Cotton...

Cotton… Today, I’m thankful for cotton.

One of my clients once used the term ‘fabric snob’. I like that term.

I think I might be one.

I like nice fabrics. I love good cotton fabrics. Expensive silks and cashmeres are ok, satin I can pass…but a good cotton is hard to beat, in my opinion.

If you don’t think so, try sleeping on a nice high thread count sheet for a few nights, then go back to a 200 thread count set! Your skin will tell you the difference.

I think it’s ok to be a fabric snob.

Scripture has a lot of examples of fine linens. The Proverbs 31 woman had fine garments, carpets, bed coverings….and she is said to be the ‘wife of noble character, worth far more than rubies’.

God created beauty. He made the first garments, they were ‘garments of skin’. (Gen. 3:21)

He gave many instructions about weaving fabrics and making things.

“Weave the tunic of fine linen, make the turban of fine linen…the sash to be the work of an embroiderer..” (Ex. 28:39)

The priests garments must have been very beautiful. Fine fabrics, beautiful colors, ornately decorated….you should read the descriptions for yourself. (Ex. Chapters 28&29, Lev. chapters 8,&16)

My High Priest owned one thing of any value. He had a plain, seamless, woven garment.

He watched as it was gambled over.

I happen to think His mother made it for Him.

And I think it was cotton. A very high thread count, soft, comfortable, cotton.

Thankful...

Thankful.. Webster says it’s an adjective. That means it describes. I found a list of words that have similar meaning in our language…

Grateful, gratified, satisfied, contented, pleased, appreciative… You get the idea.

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His Name.” (Psa. 100:4)

The Hebrew word ‘yadah’ is translated thankful in that verse. The use of that word showed an action or motion in their language, as well as an acknowledgment.

I was convicted this morning about my decision to be ‘thankful’. That still small voice asked, “Are you really, Connie?”

You see, I was thinking about the word ‘wrath’ because of some questions in a Bible lesson.

I thought I’d write that I was thankful for God’s wrath, because His wrath is birthed out of His complete holiness and His perfect love for me. He loves. He disciplines. And I want to appreciate the value of that discipline.

But do I really? Or do I just know I should, and wish I did in fact appreciate the discipline? Am I really thankful for it?

Are you?

I challenge you to examine your heart as well. We do not want to be in a downward spiral…like the Romans that Paul wrote to…

“…The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth…..although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…” (Rom.1:18,21)

I don’t want to just acknowledge God. I want to treat Him like Who He IS.

I don’t want to simply recognize the reasons I should be thankful. I want there to be an action on my part, a motion, an exhibition in my life somehow, somewhere…that I know from Whom all blessings flow,

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him, all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Praise God, The Father, Who’s the Source,
Praise God, The Son, Who is the course,
Praise God, The Spirit, Who’s the flow,
Praise God, our Portion, here below.

Amen.

Hallow....

Hallow…. I thought about that word a lot over the Halloween week-end. It’s come and gone now…

There is very little hallow about Halloween… except this year, it fell on Sunday, the day that we should have hallowed to God.

Hallow isn’t a word we use much, unless we are reciting what is known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’….. “Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name….”

To hallow something is to give it a higher purpose. It means to set it apart for a special use, dedicate to a special purpose.

I wonder if we really hallow God’s Name.

I fear we speak His Name rather flippantly sometimes. Do we grasp how holy He is? How utterly perfect? How complete and absolutely other than we are?

This first day of November, I again begin to purpose myself to counting and naming the blessings that God has granted to me. I hallow this season of giving thanks to Him, “…proclaiming aloud Your praise and telling of all Your wonderful deeds…” (Ps. 26:7)

And I challenge you.

Be specific.

No broad brush strokes….not just “I’m thankful for my health, for my family, for my freedom….etc.”

All those things are certainly things to be very thankful for, but I challenge you to articulate and spell it out.

I’m thankful too for my health.

I’m thankful I don’t sit somewhere this morning, like many are doing right NOW, with a needle in my arm, injecting me with chemotherapy to fight a cancer raging in my body.

Yet, I am thankful that there are ways to fight cancer, and I pray right now for those who DO sit in those therapy rooms, those who are fighting for longer physical life, that God will bring healing to them thru that treatment, that He will remove fear, that if that person does not know Him as Savior, that He will put some bold child of God in their path to speak His Name and His message of salvation, so they may know the joy of His salvation and have a secure eternal life, as well as a longer physical life.

I’m thankful for my health.

I’m thankful that my hands have served me for 36+ years doing the work that I do. I’m thankful they don’t hurt worse than they do. I’m thankful they are not gnarled with arthritis, and I pray right now for those who do battle that pain. I pray for that one who this morning, in this cool damp fall air, hurts because of it.

