Reason #496
I've always wanted to have long hair. As a little girl, I felt that long hair was the epitome of beauty. I would have given anything to flip a pony tail around or have a french braid. But I never had long hair. I had a mushroom hair cut. One Halloween, I talked my mom into buying me a wig. This wasn't just any wig, it was a long, blonde, wavy hair wig. Truthfully, it looked exactly like a mullet. A synthetic mullet. It was hideous, but when I put that wig on, I felt like a beauty queen. I could have a pony tail, I could flip my hair over my shoulders, I could (kind of ) run my fingers through it. My mom finally made me throw the wig away as she was tired of vacuuming up synthetic hair. It was short lived, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Pretending to have something I didn't have, to be someone I really wasn't. And truthfully, the only reason I really wanted long hair was because all of the other girls had it. Mushroom cut girls were far a few between at my school.
Being a girl is hard, right? We always want what we don't have, what someone else has. If you have curly hair, you want straight hair. If you have short hair, you want long hair. If you have dark hair, you want light hair. And that's just hair. There are lots of other things we'd like to change about ourselves, at least I know I would. And so I felt like I never really had what I wanted. I wanted to be someone else all the time. I wanted what they had. I wanted to have their skin, the lifestyle, their friends, their popularity, their hair, their natural beauty, their clothes, their figure. You name it, I would have chosen someone else's over mine. I wanted to be someone I really wasn't. I wanted to be that other girl. Unfortunately, there isn't always a quick fix like a wig to make you feel a little better about not having what you'd really like to have. And the sad thing is, we spend far too much time pretending to be someone we really aren't, trying to have things we don't need, acting like we've got what we really don't, and all because everyone else seems to have it.
I wore my hair in a pony tail today. This has become my usual, not because I think I look good in a pony tail, I don't, but because it's easy. I get so tired of washing and drying my hair. Plus, it's at this weird length and I don't know what to do with it. And I was wrong as a child. Long hair does not make you any more beautiful. Truth be told, my self-esteem drops about 10 points most of days that I do wear pony tails. Pulling my hair back into an elastic band doesn't make anything different, it doesn't transform me. I'm still me. But you see, God doesn't call us to be like everyone else, to look like them, to have the things they have, to act the way they act, to walk the road they walk. He calls us to be different. Not to fall into the trap, believing the lies of the world. And we're going to stand out if we live for Him. We aren't going to fit in, we aren't supposed to. And figuring it that out, embracing it, and accepting it has to be one of the most freeing things. God doesn't hold us to anyone else's ideas and standards except for His own. And how nice it is that there's no pressure. No pressure to fit in, to conform, to look a certain way or maintain a certain body style. Rather, we can be different. We can be who He created us to be, and that's totally okay. In fact, that's what He wants. And when we stop trying to hard to look like the world and we try to look more like Him, I think we'll really begin to understand what beautiful is.
#496 - Because He doesn't want me to be like everyone else but is pleased with who I am.
"As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God." - Galatians 6:14-16
Being a girl is hard, right? We always want what we don't have, what someone else has. If you have curly hair, you want straight hair. If you have short hair, you want long hair. If you have dark hair, you want light hair. And that's just hair. There are lots of other things we'd like to change about ourselves, at least I know I would. And so I felt like I never really had what I wanted. I wanted to be someone else all the time. I wanted what they had. I wanted to have their skin, the lifestyle, their friends, their popularity, their hair, their natural beauty, their clothes, their figure. You name it, I would have chosen someone else's over mine. I wanted to be someone I really wasn't. I wanted to be that other girl. Unfortunately, there isn't always a quick fix like a wig to make you feel a little better about not having what you'd really like to have. And the sad thing is, we spend far too much time pretending to be someone we really aren't, trying to have things we don't need, acting like we've got what we really don't, and all because everyone else seems to have it.
I wore my hair in a pony tail today. This has become my usual, not because I think I look good in a pony tail, I don't, but because it's easy. I get so tired of washing and drying my hair. Plus, it's at this weird length and I don't know what to do with it. And I was wrong as a child. Long hair does not make you any more beautiful. Truth be told, my self-esteem drops about 10 points most of days that I do wear pony tails. Pulling my hair back into an elastic band doesn't make anything different, it doesn't transform me. I'm still me. But you see, God doesn't call us to be like everyone else, to look like them, to have the things they have, to act the way they act, to walk the road they walk. He calls us to be different. Not to fall into the trap, believing the lies of the world. And we're going to stand out if we live for Him. We aren't going to fit in, we aren't supposed to. And figuring it that out, embracing it, and accepting it has to be one of the most freeing things. God doesn't hold us to anyone else's ideas and standards except for His own. And how nice it is that there's no pressure. No pressure to fit in, to conform, to look a certain way or maintain a certain body style. Rather, we can be different. We can be who He created us to be, and that's totally okay. In fact, that's what He wants. And when we stop trying to hard to look like the world and we try to look more like Him, I think we'll really begin to understand what beautiful is.
#496 - Because He doesn't want me to be like everyone else but is pleased with who I am.
"As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God." - Galatians 6:14-16