Brushing Hair
This conversation happens every time I pick up the hair brush in our home.
Daughter: Brush my sister's hair first! I don't want you to brush my hair!
Me: I have to brush your hair now please come here before it dries and let me brush it.
Daughter: It will be okay without brushing. I don't want to do it!
I have tried a thousand ways to get to the hair brushing point without crying. I use distraction. I buy the fancy hair products. I therapeutically discuss, at other points in the day when we are all calm and well fed, why we brush hair and how necessary it is. We have even talked through the options of cutting hair so brushing takes less time. But, nearly every time, the hairbrush comes out with sounds of anguish and fury (too dramatic...or completely accurate?). I remind them that, in our home, brushing hair is not a "want to" but a "have to" activity.
There are a few sentences that I hear my mouth repeat during a hair brushing. Phrases like, "If you sit still, it won't hurt as much" or "I'm almost done and you just made more knots by spinning around". They must have learned their brush evasion tactics from the gators rolling on Swamp People.
Here's the thing, my oldest daughter loves having long hair. After the crying and pulling away and all the build up to what, doesn't have to be, a rough event, she turns to me and says, "Mommy, do you think my braid looks pretty?". She pets her braid and looks at the reflection in the oven door or window nearby. She grins shyly showing pride in her beautiful hair... a braid she didn't want ten minutes ago.
But how did she get there? How did we get from tangled mess to pretty Elsa braid?
I zoomed out a bit in prayer this morning thinking of the Sovereignty of God. He has reminded me in recent circumstances, discussion, and study of His Sovereignty over all things. I read Isaiah 46, a chapter in the Old Testament of the accounts of the prophet Isaiah, everyday for two weeks as we came to the US from Ireland. I listened to an awe-inspiring message on verses within that chapter this past week and the Lord affirmed so much of what He has been teaching me this past month (The Sovereignty of God, Desired God).
Then this weekend came with a whirlwind of events, too fresh to share in this capacity. We are well in our souls but life is wild and unexpected yet somehow wrapped in the Peace of God!
I believe the Lord makes known the end from the beginning, that His purpose and His will WILL happen because He has spoken them and nothing can stop His purpose and will! He is God. No one is like Him. That's what Isaiah 46, specifically verses 8-11 are about. If you want to examine the Sovereignty of God deeper, please read or watch the message I mentioned above.
But how does that actually translate into my life? Where does my capacity to make decision and decide what I will do or won't do come into the determined purposes of God?
I prayed about that yesterday afternoon. I picked a sermon to listen to while I got ready yesterday with that in mind and I landed on one in which Francis Chan talks about the Sovereignty of God displayed in his life. He refers to verses 4+5 in Jeremiah chapter 1:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
God spoke those words to the prophet Jeremiah but they speak a broader truth over all of us. God knows us. He knows me in every detail and He has known me. He is my Creator, Father, Shepherd. He knows exactly what His purpose is and what His Will means for my life. He allows me to make so many choices and to decide how my days go but all within the reality that I am approaching His Will. How will I approach it? I think a lot of that is up to me while understanding that I cannot frustrate the Will of God. It's where I determine whether I will let my will align with His Will.
And it so simply yet complexly came together in my prayer this morning as I thought of those rare moments when I sit down to brush my daughters' hair and they sit completely still. It's rare but beautiful when I can run the brush swiftly through the easy places then say, "Babe, there is one knot that might hurt but I'm going to be gentle" so she sits there and takes her sweet, deep little breath as I use my finger nails to work all the looser strands away before I brush through the ones tightly knotted together. One brush stroke. Two brush stroke. She's done. We are through it. I braid it all into the flowing, peace preserving braid that will keep her hair untangled for the next day. She says thank you and runs off to play while her sister sits and does the same things because she just watched big sis sit and experience a peaceful hair brushing, even with the knots. She trusts that, as she sits still, my perspective as mom and hair brushing extraordinaire will bring goodness out of the tangled mess.
