The Hair Piece

Ladies, I know you are going to relate to this one. The guys, well... maybe. It's tied in to one thing we ladies are somewhat particular about...our HAIR. Now, guys, you may be concerned about keeping your hair but we are concerned about keeping ours looking good!! In fact, over a girls lifetime, hair care may be our biggest personal expense. If you add up all the bottles of shampoo, mousse, gel, Sun-In and then something to take the sun out, cuts, colors, perms, straighteners, brushes, combs, picks, clips, ribbons, bows...should I go on?? I am beginning to feel guilty, is my hair really that important???
My good friend Anne came back to school after the holidays and something was different about her. It wasn't her new clothes or her beautiful jewelry, it was her hair. Don't get me wrong, her hair looked great! She didn't dye it purple or shave it off or anything. I really couldn't even put my finger on what the difference was, I just noticed it was not the same, so I asked her. She explained that she had parted her hair on the opposite side of how she normally wore it. Her stylist(or hair dresser for all my old school friends) had encouraged her to change it up a bit! I had heard this before; change the direction of your part every now and then to reduce breakage and damage to your hair. Throughout the day, I noticed she would begin to brush her bangs to one side, only to remember that she needed to brush them the other way. She made some comments about being frustrated because it wasn't what she was used to. Now, you can probably guess what is coming. The next morning I thought I needed a new look! Do not even go there, you know you would do the same thing. I mean if her stylist thought it would be good for her, it would be good for me too!!! Now ladies, if you have ever tried this, you know you can't style your hair as usual and then just brush it over in the other direction. This process must start at the root! I had to blow dry my hair in the other direction. I had to curl the strands in the other direction. I even had to check my make-up because now the opposite side of my forehead was showing; you know, the side with the unsightly mole that is usually covered up by my hair!!! This was more difficult than I thought. I was actually having to work at parting my hair! Now, I know why God brings things to my mind during these times. It's because He knows I will relate to the everyday stuff and maybe it will get through my thick skull! I thought about my kids (and myself for that matter) and how difficult it is to "train" someone. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not part from it." Training up a child takes work. You don't just wake up each morning and your kids have learned and matured each new day in all the right ways. No, you wake up and it is on!! You have to start at the root, when they are newborns. You have to bend them to go in the direction you want because instinctively, just like my stubborn part, they are going to go in their own way. And our own way usually gets us in trouble!! Just like we are called to train our children, God is also training us. He knows the way He has planned for us to go. Is His plan easy to accomplish in us? That depends. We may sing "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow" on Sunday but on Monday we are singing "I Shall Not Be Moved"!! He has to start at the root with us too, the root of our sin problem. In doing so He will have to bend us in ways that make us uncomfortable. He might even expose "unsightly" areas in our life we thought we could keep covered up. We will want to go back to our old self. We will want to remain where our flaws stay hidden and there is no pressure for us to do anything different. But we are a lot like hair...we need to be groomed, trained and even trimmed up a bit to become more like Christ. Ephesians 5:1 says, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Be imitators as dearly loved children...what is that saying to us? When we train our children up in the same way we allow God to train us, they will love us for that and follow our example. It's still gonna take work, and yes, it will be costly, but it is so worth it!! Think of all the breakage and damage it may reduce!! And just like I noticed a difference in Anne's appearance, the world will notice a difference in you too. It may not be obvious what has made the difference but whenever someone asks, you have the chance to tell them about Jesus. So, starting today, change things up a bit if you need to. Go in another direction if that's what it takes to be trained in the way God has planned. Yes, it's that important!!
Love to you all! Shannon