Happy Birthday! Queen Elizabeth II's Faith Key to Her Longevity
Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th birthday Thursday. The monarch has often talked openly about how central her faith in Jesus Christ is in her life.
"I have been - and remain - very grateful to you for your prayers and to God for his steadfast love. I have indeed seen His faithfulness," Elizabeth wrote in her forward to The Servant Queen and the King She Serves, the book celebrating her 90th birthday.
"The Queen has served us all her adult life, with amazing consistency of character, concern for others and a clear dependence on Christ," said Mark Greene, executive director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, who co-authored the book. "The more I've read what she's written and talked to people who know her, the clearer that is."
"Rarely has anyone in public life served for so long, served so brilliantly, worked so hard, and brought so many people together," Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said.
BBC News magazine listed several reasons for Elizabeth's long and productive life, acknowledging that her Christian faith and charitable works have played an important part.
"It could be that religious faith, especially in the West, comes with a community and support network," said professor Sarah Harper, from the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. "On the other hand faith may make you feel more positive about life and death. Studies have found that optimists live longer than pessimists."
The BBC also referenced Elizabeth's marriage to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as a significant reason for her long life. The monarchs have been married for 68 years.
Elizabeth has referred to Philip as her "constant strength and guide," according to The Christian Post.
"She has a strong marriage. There has only been one man in her life and that's Philip," Dickie Arbiter, her former press secretary, said.
"The Queen has demonstrated service, duty and perseverance. That she has been able to do this against the spirit of the world is surely because she takes her bearings not from the world and its wisdom, but from something else. That something else is her strong Christian faith, something that Her Majesty has openly and unashamedly talked about," J. John wrote in Charisma magazine.
"The qualities she has displayed are Christian virtues, lived out to the full in Jesus Christ who came to serve and to give his own life for the world. The Queen exhibits these virtues not simply because she seeks to imitate Christ but because she has a relationship with Him," John continued.
"She knows, I believe, the great truth that, in order to live out Christ's teaching, you must live in Christ. In Her Majesty Elizabeth II, we see a great Queen, but her greatness comes from the fact that she has trusted in an even greater King," he wrote.