Psalm 46:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
It is better when I remain still in the Will of God and just trust Him to be the God He has declared He is.
After we lost our baby in 2015, I took a weekend away to rest in the Lord and this poem quoted in my devotional by L.B. Cowan spoke peace to my soul and it flooded back into my memory as I pictured myself brushing my daughter's hair.
No chance hath brought this ill to me;
'Tis God's own hand, so let it be,
He seeth what I cannot see.
There is a need-be for each pain,
And He one day will make it plain
That earthly loss is heavenly gain.
Like as a piece of tapestry
Viewed from the back appears to be
Naught but threads tangled hopelessly;
But in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.
Thou art the Workman, I the frame.
Lord, for the glory of Thy Name,
Perfect Thine image on the same.
--Selected, Author Arthur Christopher Bacon
Whether the portrayal of my life is a beautifully stitched and woven tapestry by the Master Weaver or explained as the child of a Father who brushes the knots out of my tangled mess, the same truth reigns: the Maker of heaven and earth makes known the end from the beginning. My role is to determine if I will walk ambivalently through this life or if I will trust my Father by remaining still in His presence - trusting His hands at work as I feel the pull and tug of knots yielding to Him - listening for His guidance through the each step. Stillness in His presence being the quiet, calm, unwavering state of my soul and spirit, most clear when my physical body stops long enough to truly dwell in Him with deep breaths.
I can pull away and do it my way, only to come back to His faithful hands to untangle an even greater mess- take an even longer time through a healing process so that I may be close to Him again. Or I can accept the gift of Christ's work on the cross and in resurrection that allows me to walk all the days of my life, and eternity, in real relationship with my Father God with the Holy Spirit dwelling richly within me. I can tell you which choice I have made and pray to make in every single move of my days: His Way.
My decision there, to believe He is who He says He is and have faith in Him, makes tangled times like these sweetly peaceful. God bless you, today.
In the Love of Christ,
Hannah
Daughter: Brush my sister's hair first! I don't want you to brush my hair!
Me: I have to brush your hair now please come here before it dries and let me brush it.
Daughter: It will be okay without brushing. I don't want to do it!
I have tried a thousand ways to get to the hair brushing point without crying. I use distraction. I buy the fancy hair products. I therapeutically discuss, at other points in the day when we are all calm and well fed, why we brush hair and how necessary it is. We have even talked through the options of cutting hair so brushing takes less time. But, nearly every time, the hairbrush comes out with sounds of anguish and fury (too dramatic...or completely accurate?). I remind them that, in our home, brushing hair is not a "want to" but a "have to" activity.
There are a few sentences that I hear my mouth repeat during a hair brushing. Phrases like, "If you sit still, it won't hurt as much" or "I'm almost done and you just made more knots by spinning around". They must have learned their brush evasion tactics from the gators rolling on Swamp People.
Here's the thing, my oldest daughter loves having long hair. After the crying and pulling away and all the build up to what, doesn't have to be, a rough event, she turns to me and says, "Mommy, do you think my braid looks pretty?". She pets her braid and looks at the reflection in the oven door or window nearby. She grins shyly showing pride in her beautiful hair... a braid she didn't want ten minutes ago.
But how did she get there? How did we get from tangled mess to pretty Elsa braid?
I zoomed out a bit in prayer this morning thinking of the Sovereignty of God. He has reminded me in recent circumstances, discussion, and study of His Sovereignty over all things. I read Isaiah 46, a chapter in the Old Testament of the accounts of the prophet Isaiah, everyday for two weeks as we came to the US from Ireland. I listened to an awe-inspiring message on verses within that chapter this past week and the Lord affirmed so much of what He has been teaching me this past month (The Sovereignty of God, Desired God).
Then this weekend came with a whirlwind of events, too fresh to share in this capacity. We are well in our souls but life is wild and unexpected yet somehow wrapped in the Peace of God!
