corinthians 4:16,17

Shirley W. Mitchell is the Owner and Founder of Ageless Living™ - a Motivational, Inspirational and Educational Company located in Northern Alabama providing products and services related to Organizing and Conducting Educational Conferences, Classes, Symposiums, Seminars, Workshops, Speeches and Training Courses in the fields of Aging, Seniors, Senior Lifestyles, Health, Wellness, Nutrition, Generational Women and Men's Issues, Faith, Passion and Purpose, and Distribution of Materials including Multimedia Audio, Video, CD, DVD, Books, Newsletters, Journals, Magazines, Articles, Periodicals, Electronic Books, and other Written and Audio Publications. Ms. Mitchell and Ageless Living™ are managed and represented by Lighthouse Coastal Productions. ***Copyright © and Trademark ™ Notice: 1967-2011 All Works, Venues and Content by Shirley W. Mitchell™ including "The Golden Egg of Aging™", "The Fabulous Author™", "Fabulous after 50®", "Fabulous after Fifty™", "Fabulous Women Over 50™", "Sensational after 60®", "Sensational after Sixty™", "Sensational Women Over 60™", "Aging Outside the Box®", "Christian Spiritual Sparks™", "Passionate Sparks™", "Spiritual Sparks for Busy Women™", "Lace Over Steel™", "Ageless Living™", "Endless Energy™", "Better Half of Life™", "Citrus Park™", "Crosstown Info™", "The Amazing System™" and "Aging with Glamour™"are © Copyright and ® Trademark protected*** No part of this Web-Site or Column may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the Agent. If you would like to purchase copies of the articles, please send an E-Mail to us with your request. If you should encounter any problems with this Web-Site please E-Mail the Webmaster - Agent @ lighthousecoastal.com. Shirley W. Mitchell and Ageless Living™ is Managed and Represented by Lighthouse Coastal Productions and Lighthouse News Bureau 466 Sardis Cutoff Road Sardis City, AL 35956