Growing Old Gracefully (True Confessions)

Growing Old Gracefully (True Confessions)

Why is it a lot of time we don’t know what we have when we have it, until we lose it?  When I was younger I thought of myself as a “Plain Jane”, a “Wall Flower”.  I was not among the most “popular” girls in high school.  As I proceeded into my 20s, I found myself a mom and wife, it was my “life’s dream”.

Even after children I still had that great figure (but was not conscious of it at the time). I continued to think of myself as “below average” in the looks department.  Always sizing myself up, comparing myself to others, thinking I’m still that “wall flower”.  This way of thinking continued through my 30s.

I hit 40 and life was changing, a divorce, children grown, and a new phase in life for sure. However my self-image continued to be unchanged. Until one day I was sharing with a friend my feelings of my poor self image.  They spoke to me with words of encouragement and suggested having some fun with a photo session. Can I just say “WOW”, to my amazement the woman who was in the pictures surely could not have been me, could it? She was beautiful! Finally after 40 yrs of a bad self image, I began to see myself in a “different light”. All those years I spent downing on myself, not pretty, too this, too that etc etc… and now my eyes were open. Not only was I beginning to see the beauty inside, but also the beauty outside.

Now I find myself in my 50s, and oh boy times have changed.  Unfortunately my poor self-image has returned.  With my aging process has come; aches, pains, and adult asthma, all of which has caused a bit of slowing down, add to that grey hair and I’ve also discovered way too many extra pounds on this small framed body (something I have NEVER struggled with before). 

In today’s society we have the “thin, young, flawless” women thrown in our faces every time we turn on the TV, look in magazines or see bill boards as we drive down the road.  Where are the “real women”?  

I KNOW I’m not the only woman out there that deals with this problem.  I ask myself: “how do I grow old gracefully”?  I know it has to come from within me, within my heart and mind, to look at what God has to say about it. However I have not be able to “grab hold” of that solution and apply it. I need to see myself in that “different light” again, this time accepting with grace, the gift God has given me, and that is the gift of life, be that life, young or old.

^{Psalm 139: 14} I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
   your works are wonderful, I know that full well.