To The Untamed Heart.

For the first time in thirty something years, I have been breaking out. If I’m being honest, by this point in life I thought I had escaped unscathed, never having passed through the acne teenage years, and forsake never thinking my time would come in adulthood. I’m also officially in the season of needing to have my regular hair appointments to try to camouflage the impending greys, slowing consuming my hair roots. Oh, and last night, while I was getting into the shower with a little uninvited friend sitting on top the closed toilet seat talking my ear off, said little three year old child asked me if there was a baby growing in my belly because its getting ‘willy big’.

So you can say I have been figuring out this 30s era, staring down every curveball it shows me and trying to face the facts now that this is only natural and the seasons are not about to hit reverse in any natural way. I’ve been using more face wash, trying to not eat so many cookies (unless they look really good), and making sure my girl Meg books my next hair appointment before I walk out of the building to hold me accountable.

It’s hard to not get caught up in the anti-aging game amid today’s culture flooded by influencers, beauty hacks, increased pressure to age gracefully from a wholly physical perspective. It’s difficult to not feel the pressure to keep up when with all the fillers and hair regimens and perfect contouring keeps everyone looking like they’re at the very latest in their forties forever. So my mind has been more occupied than I’d care to admit. Yes, I feel guilty. And yes, don’t scoff because I know I have a long way to go in the aging process. But can we all just stop and admit this societal pressure is real?

Today I had my breakthrough moment, thinking, that is it… I just can’t take it anymore.

I pulled out my prayer journal and plopped open my Bible to the concordance, flipping to the a’s, finger slipping down the page to where the word ‘aging’ should appear, only to come up empty.

So I unlocked my phone and opened google search, each letter vibrating under my finger.

What does the Bible say about

A–G-I-N-G?

I opened the first article I found and started to read through the list of scriptures that refer to the aging process/ aging gracefully. I was hoping for some AHA lightbulb moment or some deep revelation through a common scripture that points to something encouraging. But the Bible doesn’t say anything about aging to match any beauty remedy or TikTok hack or to any remedy to our modern day qualms with our looks and bodies changing. He doesn’t talk about our wrinkles, acne, dull skin, sweaty hormone imbalances, sagging,…

it’s like it doesn’t even cross His mind.

Oh, He talks about getting older and the grey hairs. It’s not like He is in complete denial. It’s just not our physical bodily changes that He is really paying attention to. Here is what He says about it:

-grandchildren are the crown of the aged

-He is going to carry us forever/ way beyond our grey hairs He will keep on sustaining us

-there is honor that comes with age and that should be bestowed by those younger

In the Bible, the Lord of All directs our attention to everything else about our surmounting years, and no matter how you flip it, our vanity, anti-aging serums, and insecurities don’t seem to fit the story He has for us to walk in His likeness and wholeness.

It’s almost like maybe He is saying not to give as much of our attention to the physically over time as much as what He is doing spiritually over time… like every new season of life will be covered in a new wave of His fullness if we will choose to receive it with open hands.

So what does it look like to be a whole women receiving each year as a crown on her head?

Maybe it looks like not paying attention.

I am not saying to not care for your bodies and live a healthy lifestyle. I am saying our focus shouldn’t be more on this than on the One who brought us here, stacking up all of these years that are littered with blessing, testimony, and evidence that backs our faith,…

we shouldn’t be distracted.

If our routine in front of the mirror is longer and producing more fruit than our time in the Word and our time WITH the Word, than we have a major problem and we aren’t ever going to be filled. We aren’t going to be able to stop striving, booking more appointments, and still feeling a little hopeless inside. We can’t have lasting hope without Him when its Him true hope comes from.

Maybe this isn’t your struggle and you’ve come to the end and wondered why you were drawn to read this whole thing and why you wasted so much time. Here is a truth that goes far beyond our vain insecurities: we can’t receive the wholeness He has for us in this season if we are too busy staring into the face of our brokenness, weakness, or comparing this season to the past. There is a special blessing and favor over you in this season that is ripe for the picking. Will you receive it or will you keep trying to turn back the clocks?