A Perfect 10?

 A National Hair Color Product’s Version of the “Perfect 10″

As the family sat around the “boob tube”, (and I mean that quite literally nowadays), last year watching the Olympics, a commercial came on that asked me a question. Do I want to be a perfect 10? Well, they had the answer for me. Use their hair coloring product and I will instantly become the “perfect 10″ I’ve always wanted to be!

 

I visited their website to find what they could possibly enlighten me with on how my life will change to a “perfect 10″ if I use their product. Here are a few: “Sometimes good things happen to those who don’t have to wait.” “The richer the color (hair), the richer the compliments.” And my personal favorite, “You want to lose your gray, not your sanity.”

 

“Sometimes good things happen to those who don’t have to wait.” I work with teenagers on a daily basis, 10 months out of the year and know that teen girls are addicted to personal appearance. This statement is full of danger, sending out the message that if we get instant gratification, i.e., sex, alcohol, etc., then good things will happen to us. The Bible is very clear about the importance of waiting on the Lord, not our own instant gratifications:

*Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You. ~Psalm 25:21

*Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord. ~Psalm 27:14

*Wait for the Lord and keep His way and He will exalt you… ~Psalm 37:34

*Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. ~Isaiah 40:31

*The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. ~Lamentations 3:25

*Therefore, return to your God, observe kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually. ~Hosea 12:6

*But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. ~Micah 7:7

“The richer the color the richer the compliments.” So it doesn’t matter that I’m a fabulous conversationalist or just won the Nobel Peace Prize, if my hair is a rich color I’ll get better compliments? Another word for compliment is flatter. Let’s see what scripture says about flattery.

*There is nothing reliable in what they say; their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. ~Psalm 5:9

*But they flattered Him (God) with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue. ~Psalm 78:36

What’s interesting is that oftentimes in scripture the word for “flatter” will be deceit. And everytime it is referenced with the tongue/mouth and associated with destruction. Ouch! Do you think this is God’s way of showing us that with compliments (flattery), we’ll get the “big head” which can lead to our own demise? Richer hair color and richer compliments? No thank you!

“You want to lose your gray, not your sanity.” Ok National Hair Color Company, now I take personal offense! Equating my gray hair with sanity? That’s going a bit too far. My God, in His Word tells me, A gray head is a crown of glory! ~Proverbs 16:31 And better yet for men, The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is their gray hair! ~Proverbs 20:29

So, what makes a “perfect 10″? The website I visited showed a whole list of hair colors to achieve that goal. But as a Christian I know there is only ONE “perfect 10″, and His name is Jesus Christ, who left His Father God and came to earth as a sinless, blameless, “perfect 10″ to die for my sins so that one day, not here on earth with any hair color, I will be a “perfect 10″ with The One who made me.

As for God, His way is perfect… ~Psalm 18:30

copyrite 2009

 

God Used A WalMart Greeter

The Full “Crown”

Remember my first post when I said I began photographing the progression of my “crowning” , well, this is my latest installment of my gray. For the time being I believe the process has stalled. But haven’t you enjoyed seeing the progress?! LOL!!

Well, I have to confess…I’ve been on a big ‘ole pity party. I’d been feeling old with my crown and a bit frumpy. And the worst thing is that I didn’t give it to Jesus like I should have. Sometimes we like to wallow in our pity don’t we? And sometimes God allows us to wallow to teach us a lesson, Amen?!

I wallowed for about a week until I went to Walmart one day. The area where I live is a very liberal part of the country and meeting Christians outside a Church gathering are few and far between. As I was leaving Walmart feeling very “gray”, an elderly gentleman Greeter at the door said to me, “You have the Holy Spirit living in you.” Immediately I looked down at what I was wearing because I often wear a Christian themed t-shirt as a witness when going to town. But I wasn’t wearing one that day, why should I? I was having a pity party by golly!

I said, “Excuse me?” He said, “I can tell you’re a Christian.” I was riddled with guilt and asked, “You can?” His reply was that when a person has the Holy Spirit living in them you can’t mistake that they are a Christian.

