apparently i still have a year.
but here is what i want you to know, my sweet girl {and any other girl out there reading this}.
there is true beauty in growing old gracefully.
every second of every day the world will bombard you with lies about how to stay young and beautiful. the world will tell you that you must wear this or do this or look like this in order to be beautiful.
hog wash.
don't you believe it for a second.
your mama spent way too much time believing that garbage. i feasted on it. i believed every word of cosmo magazine, as if my very life depended on it.
but the Bible tells us truth. and truth gives us the freedom to exhale. to stop sucking in our stomachs. to stop striving to be the women we see on tv or in magazines.
the Bible shows us how to be the women we were designed to be. women who aren't afraid of growing older. women who don't put much stock in what to wear or how to look.
i'd much rather be a woman who fears The Lord.
if, by the time you get to be my age, and you worry about your stomach not being washboard flat. and your legs look a tad thicker than sticks. and you have signs of wrinkles around your mouth and eyes. and, despite your best efforts to stay your natural hair color, you still find a stray gray here and there.
remember this, my sweet girl.
your belly, the one that is a little fluffier than before, stretched tight over a miracle for nine months, providing a safe home until life was ready to burst forth. your legs, that aren't designed to wear short anything, are perfect for running in the yard and chasing bubbles. they are the perfect size for flying high small toddlers. and those wrinkles around your eyes and mouth are beauty marks; signs of a life lived full of smiles and laughter. be proud of those signs of joy. and those gray hairs. well, grab the nearest tweezers and pluck it right out. then, celebrate the fact that you have regular appointment with your stylist. not because you are vain, but rather you enjoy the time to chat with other women and the time to just sit in a chair, read a book and not have anywhere else to be for that moment. we women have to schedule that time into our lives.
grow old gracefully. after all, each day that we are blessed to live is a grace gift from the giver of all good gifts. it is another chance to shine His glorious light into the lives around us. another gift to spread the gospel and proclaim his great name.
never fear growing older. never dread a single birthday. for each new year brings an abundance of gifts.
why would you still want to look 20something when you are in your mid-thirties?
i'd much rather look like a woman who has laughed and cried and danced and given birth to a miracle. to look like a woman who relishes every chance she is given to praise Him.
that's the sign of true beauty, my girl.
so today, as it marks another year older for your mama, i'm going to rise up, clothe myself in strength and dignity. throw my head back and laugh {really laugh, i may even snort}. i'm going to focus more on my inner adornment, my spirit, and less on how the world sees me. my God sees my heart, not my outfit. or the number on the scale.
grow old gracefully, sweet girl. there is where you find true beauty.
'however many years one may live, let him enjoy them all.'
ecclesiastes 11:8
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