In this chapter (20) of Proverbs, I had a nice time reading the variety of wisdom that Solomon shared along with his sense of humor. "The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old," (verse 29) Being that I have a few of those gray hairs, I can laugh at the correctness of Solomon's words. I'm not sure when I started to notice that I had a few slivers of gray here and there, but I am not in denial about it today. So it is gray then. Big wow.Scripture has always said a few things about gray hair and wisdom together. It's as though they have a connection between them. Parents often cite having teenagers as the cause of gray hair. This might be a good hypothesis, but scientists continue to investigate why hair turns gray. In time, everyone’s hair turns gray. Your chance of going gray increases 10-20% every decade after 30 years. You can turn back the clock by coloring your hair or highlighting it. Or you can simply embrace it as a natural order of things and celebrate the fact that you are getting older.
But there is one thing I have really noticed over the past few years. I will sometimes look at someone and automatically assume that they are older than I am. They just look older. I have always believed myself to be younger - but when I find out the true age of these persons, I am actually older than they are. This leads me to the inescapable conclusion that I am older and grayer. Too bad so sad.
No doubt, growing old is a normal, natural part of life in this world. There is honor involved in the aging process, because growing old is normally accompanied by increased wisdom and experience. It all depends upon your perspective. Baseball legend Leroy "Satchel" Paige once said that "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
"Growing old isn't so bad considering the alternatives..." [unknown quote]
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