What to do when you've made a mess of things...

Good grief! You'd think that since I'm knocking on the door of age sixty that I'd have left my toddler tendencies behind at least five and a half decades ago. Yet, last week I gave in to two very toddler-like character traits, and let's just say, it didn't turn out so well.  Impulsivity combined with an attitude of "I'll do it myself" was my undoing.

I've been going to the same hairstylist for years and years.  When we moved from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, Washington two years ago, I kept going to my hairstylist who works in a salon east of Portland. The half hour drive, (if the traffic cooperates), usually works out fine, since I only need a cut and color every two months. However, for some crazy reason, last week I decided that I could put my appointment off even farther if I just "did it myself" and gave myself a little trim.  How hard could it be?  I watched a YouTube video and it made it look as easy as pie.  A pair of scissors and a few minutes later and I had made an embarrassing mess of my hair. I had bangs and short layers of hair around my face that I didn't used to have and the back of my hair didn't seem to be any shorter.  That YouTube video led me astray! Trimming my own hair wasn't easy and it didn't turn out looking like the lady on the video at all!

Thank God that I only had to live with it two days before my hairstylist was able to squeeze me in for an appointment.  Graciously, she didn't shame me or scold me. She just smiled and went to work, chatting away with me as she worked just like always.  She cut a couple of inches off the back of my hair, trimmed the new bangs and the layers around my face properly and freshened up the color of my hair.  You'd never know that this slightly new and different look wasn't preplanned!

I wish I could say that I've never been foolish and impulsive or acted like a toddler with my "do it myself" attitude in other areas of my life much more important than a superficial thing like my hair.  I wish I could tell you that I've never been influenced or led astray from sound judgement by something or someone.  The truth is, I have.  Yet, like my hairstylist, God doesn't shame me, make fun or me, or reject me when I run to Him with the mess I've made.  He just goes to work cleaning me up and getting me back on the right path.  And, like my new haircut, I've seen God take the mess I've made and work it out for good when I relinquish the situation to Him.

The moral of this story?  Don't try to cut your own hair.  Don't believe every tutorial you find on YouTube.  Most of all, when you've made a mess of something in your life, run to God for help.  He's a pro at making something beautiful out of messy lives.

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