photo: iStock_000007447445
Gray hair is a crown of glory;
it is gained in a righteous life.
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.Proverbs 16:31-32
No, I don’t take literally that my hair has to be the color gray! When this book was written, there was no choice when a person was old. It is a literary way of describing old age. Back then, it was rare…expecially for women! Child birth was hard on women…and babies! So were the first two years of life for children and all the infections they faced.
We take our good health for granted these days. We critique the side effects of antibiotics and vaccines but they have saved so many lives that we don’t even think about what life was like when there were few old people and the deaths of mothers and children were commonplace!
Interesting juxtaposition of these two verses:
a long, righteous life and control of anger
Isn’t it interesting that these two verses are together? The idea that a person can control her anger and living a long life? If we can control our anger in healthy ways ie. not carrying it around in the form of resentment, we won’t have problems with exploding at others, getting in fights, to say nothing of murder and some of the more overt expressions of anger!
Do you look on those who have become old because of a
righteous life, with honor?
Do you treat them with honor?
Are you learning to “rule your spirit” as GOD enables you?
Do you listen and obey the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit as
He helps you rule your spirit?
I’m glad you pointed out the fact that women during that time faced so many threats to their health and lives. You’re right…under those circumstances gray hair would be rare. I spent the day with a friend and we’re both almost 50. We took a picture together and remembered the ones taken as teens. We’ve been friends a long time and the years have been gracious to us both but the truth is… we’re getting older. All I could do was give God praise for every day, every year. Not fully gray yet but I’ll rejoice when I am.
we do take our age for granted don’t we? i admit, i don’t show my gray yet. it hasn’t gotten to the beautiful stage…yet! when it gets there, i’ll grow out the color. right now it is in that really ugly stage:(
i’m still grateful to be here…and be relatively healthy. but for the grace of GOD!
thanks for dropping by lisha:)
It’s interesting bumping into your blog post tonight after spending the afternoon at a memorial service for a friend’s mother. She was 90yrs old. She was definitely honored for a life of perseverance, loyalty and faith. She lived through wars and struggles most of us have not. There were less than a dozen non-family members in attendance. However, I have no doubt her Heavenly Father stood as she passed from this life into his presence.
The aging process and dying are two fairly certain events we’ll all face – and yet so few of us ever think about it. Thank you for bringing both of these truths to light tonight.
thanks for stopping by pat:)
it’s for sure, as a culture, we tend to live in denial about death. it will get all of us won’t it?
as christians, we sometimes plan for after death better than we plan for old age.
how can we live to be happy, joyful old people vs. crotchety, sour, stuck in our ways old people?
it certainly helps to know GOD has our lives planned for us. learning to be joyful in the circumstances in which He places us helps a lot…at least the ones we have no control over!