Everybody's Doing It

In 2012, I experienced a great deal of stress, on top the normal working-motherhood stressors.  As a result my hair started coming out.  To give it a break I started braiding it and trimmed the damaged, chemically treated hair between braids.  After what seems, in hindsight, a short time, I was natural.  Why not?  Everybody's doing it!  Right!  Well, my natural was accidental and nappy as can be!  It was beautiful when braided, but not so much between braids.  My natural friends suggested that I twist it at night and and try various brands of cream to tame it.  After 5 years, I grew tired of braiding and considered a relaxer.  Yes, the forbidden.  After stressing over this big decision...I asked my husband what he thought.  "Huh? What are you talking about?  What's wrong with a relaxer?"  I had no answer.  Finally, last week I was in my old beautician's chair with the familiar scent of hair-straightening chemicals in the air.  She asked if I was sure.  I said, "Yeah, just trying to get prepared to get kicked out of the club."  She laughed!!!  "At the end of the day, you gotta do you!"

How true!  We casually say this all the time, "At the end of the day, you gotta do you!"  Think about it, we tell our kids to be an individual, we warn them about following the crowd.   As adults, we must be careful not to make decisions based on what's popular, too!  How many adults live beyond their means--buying a house or car they really can't afford, because someone they know did it first.  How many adults decide to buy a bigger TV because they were at someone's house who had a bigger TV?  Or a bigger phone when the old phone is not yet paid for?  Ephesians 2:10 NIV states, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  We all have different God-given talents and abilities to be used as we work to build the kingdom of God.  As people of God, we cannot always do what everybody else is doing.  I write about this a great deal in my abstinence books for girls and guys--as you can imagine.  This is a lesson that even adults need to remember.  We must live our lives as individuals doing things that are pleasing to our Heavenly Father.  I cannot spend an hour in the evening twisting my hair, when I need to complete the devotional God placed on my heart.   

What about you?  What good works has God designed for you to do?