Horizons magazine is published by Presbyterian Women (PW) the national women’s organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Issue link: http://horizons.epubxp.com/i/52581
Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. —Proverbs 3:13–17 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend . . . —Proverbs 7:4 And so on, and so on. Wisdom is one of the perks we gain along with wrinkles and crow's feet and gray hair. There is a biblical precedent to being treasured as a Wise Woman. Wisdom only comes from experience—the experiences that teach us about life the hard way. I wouldn't go back to being a teenager, or even a 30-year-old! My quest is to be happy where I am, with who I am, with the wisdom I've gained through hard work and trauma—wisdom I could never have gained except by the ever-growing years I've spent in the world. d True Beauty: Being a Child of God I look back at my life, at the times I felt beautiful: at my wedding, as I held each of my newborns in my arms, in my father's eyes before he died last year (and through all my life, truly). Those times had little to do with outward appearances but more to do with the depth of love and gratitude that welled up from my inner spirit. It is the beauty that comes from being a child of God: the beauty that the father saw when his filthy, bedraggled prodigal son first appeared in the bend of the road; the beauty that shone on Mary's face not just at the birth of her son, but at his gruesome and unsightly death. It is the beauty that made God laugh out loud with joy when the world was just created. A wise woman knows that this is where true beauty lies: in God's eyes and in God's heart. So God bless Toni Morrison, Paula Deen, Kathleen Sibelius, Betty White, Jamie Lee Curtis, Emmylou Harris, Helen Mirren and all the brave, beautiful women who have white hair and aren't ashamed to show it. God bless the women who have lost their hair to cancer and *A paraphrase of "Do not go gentle into that good night," which was first published in 1951. ᑁᑃᑆᑄᑇᑅᑂᑃᑆᑀ Hear more of Kathy's thoughts on faith and life from three of her best-selling books: Finding Calm in the Chaos: Christian Devotions for Busy Women By Kathleen Long Bostrom Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005 99 Things to do Between Here and Heaven By Kathleen Long Bostrom and Peter Graystone Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009 Making Space for the Spirit: 100 Simple Ways to Nurture Your Soul By Kathleen Long Bostrom Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010 November/December 2011 21 other diseases, but who refuse to let that stop them. God bless the wise women who age gracefully and feistily, and don't give in to the temptation to hide their age. To paraphrase the Irish poet Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle into your middle years, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the hair.* Let's grab our aging years with both hands and hold on tight to this life until it is time to let it go. Let us be Wise Women, so that our daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters will see that the Wise Woman is surely more precious than jewels. Kathleen Long Bostrom is copastor, along with her husband, of Wildwood Presbyterian Church near Chicago. They have three grown children. Kathleen recently broke down and colored a streak of her hair—pink— in honor of her friends and all those struggling with breast cancer.