Blue Haired Ladies, Please Pray!

Pro 16:31 The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

I have often wondered why Christians, male and female, dye their hair when they have this blessing in Scripture. Which crown of glory to you want God's, the World's, or your Ego's? As I am somewhat bald, I have more of an laurel wreath gray crown, but still some hoary hair. My hoary goatee may make up for some of the hair missing from my head.

Youth does have its advantages, but so does aging and since it is a part of life we may as well roll with it and partake of the advantages. In some cultures, as it was once in this one, older people are somewhat revered and at least respected. Not so much in this country anymore as one person suggested that there should be a van going around picking up old people and euthanizing them. They forget one day they will be old.

I never paid much attention to old people when I was growing up. I did love my maternal grandparents, but other than that I was a child of the 60's or the start of the ME age, so all that mattered was me and all that mattered to me was free love and rock and roll. Fortunately, I had no real desire for drugs outside of alcohol.

When I became a Christian in '75, I started noticing old people more and looked forward to their stories and was sad about some. I remember a dear old lady who whispered to me that tomorrow they were going to take her out and shoot here. I told her no that tomorrow is Christmas. You will get a present and maybe a kiss, but no one is going to shoot you. She was a child when the Nazis had occupied the Ukraine. Obviously, there was a time when people had been shot on Christmas day. That day never left her memory and now haunted her whenever she heard Christmas was tomorrow. Very, very sad!!

On the other hand, an old preacher spoke of the revivals in his day and old servicemen recounted to me their war stories, some of valor and some of horror. Couples spoke of their romance and wedding still making eyes at each other as they spoke. Wisdom often flowed from them as they told how they kept their romance alive and their marriage strong or how they survived rough times. It was awesome.

It is great when anyone with gray hair is found in the way of righteousness prays, but somehow when blue haired holy ladies pray things happen. It may because there are so many of them as we lads tend to die much earlier than the ladies and often our prayer lives are not as good as theirs. It may be also that they represent the Church in marriage and the Church is commanded to pray without ceasing and the Church is to be submissive to God. I don't know exactly why, but holy gray haired women know how to reach the throne of grace.

Because of a small thing we did for her before we left for bible college, Mrs. Edith Henderson became a holy grayed haired lady who prayed for us and always seemed to know when to send a six dollar check when we needed it. Usually, three days before payday when we needed basic things so the kids could have a lunch for school. When she passed away, I knew I lost a prayer warrior. I have been beseeching blue haired ladies ever since then to pray for me and some may have added me to the list. If so, I may never know until I get to glory how much those prayers have benefited me, my family and my ministry.

Sadly, prayers warriors like that move on to Glory so I have to keep requesting new ones. I fear however, that there are fewer of them left to recruit. I used to hear stories of men who had forgotten their Christian upbringing and lived rough lives. They came back to Jesus because of a grayed hair mother or grandmother that would not give up on them and laid them before the throne daily and sometimes many times during the day. One man said that if your grandmother is praying for you then you may as well give because she is not going to shut up. I say that is good advice.

I have said it many times and will repeat it. When men in a country go astray there is hope because godly women praying can bring them back to God. When the women go astray, there is no hope left. Our families and our country is in sad shape because either we have very few holy women left or they don't believe their prayers matter. They matter more than you know.