So, last Sunday, church day, my phone alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. as usual (which I, in typical snoozer fashion, immediately turned off), however my bedside alarm, which is set for 6:45 a.m. did not go off. Apparently someone (could’ve been me, but I don’t remember it) turned it OFF! I start waking up when my husband turns to me and says, “KENDRA! IT’S TEN TIL EIGHT!” What??!!?? We usually leave for church at 8. He says to me, hopeful, “Please tell me you took a shower last night!?!” Nope. No shower last night. I did a quick “sniff sniff” inventory and decided that I could get by with skipping a shower, nothing a little Bath-n-Body Mango Orange lotion to smell nicey nicey wouldn’t cover… then I went into the bathroom and saw my hair. Can you say ROOSTER? My hair is now short in the back and it was standing STRAIGHT up!! Well, I have a straight iron that gets really hot, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
Sure enough, and to GOD be the glory, I curled my bed-head, had a relatively successful hair day, all things considered. A few other morning fiascos occurred – but I determined to “put on the mind of Christ” by the time I got to church and was getting my KidsLife classroom ready.
Now, if you looked at me on Sunday, you would’ve seen curled hair, clean clothes and eventually even a smile (God is good, right?). You would have no idea that I busted out of bed like a turbo-blaster, herded the troops in the most ungentle, sergeant-like, Marine Corp basic training kind of wake-up call and rolled out the door, make-up in hand to finish getting ‘put together’! Let me tell you, my ‘sons’ were not rising up and calling me blessed :D Prov. 31:28.
Isn’t that how it is with our hearts? We can gel, curl and spray til we look good. We can cover up with Mary Kay creamy foundation, luscious black lashes and some spunky lipstick. We can dress to the nines, (what does that mean, anyways??), paste on a grin and even throw out a couple of Jesus lines to ‘play the part’.
We can do whatever it takes to look good on the outside.
Dress this way.
Eat this – don’t eat that…
Avoid this activity. Do that activity (to be seen).
Talk this way.
Attend that church.
Hang with them. Don’t hang with THEM!
Budget impeccably.
sMiLe…
Read your Bible!
PRAY!
Serve!
TITHE!
We can look good… real good. We can get to a point that we are ‘holier than thou’ instead of becoming holy, for He is holy (1 Pet. 1:16). We can become the Pharisees in Matthew 23 that are “whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity.” We are quick to “think more highly” our ourselves (Romans 12:3) or call out other people’s sins (Matthew 7). We can even “justify” ourselves (Luke 16:15).
One thing, though, God (in His mercy) won’t let us stay in that state for long. If we’ve got yucky fruit on the inside… we’re going to produce yucky fruit on the outside “for the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart” Matt. 12:34. We can fool people, for a while, but we can’t fool God – He sees even “our secret sins” (Psalm 90:8).
We’ve all got some bed-head or at least have bed-head moments. We don’t have to curl our bed-head and cover up our blemishes. We’re not alone. The Bible says, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). In fact, our best efforts at righteousness are only “filthy rags” or “polluted garments” (Isaiah 64:6). We don’t have to ‘have it all together’ around our Christian friends. Instead, simply make it a habit to input GOOD (Jesus), so our heart overflows His goodness. He is our righteousness and anything good is us, is from Him! We can worry less about what people think or how we look to them, and more about what He thinks and how we look to Him. Remember, He restores us in love and by His goodness (Romans 2:4). We’re the apple of His eye!
So, ya’ got some BED-HEAD? (ME TOO!!) I still love ya’. And even more importantly, God does!!