As I walked through the parking lot God’s conviction went all over me. What right did I have to wallow in pity over the crown that God has given me when what’s more important is His Holy Spirit that is living in me?! I’ve never repented in a Walmart parking lot, but there’s a first time for everything, Amen?! After repenting of my sin of self-pity, my mood changed, I cranked up the Christian music on the radio and put my focus on Him instead of myself.

I am constantly amazed at how God can use my hair, circumstanstances and Walmart greeters to teach me things!

My help comes from the Lord. ~Psalm 121:2

copyrite 2009

Who Are You?

I received an email from a young woman whom I’ll call Mz. “L”. I want to share it here because she brings out some valid points, stimulated my thinking and gives a different perspective on why we do or don’t color our hair. I encourage you to allow yourself to be challenged to possibly a new way of thinking or to ask yourself and God some questions. If you’d like to comment on this, please feel free to contact me. Here are some excerpts from Mz. “L”‘s insightful email:

I want to reach out to people who are a little different like me. So far the church has rejected people who are arts oriented. I believe the church can use the arts as a powerful tool to reach the lost, but in order to do that they are going to have to look beyond the colorful hair, piercings, tattoos, and interesting clothing. I wish they wouldn’t view these things as wrong, but look at the people and love them for who they are. These things are not necessarily sin, sometimes it’s just fun and a form of creativity.

“I’ve been trying to hide who I am for a long time now and it’s not trying to cover up my gray! I’m an artist and I have always liked anything creative or different. My hair is a form of creativity for me. I actually do it myself. I’m not trying to hide grays, I just enjoy doing different things to my hair for fun. My husband loves it and my hair and my creativity was actually what attracted him to me.

As I got older I started to try and fit in with the Christian women “click”. I started to want to look just like them and do things the way they did things. My husband actually wondered where I had gone, I wondered where I had gone! Why was I trying to be like everyone else and why did I feel so down about it all the time? I finally have come to the conclusion that God made me just the way I am with my likes and dislikes. My creativity is something that He gave me and I’m not going to hide it anymore just because some people might get offended. I’m not trying to offend anyone or disobey God. It’s just that I have never felt any conviction on whether or not I should dye my hair. I am a believer though and if God ever did convict me of being vain or selfish or whatever, I would absolutely stop…

I don’t believe there’s any Biblical foundation on whether or not women should dye their hair… 

 

All that to say, I don’t think that dyeing your hair is wrong, unless of course, God convicts you of it. I hope I haven’t offended you with all this, but I just wanted to tell you what I thought. I do love the blog though and reading about the process that God has brought you through. I just wanted to give you a different view on the subject.”

Thank you Mz. “L”. I am never offended by others’ opinions or views when communicated in a spirit of harmony. Mz. “L” and I agree on the most part. She is just coming from a younger point of view. My blog, just like Mz. “L”‘s creativity, is about being who God created us to be. God gives Mz. “L” a sense of freedom about her creativeness with her hair and He has given me a freedom in my “crown of glory”.

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.   ~Proverbs 21:2

Copyrite 2009

Because Our Hair Is Gray Does Not Mean We Are Not Beautiful!

 

 

                                                                                     1912

Several years ago I came across a page titled “How to Make Gray Hair Look it’s Best” from a magazine called the Delinator, dated 1912 in an antique shop. My best friend from high school’s birthday was coming up and I thought I’d frame it and give it to her since we were both turning 40 that year.

After framing this unique page I realized that the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. I LOVE antiques and thought it would look great in my bathroom with my antique wash stand and claw foot tub. I can’t remember what I gave my friend, but the magazine page has been on my wall ever since. 

The photos on this page are fun, course it looks like you have to have alot of hair to accomplish the styles shown, and some of them look downright heavy! But she does look comfortable in her own hair, doesn’t she? 

Not only are the photos fun on this magazine page, but there is a small article at the bottom that reflects the attitude of gray hair of the period. “Because hair is gray does not mean that it has lots its beauty. On the contrary, many a woman finds white hair her crowning glory, while the possibilities for becoming arrangement provided by present styles allow her to appear quite as well coiffured as any younger woman.” Now, all you gray-hair beauties stand up with me and say AMEN! 

I’d like to change the wording a tad in the first line of the article to, “Because our hair is gray does not mean that we have lost our beauty.” Just because we have gray hair, doesn’t mean that we’ve lost our beauty, especially in God’s eyes.  