I believe the Lord makes known the end from the beginning, that His purpose and His will WILL happen because He has spoken them and nothing can stop His purpose and will! He is God. No one is like Him. That's what Isaiah 46, specifically verses 8-11 are about. If you want to examine the Sovereignty of God deeper, please read or watch the message I mentioned above.
But how does that actually translate into my life? Where does my capacity to make decision and decide what I will do or won't do come into the determined purposes of God?
I prayed about that yesterday afternoon. I picked a sermon to listen to while I got ready yesterday with that in mind and I landed on one in which Francis Chan talks about the Sovereignty of God displayed in his life. He refers to verses 4+5 in Jeremiah chapter 1:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
God spoke those words to the prophet Jeremiah but they speak a broader truth over all of us. God knows us. He knows me in every detail and He has known me. He is my Creator, Father, Shepherd. He knows exactly what His purpose is and what His Will means for my life. He allows me to make so many choices and to decide how my days go but all within the reality that I am approaching His Will. How will I approach it? I think a lot of that is up to me while understanding that I cannot frustrate the Will of God. It's where I determine whether I will let my will align with His Will.
And it so simply yet complexly came together in my prayer this morning as I thought of those rare moments when I sit down to brush my daughters' hair and they sit completely still. It's rare but beautiful when I can run the brush swiftly through the easy places then say, "Babe, there is one knot that might hurt but I'm going to be gentle" so she sits there and takes her sweet, deep little breath as I use my finger nails to work all the looser strands away before I brush through the ones tightly knotted together. One brush stroke. Two brush stroke. She's done. We are through it. I braid it all into the flowing, peace preserving braid that will keep her hair untangled for the next day. She says thank you and runs off to play while her sister sits and does the same things because she just watched big sis sit and experience a peaceful hair brushing, even with the knots. She trusts that, as she sits still, my perspective as mom and hair brushing extraordinaire will bring goodness out of the tangled mess.
Psalm 46:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
It is better when I remain still in the Will of God and just trust Him to be the God He has declared He is.
After we lost our baby in 2015, I took a weekend away to rest in the Lord and this poem quoted in my devotional by L.B. Cowan spoke peace to my soul and it flooded back into my memory as I pictured myself brushing my daughter's hair.
No chance hath brought this ill to me;
'Tis God's own hand, so let it be,
He seeth what I cannot see.
There is a need-be for each pain,
And He one day will make it plain
That earthly loss is heavenly gain.
Like as a piece of tapestry
Viewed from the back appears to be
Naught but threads tangled hopelessly;
But in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.
Thou art the Workman, I the frame.
Lord, for the glory of Thy Name,
Perfect Thine image on the same.
--Selected, Author Arthur Christopher Bacon
Whether the portrayal of my life is a beautifully stitched and woven tapestry by the Master Weaver or explained as the child of a Father who brushes the knots out of my tangled mess, the same truth reigns: the Maker of heaven and earth makes known the end from the beginning. My role is to determine if I will walk ambivalently through this life or if I will trust my Father by remaining still in His presence - trusting His hands at work as I feel the pull and tug of knots yielding to Him - listening for His guidance through the each step. Stillness in His presence being the quiet, calm, unwavering state of my soul and spirit, most clear when my physical body stops long enough to truly dwell in Him with deep breaths.
I can pull away and do it my way, only to come back to His faithful hands to untangle an even greater mess- take an even longer time through a healing process so that I may be close to Him again. Or I can accept the gift of Christ's work on the cross and in resurrection that allows me to walk all the days of my life, and eternity, in real relationship with my Father God with the Holy Spirit dwelling richly within me. I can tell you which choice I have made and pray to make in every single move of my days: His Way.
My decision there, to believe He is who He says He is and have faith in Him, makes tangled times like these sweetly peaceful. God bless you, today.
In the Love of Christ,
Hannah
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