"Embrace a new season of loveliness"

This heading quote is the ending sentence of Candice Watters post of May 15, 2017,  
Don't Hide Those Gray Hairs.  In this post she speaks of her grandmother, her mother, and then her own aging, and what her choice has become now. She speaks of the scriptures which she loves and how she began to biblically understand them:

Concerning Titus 2:3-5:
"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, 
not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, 
teaching what is good, so that they may encourage 
the young women to love their husbands, 
to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, 
kind, being subject to their own husbands, 
so that the word of God will not be dishonored."

In this passage she comments, 

"I've always loved this passage, wanting to be mentored by older women when I was younger, and looking forward to being the mentor when I got older.  

But if this gospel-adorning discipleship is going to happen, the older women must be willing to acknowledge that they are, in fact, older."

(Hehe...this made me giggle.)

I love the other scriptures she showcases such as Psalm 92:12-15
"The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of the Lord,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still yield fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and very green,
To declare that the Lord is upright;

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."

She comments is this passage that it gives her hope and purpose for the years which remain for her.

She encourages us all at the end of her post with

2 Corinthians4:16
"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, 
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."

About this she boldly states, 

"If you belong to Jesus, your 'inner self is being renewed day by day'.  

Let's spend ourselves for the younger women in our lives, 
looking beyond what is seen and temporary, 
to what is truly beautiful and eternal."

*And so very significant to me is her last statement:

"For the blood-bought woman, 
you're called to embrace 
a new season of loveliness 
the world will never understand." 

Thank you to Candice Watters.  Please check our her original post.

*

I have spoken before about my hair and how I seemingly cause a flurry when I am out in the world. I do not mean to do so, I am just me, but my simple hair seems to always be a topic among women.

It’s a funny thing.

My precious mother said to me once that I was born with blonde hair, but from seeing pictures I know that by my toddler age my hair had turned auburn brown.  I remember when my little sister was born with her very dark hair, and by the time she was a toddler her hair was quite blonde. It is a funny thing.

Another reason it is funny is that my hair began to have silver in it by 25 years old.  That just seemed too young to have gray hair, especially because I had listened and believed the advertising campaigns while I was growing up which said to 'me' that 25 was so young - that your life is just beginning.

Fast forward 4 decades and my ever growing silver is turning back to blonde.   

I grew up barely fitting in to my peer group, and in adulthood I definitely know I do not fit in.  

My long hair (my preference) has “bothered” the countless women I have known, but when I began to have silver throughout my head, I know so many were affected by it.  

No one has ever said, "oh, look at your hair" etc, but some women just begin to say to each other comments such as, 

“my husband won't let me have gray hair because he says it makes him look like he has an old wife.”  This comment hurt me so, for her sake, as she was a pastor’s wife.  -Real nice guy.

Other comments I have heard because of my hair were in general about how these certain women “couldn’t stop” coloring their hair “now”, or that they would fight to the end not to “look old”.  Many, many feel they "must" do so for their husbands (true or not).

The most significant thing about my own hair and my own hair color is that other women through time have been, to whatever degree, offended by my choice to just be.

Proverbs 16:31
"A gray head is a crown of glory;

It is found in the way of righteousness."

And for our men:

Proverbs 20:29
"The glory of young men is their strength,

And the honor of old men is their gray hair."

*Sisters in Christ, let us be encouraged by all of God's Word, let us be thankful for who we are no matter what our age, and let us embrace each new season of loveliness because of what our Savior has done for us.  

His Precious Blood.