Beauty is more than skin deep. I may pull out face cream from my bathroom drawer each night, but I am excited about growing older.

I turn forty years old tomorrow, y’all. Forty. And I couldn’t be more happy about it.

My body aches more at the end of each day than it used to. I tend to forget things that I perhaps wouldn’t have twenty years ago. But I know myself more than ever before.

When I was in my twenties, I thought I knew myself, but I didn’t. I wasn’t conceited, or anything like that. I just largely went along with the crowd, thinking the things I was doing, wearing, watching, etc. was the real me. But it wasn’t.

In my thirties, my thinking began to shift. I started to think a bit differently than the crowd. At first, I didn’t want to seem “strange.” But as time went on, I didn’t really care.

Most of the habits from my twenties went out the window. At times it was excruciatingly hard. But I was growing! I was learning! My thirties have been tumultuous, to say the least.

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Over the past couple of years, I’ve started to settle down into who I really am. Which is exciting, isn’t it? Yay for growth! But after all that change, I’m ready for some rest.

This is one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to my forties. I’m ready to know who I am. And I think this decade is it!

Another reason I’m excited about growing older is simple. Wisdom. I value wisdom over my appearance. Of course, to be perfectly honest, I do care somewhat about my appearance too, but wisdom wins out.

I want to be wise, y’all. And the older I get, the wiser I get. This is a blessing!

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Also, the older I get, the closer I become to the elusive Proverbs 31 woman. I may not live up to all of her traits simultaneously, but over the course of a lifetime, hopefully more of her traits will be seen in me.

So bring on the big 4-0. I couldn’t be more excited.