Deserving

She made her first appearance when I was 16 years old; I was at the hairdresser and my hairstylist pointed her out and then told her to get lost. By the time I was 18 I felt like she was dropping in on me constantly, taunting and teasing me.

This morning as I looked groggily in the mirror I realized that she has taken over. Who is she? Matilda Gray Hair. At the salon this afternoon my stylist actually suggested using more color in my highlights or getting color more often because “all of the gray hair makes your hair look dull.” I’m twenty-seven years old and I’m already getting advice on covering gray hair. Yes, premature grayness runs in my family but I don’t feel that I have done anything to deserve my gray hair…

In pretty much every aspect of my life I am discredited because of my age; I am a newlywed (for the most part), I am a new parent, I am the second youngest in the workplace and I have very little job experience. Just last week at the gym I was having a conversation with a group of ladies in my aerobic class about how hard pregnancy is on the body and when I chimed in one of the ladies asked how old I was and then said, “You don’t count, you are still in your twenties. Try being my age and going through pregnancy.” Whaaaat?

I have barely begun living my life, so if gray hair is a physical sign of age, maturity and in some cases wisdom how can I be worthy of gray hair? The Bible says that gray hair is "a crown of splendor that is attained by a righteous life" and that gray hair is the "splendor of the old", if that is so then I am definitely not worthy of my “crown”. Have you ever been bestowed an honor you did not deserve?

"I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect."
1 Corinthians 15:9-10

Your thoughts?