Mirror, Mirror

Posted on April 1, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized, Self Care, Transparency |

Sunday I got to lead worship at our Stapleton campus. As I sang from the platform, the Pastor and his family sat of the front row participating along with me in the worship of God. After the service, the Pastor’s wife was kind enough to call me aside and share something quite wonderful that had been going on while I stood singing before the congregation. Turns out that their oldest daughter, 10 years old, has been struggling recently with appearance issues . . . mainly her curly hair. Her mother said that lately she’s been wrestling with it, wanting it straight and obedient. She said that as I sang, her daughter watched me intently . . . discovering a place where she could identify with me, and my curly hair.

“She was watching you so closely! You were an example in a way you didn’t even realize. Thank you.”

Huh? Hair? Well, okay.

As a younger girl and teenager, I remember going through that same battle. Processing, curling, cutting, coloring, and cursing this hair upon my head. The women who I held as examples of beauty, all dark, straight-haired vixens like Vanity and Appolonia, Brook Shields and Beverly Johnson, left me willing to do anything for longer, straighter, thicker, straighter, more glorious, straighter hair. Did I say straighter?

I’m glad that as I’ve gotten older, wiser, the space within which I accept myself (flaws and all) has broadened, grown and become more rich and eclectic. In part because, hey, this is the life I have . . . why fight against it? But more truthfully because my understand of God, His interest in my life, His direct involvement in everything about me has broadened, grown, and become more rich and eclectic. If by standing in front of a 10-year-old girl who will face assaults left and right against her worth, beauty, and person, I can communicate some of what has taken me years to take hold of, then bring on the curls and banish the relaxers, straightening combs, curling irons, and extensions . . . but, all things considered, I’m still gonna color it.

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Peace and Blessings,

Nicole