I know what you must be thinking, is this really a worthy blog topic? Oh, geez the SAHM at Work has finally run out of ideas, and now she laments her age and hair color changes. Stay with me, I hope to bring this full circle.
This morning I awoke to an all too familiar face, tired, makeup free and pale from a long winter. I began work to spruce up my image before HH awakes, and then suddenly a silver line shined back at me in my vanity mirror. Thinking our crafts the other day might have left a strand of string in my hair….I began to try and brush it out. Yep. No luck. It grew there. A l l b y i t s e l f. (And no, that pic is not of me! Thanks ehow!)
At 35 years old, generally speaking I am not prone to vanity issues. For years and years with new babies arriving yearly at times, I went without any knowledge of an eyelash curler or even my beloved under the eye highlighter pen. Even now, I know, all the primping I do has a purpose. And that purpose is to keep looking good for My. Good. Man. ….(stay tuned to The Mind of the Good Man) Now, having said that, I could be, perhaps, dramatizing this milestone of a first grey hair.
For a few years now, my eldest daughter, Thinker, has a personality that worries. She’s a lot like me, which can be good, yet also very telling into my own personality and its weaknesses. Now, she’s nine years old. And there are things that she should worry about: school work, remembering when there’s a test, bringing home necessary books and the like. However, her worries exceed what a nine year old should be thinking….she often comes to me worried about when her next dentist appointment is, who is on the phone, why is someone at the door and so many other incidental things around the house. We’ve talked at great length about what a nine year old should worry about…..and that list is pretty short. At the end of one of our discussions, I mentioned something to the effect, with a laugh, “Oh honey! If you worry so much, you’ll get grey hair!”
Well, she took that seriously. She’s been asking me if Grandparents worry so much, and that’s why they have all that grey hair. I suppose, in a sense, it’s true. They have lived a lifetime of stress and worry. Now, I know technically speaking there are good scientific reasons for the graying of hair….not enough of a certain chemical in the body….the aging process…..the hereditary genes that decide and all the rest.
Again I found myself reminding Thinker that she doesn’t need to worry, and that HH and I will care for her and do the worrying for her. I simply want her to have a more carefree youth. I’d rather have a full head of gray hair than have her youth and innocence wasted because I allowed her to stress out about adult issues.
Isn’t that the meat of the thing? We, as parents will take on what we need to take on, sometimes begrudgingly, but will still do it, in that effort to protect the innocence of our children. We’ll worry for them. We’ll stress out for them. We’ll grow the gray hair and all, simply to shelter them from the insecurities that we find ourselves in all the time. We take it on, because in the end, that’s part of our Work. Yes, with that capital ‘W’.
To sum up, will I color to tame the beast of graying hair or wear the strands of silver with pride? Co-incidentally or not, last week I made a hair appointment to get a trim and that appointment is for tonight. I rarely believe in co-incidences. Things happen for a reason.... I want to show my daughter that we, as parents, might worry, have grey hair or not, but in the end, the real issue is, do we trust God. Can we let go? Can we trust God will give us the Grace we need? Can we trust God’s design in making us parents, with all the stress to make those difficult decisions? It is He who brought our lives to where they are. Can I submit to His perfect plan?
At 35 years old, generally speaking I am not prone to vanity issues. For years and years with new babies arriving yearly at times, I went without any knowledge of an eyelash curler or even my beloved under the eye highlighter pen. Even now, I know, all the primping I do has a purpose. And that purpose is to keep looking good for My. Good. Man. ….(stay tuned to The Mind of the Good Man) Now, having said that, I could be, perhaps, dramatizing this milestone of a first grey hair.
For a few years now, my eldest daughter, Thinker, has a personality that worries. She’s a lot like me, which can be good, yet also very telling into my own personality and its weaknesses. Now, she’s nine years old. And there are things that she should worry about: school work, remembering when there’s a test, bringing home necessary books and the like. However, her worries exceed what a nine year old should be thinking….she often comes to me worried about when her next dentist appointment is, who is on the phone, why is someone at the door and so many other incidental things around the house. We’ve talked at great length about what a nine year old should worry about…..and that list is pretty short. At the end of one of our discussions, I mentioned something to the effect, with a laugh, “Oh honey! If you worry so much, you’ll get grey hair!”
Well, she took that seriously. She’s been asking me if Grandparents worry so much, and that’s why they have all that grey hair. I suppose, in a sense, it’s true. They have lived a lifetime of stress and worry. Now, I know technically speaking there are good scientific reasons for the graying of hair….not enough of a certain chemical in the body….the aging process…..the hereditary genes that decide and all the rest.
Again I found myself reminding Thinker that she doesn’t need to worry, and that HH and I will care for her and do the worrying for her. I simply want her to have a more carefree youth. I’d rather have a full head of gray hair than have her youth and innocence wasted because I allowed her to stress out about adult issues.
Isn’t that the meat of the thing? We, as parents will take on what we need to take on, sometimes begrudgingly, but will still do it, in that effort to protect the innocence of our children. We’ll worry for them. We’ll stress out for them. We’ll grow the gray hair and all, simply to shelter them from the insecurities that we find ourselves in all the time. We take it on, because in the end, that’s part of our Work. Yes, with that capital ‘W’.
To sum up, will I color to tame the beast of graying hair or wear the strands of silver with pride? Co-incidentally or not, last week I made a hair appointment to get a trim and that appointment is for tonight. I rarely believe in co-incidences. Things happen for a reason.... I want to show my daughter that we, as parents, might worry, have grey hair or not, but in the end, the real issue is, do we trust God. Can we let go? Can we trust God will give us the Grace we need? Can we trust God’s design in making us parents, with all the stress to make those difficult decisions? It is He who brought our lives to where they are. Can I submit to His perfect plan?
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