{"id":1280,"date":"2009-10-15T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2009-10-16T00:40:16","modified_gmt":"2009-10-16T04:40:16","slug":"our-growth-rings-october-15-daily-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/our-growth-rings-october-15-daily-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Growth Rings, October 15 Daily Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Can

Can you see the rings of the tree stump?<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Lost in the clouds soaked in pink and orange hues from the newly risen sunrise I almost bumped into Jake looking at an old tree stump.\u00a0 Looking down into the center he said, “So that’s what the inside of a tree looks like mom.”\u00a0 Just as quickly as he looked down he was off to explore the creek.\u00a0 Standing there looking at the stump I was taken back by the growth rings of the tree.\u00a0 In a science class years earlier I remembered learning that each growth ring represented a year of the tree’s life. Counting 10 rings the rest began to fade and blur a bit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The growth rings remind me of the wrinkles upon our faces and our parents and our grandparents faces.\u00a0 Each wrinkle has a year behind it and we can count them but we will lose count for they fade and begin to blur a bit.\u00a0 Those wrinkles, crow’s feet and laugh lines symbolize our many years.\u00a0 So many people want to erase them, botox and fill them in so that they can gain the years back or look like it.\u00a0 It is difficult to deal with aging especially as a woman in the U.S.\u00a0 The general public usually doesn’t care if a man ages or grays he becomes distinguished and respected.\u00a0 Let a woman age naturally, gray showing and oh now there’s something to talk about!\u00a0 Our culture values youth and beauty when we should revere age and wisdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We should be proud of our “growth rings”.\u00a0 Each wrinkle we have acquired came from a significant time in of our lives.\u00a0 Wrinkles on our brow from waking quickly to run and get the crying baby. Crow’s feet around our eyes from squeezing them so tightly when we knew we could not catch our child before they fell and we did not want to see it. Laugh lines about our cheeks from endless laughter from all of the crazy little things our children have done through out the years that we should discipline but can’t help\u00a0laughing at with our spouse.\u00a0 Wrinkles all over our faces from the times we squeeze our faces worried and praying that our teens make it home every time they pull that car out of the driveway.\u00a0 Baggy eyes from the unending\u00a0up all night with the baby or praying that the struggles of our children will somehow be resolved.\u00a0 Permanent lines where the permagrin (permanent grin from something extremely good) is from watching our children succeed at school, sports and life in general.\u00a0 Each wrinkle each misshaped bump in our skin representing our parenting should be remembered as growth and valued for having been given the gift of parenting.\u00a0 They should not be devalued as less than beautiful.\u00a0 What is more precious than a life well lived, lived to the fullest.<\/p>\n

So today when you see an older person notice the wrinkles and reflect on the life he\/she has lived and where they have come from.\u00a0 Smile at that person for he\/she has grown and deserves the respect that should come from living, aging and loving others.\u00a0 Look in the mirror today and instead of disliking the obvious aging, appreciate the lines for they have formed who you have become a mom; who\u00a0worries, prays, laughs and\u00a0loves your children like no one else ever could.\u00a0 Do not botox the memories from your face instead embrace your age and wisdom for they are gifts given to you from God. In all parts of our lives we grow and mature and there is no shame in revealing our growth rings to the world for they are precious gifts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Lost in the clouds soaked in pink and orange hues from the newly risen sunrise I almost bumped into Jake looking at an old tree stump.\u00a0 Looking down into the center he said, “So that’s what the inside of a tree looks like mom.”\u00a0 Just as quickly as he looked down he was off to explore the creek.\u00a0 Standing there looking at the stump I was taken back by the growth rings of the tree.\u00a0 In a science class years earlier I remembered learning that each growth ring represented a year of the tree’s life. Counting 10 rings the rest <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[24,273,53,292,293,291],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfilledmom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}