Have you noticed a trend lately of seeing more gray hair exposed on tv and in movies? Everytime I see a mature elegant actress on the small or big screen letting her gray “all hang out” , I secretly cheer her on for her boldness, courage, and confidence and hope that her example will inspire others. In fact, just yesterday I saw a commercial where a woman with beautiful gray hair was standing in front of a bathroom mirror. And she wasn’t even advertising Polident, Ensure or Adult Diapers, she was selling toilet paper of all things. I found myself blurting out, “You go girl!” 

I’ve also been noticing more of us “average” women letting our gray show on the streets. In fact, unlike our counterpart from 1912, I have noticed some cute, darling and elegant gray haircuts. And I’m not talking about the back-brushed piled high styles!  

Why do we feel we can’t have “trendy hairstyles” ? Unless you have naturally curly hair, we do not have to be like our grandmothers and submit to the wild curl and frizz that comes with natural gray and perm our hair to the point that birds follow us around hoping to build a home in our tightly coiffed white halo. Honey, straightening irons and smoothing concoctions are gifts from God, use them! 

Ladies, feel good about your gray and treat yourself to a stylish haircut that boldly states confidence in yourself and what God has given you. 

                                             For the Lord will be your confidence… ~Proverbs 3:26

Copyrite 2009

What Does God Want Me To Learn From This?

 

                                                               2nd Phase of “creeping gray”

When my crown first started “creeping” I didn’t get that many comments. People assumed I was just missing my coloring dates. But by the time the 2nd phase of the crowning kicked in it was obvious that I was “letting it all hang out”.

All of a sudden I felt as though I was walking around with a spotlight on my head. Friends and family felt free to express their opinion on my crowning. “I thought you were younger!” ; “Honey, don’t let your hair grow out gray, your face is so young.” ; “Won’t your children be embarrassed?” ; “Do you feel OK?” ; “You know you don’t have to spend a lot of money, you can buy color in a bottle.”

While I appreciated their honesty, my confidence in my “grayness” was starting to wane. I started thinking about a classmate from high school whose mother had gray hair. Everyone thought she was his grandmother. Then the same started happening to me! My youngest son was in elementary school at the time, and strangers were addressing me as his grandmother. At school meetings I would look around and be conscious of the fact that I was the only mother with a “crown”. Paranoia started to become more prevalent. Was everyone looking at my hair while they were talking to me?!

“Lord, I don’t want to be gray!”, I shouted at Him in frustration. Have you ever shouted at God? He handles it much better than I do when someone shouts at me. He calmly informed me that it wasn’t about my hair. Not about my hair?! Now how could that be with the reflection coming off my “crown” drawing everyone in like insects to a light bulb within a 10 yard radius?

I have a dear friend who used to ask me a question every time I was going through a trial in my life. Now God asks that same question, that sounds an awful lot like my friend’s voice, in my head, “What does God want you to learn from this?” Arrghhh. Sometimes I just don’t like that question! So, I get up off my pity pot and ask God what He wants me to learn from not coloring my hair. “It’s about obedience.”, He tells me. Yeowwch! That smarts!

He specifically led me to verse 29 in Acts chapter 5 which reads, “…We must obey God rather than men.” Now, I realize that in this context Peter and the apostles were talking about obeying the government. But, I also know that God can use His Word to apply to our lives in any way that He chooses, because…He’s God, Amen? And in my case He knew I was on the verge of obeying “man” by listening to their comments and being influenced by their looks instead of listening and looking to Him.

In the years since then, obeying God in several different areas of my life has been easier. Why? Because of my “crown of glory”. He knew that if I could be obedient in this small thing, that it would become easier to be obedient to Him in the bigger things that He would place before me.

Remember my high school classmate’s mother who had gray hair? Well, she’s in her seventies now. And you know what? She looks the same as she did 30 years ago because she kept her gray. She’s my inspiration, because hopefully, 30 years from now, though my “crown” will have more gray in it, I’ll look the same as I do now. And you know… that ain’t so bad.

If you would like to share your  “gray hair” story or make a comment that you agree or disagree, and it’s approved for publishing, (by me), just let me know and I’ll fit your story into one of my articles.

Copyright 2009