Eyebrows Gone Wild
I’m sitting here right now thinking of how my bushy eyebrows have gotten. How could they have been let go this far? And the shaping? Oh my! You’d think at 30 years old you’d know to keep up with your eyebrows, but you tend to forget with all you’ve had to keep up with.
Dentist appointments, school drop off’s, ballet recitals, dance performances and practices, house chores, meal prepping and planning, dog training, oh and let’s not forget to remember to brush your teeth before you head out the door.
The endless tasks–plus more, ministry leader slash mom slash wife slash friend slash whatever else labels we place on ourselves.
It can be quickly daunting if we don’t pull or step back and remind ourselves of truth. Reminding ourselves we do in fact have a purpose here beyond the many tasks. Like plucking those chunky bushy eyebrows that are way out of shape. It sounds funny and even outrageous, but if I am being honest, I can’t seem to ever remember to keep up with my eyebrows. Til today when I looked in the mirror and felt “hideous”.
I got caught up with other things that I slowly drifted and let myself go without realizing it. How many times, rather, how thick does my eyebrows need to get for me to remember to keep up with myself?
As I began plucking them, it dawned on me. It’s not so much of me letting go of myself but rather me caring more about my appearance.
Ouch!
How often do we walk out the door with no makeup? Getting groceries with a cleared face not packed with makeup?
Or how often do we clean our home without having to look spick and span?
How often do we go without getting our nails done?
If I rely so much on my appearance then what’s truly going on inside of my heart? If I let myself go not dressing modestly as the Bible mentions, does that make me any less? Or if I don’t wear and be caught up in the new trends, does that put me in a place of not enough?
Not at all. I don’t need to dress like everyone else or keep up with the latest trends. I don’t need to walk out the door daily with makeup even if the world thinks you’re sick or if you’re feeling depressed because you’re not wearing a face packed with makeup.
Sometimes I just want to shout off the roof of my mouth “No you fool, I’m letting my face breathe, my natural kin breathe rather than wearing an orangey shade on my face while the neck of my skin is white just let me be.”
I don’t think we should care so much about how perfect or well we look nor should we care less about ourselves. There should be a healthy balance of not caring how the world paints beauty and instead be remembered of God’s beauty. If I continue to be caring what others think of my no makeup face, bushy out of shape eyebrows, I’m not dwelling on the things that truly matter. For instance, the eyebrows. I know you’re laughing or probably looking in the mirror to see if yours is out of shape like mine, and if you’re not, you most likely are looking now….
Imagine the heart for a moment. Is it really worth me dwelling on my appearance that one day my body will turn back to dust or will I dwell on sternal riches and glory. Dwelling on the One tru God and His presence.
The heart. It’s the matter of it all.
If we want to look good just to take selfies or have others take photos to show off, what does this say what’s going on in the heart?
Somehow, just looking at my own eyebrows, it opened up another view, a window to my heart. I don’t want cobwebs in my heart nor do I want a thick crowding full of junk. I want my heart to be in the right place with God, aligned and in sync with his.
Don’t you?
In case you’re wondering about my eyebrows…. they are now in shape.
As for me? I’m an imperfect progress who Christ is still at work in me even when there are times I have the bushy and out of shape eyebrows….