I know many who do.


Thank You Father, for my strong body. The body that birthed two sons. The body that is fit and able to work and play. This body I offer afresh to You this morning, as a living sacrifice…take my everyday ordinary life, consume me, use me, show Your glory, have Your will and way, accomplish Your purposes.

You are God...You are holy...Hallowed is Your Name.

Ready...

Ready…. Are you?

Yesterday, a grieving friend said she thought she was. She thought she was ready for what was inevitable. A loved one faced the end of a long battle. The end was near.

This friend thought she was prepared for that news to come…news that it was over, her loved one gone….the end come.

Praise God that of all the people who tried to be ready, the one who left was ready.

Praise God is wasn’t an end….it was the first moment of eternity. The battle over. The struggle stopped. The pain gone. Forever.

Hallelujah !!!

Knowing what lies ahead, are you ready?

If not….what are you waiting for?

God has ‘set eternity in the hearts…’ of each of us. (Ecc.3:11) Eternity is the surest of sure things. Our hearts long for a perfect place…the perfect world that is only to be found in His perfect rule, in His perfect kingdom….in His heaven.

“Listen to the call, the gospel call today, get in the glory land way….”

Be ready my friend. You may not face the ‘sure thing’ of cancer….but don’t be deceived by the devil’s lie. You do face death.

Straight...

Straight…

We are offering a new service in our salon. Now, if your hair is curly and frizzy, you can have straight hair without trashing it with chemicals or frying it with a flat iron every day.

Oh if only we could get our lives straight so easily. But we can’t lay out a few bills and walk away with a straightened out mess….even for a few months.

God never wanted all the kinks in our lives. He still doesn’t. But we insist on twisting truth, bending His standards, and wrapping ourselves around ‘stuff’.

Changing the truth of God for a lie never has changed truth. “Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies…”(Rom.1:25)


Taking detours instead of the straight path only causes us prolonged periods of learning.

We can wander in wilderness, twisting around and traveling in endless circles, getting nowhere….or we can get through it in a much shorter time if we just follow right behind God as He leads us straight thru.

We can’t drive around a storm of life. But we can be delivered through it. Safely. Even stronger and better.

And we will never straighten out the mess of human life. Not without Divine Intervention.

“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?” (Rom. 7:24)

Thank You again my Jesus…..

Beautiful roots....

Beautiful roots....

Roots are where all beauty and strength come from. You just can’t be beautiful without being strong FIRST.

The most talented hairdresser can’t make beautiful hairstyles from malnourished abused hair.

Ps. 1 gives us a great word-picture of beauty and strength.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked of stand in the way of sinners of sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”


A tree grows strong and beautiful when it is close to a source of water.

We are wise and ‘blessed’ when we plant ourselves near the source of life.

We want beauty and strength in our hair …

AND in our heart….

Strength manifested in a beautiful head of hair.......or strength manifested in a beautiful peace-filled, joyous, loving life.

The beauty grows out of that strong place.

Beautiful hair comes from a strong healthy scalp, well nourished.

It stays beautiful when we tend it and care for it properly. It doesn’t stay pretty if neglected or abused.

So it is with our lives. We stay strong when we are well nourished.

Roots.....

Roots…. I love roots. Roots help me pay my bills.

As a hairdresser, I see lots of roots. I make a living covering up that gray that peeks thru or the dark that demands to be seen. (Some girls are just really blonde on the inside and need a little help being blonde on top.)

You know, God made us perfect, without sin. What we were on the outside, matched what we were on the inside…. perfectly. We were intended to exist in that condition, but a bad choice was made and we all now suffer the imperfections.

Now, what we are on the inside is marred, (sin nature ) and what is manifested to the outside is imperfect. But praise God that He has a method of changing that and restoring us to what we were created to be.

Choosing to change our dark hair to blonde requires maintenance. (Changing the appearance of it does not change the natural of it…) And in the same way, while we are in this life, it is a daily, moment-by-moment process of maintenance. Maintenance…by maintaining of choosing, I mean the daily, sometimes moment-to-moment choices that we are faced with. (Joshua’s challenge in Joshua 24:15 ‘Choose you this day whom you will serve.. ’) The choices we make are vital.

One day, on THAT DAY, there will be no more ‘maintenance’…no more changes needed…no more choices between good and evil. No more temptations, no more mistakes, no more regret. “…in the twinkling of an eye…we will all be changed.”(1 Cor. 15:52)

Until then we must maintain…or call it persevere. “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”(James 1:4)


After THAT DAY there will be no maintenance. No contrasting root line…the growing out will stop. We will be made fully mature, lacking nothing. And we’ll be that way forever.