Today I Prayed For My Wrinkles

      I attended a College of Prayer event today.  I highly recommend it!  You can check it out here.  It is a three year program that challenges you to strengthen and deepen your prayer life.  While there, we obviously spent much of the time in prayer.  While my head was bowed, I ran my thumb over the top of my nose, the part in between my eyes.  I felt a tiny indention, the beginning stages of a wrinkle.  I'm at an age where I know that wrinkles and gray hair are on their way within the next several years.  That doesn't really bother me.  What bothered me was where the wrinkle was located.  That wrinkle can only come from a furrowed brow.  One that is often worried, angry or stressed.  I began to realize that my face would actually show a road map of my legacy.  The meditations of my heart and mind are literally becoming imprinted on my face.
     My prayers began to focus on this new realization.  I began praying, asking for those little lines that fan out on the corners of my eyes.  I've noticed those wrinkles on some of the most joy-filled people I've known.  I also prayed that I would get little rows of commas on the sides of my mouth.  I want indentations in my face that reflect years of smiles and laughter.  I prayed that the wrinkles in my forehead and brow would be few.  I prayed that no frown lines would appear.  I pray that when the day comes that I look in the mirror and see an older woman staring back at me,  I won't panic over wrinkles.  I pray that each wrinkle brings back memories of long nights rocking my babies, family laughter, sweet memories of toddler hands presenting a precious bouquet of weeds, nights out with my friends, flirty smiles with my husband, and exhilarating moments worshiping my Savior.  I pray that I earn each wrinkle with moments of joy and that I wear them without shame! 

     This verse isn't exactly on the same topic, but it has the same idea:

Proverbs 16:31

³¹ A gray head is a crown of glory; It is found in the way of righteousness.