A Good Trim

I trimmed my hair today. First of all, yes, I trimmed it myself. No, it doesn't always look great, but I've cut my own hair for years and years (and Doug's, and the kids'). I think Angela was a baby the last time someone else (other than Doug - he cuts it sometimes) cut my hair. It's not that I don't like going to other people - it's just that it means working it in somehow. Working in child care and the cost and the time in my schedule. That's a lot of sacrifice for my family. If I do it myself, it's free, and I can work in fifteen minutes or so here or there while there's a gap in the day. Works for me! So, whether it's short or long, I do it myself. Lately I added coloring it to the list. Yes, I'm now a red-head. Doug likes it, and although it was a shock to me at first, I like it too. It's rather fun!

Okay, so back to the point. Today I trimmed it. It's been a very, very long time since I'd trimmed it. You see, quite some time ago I decided to grow it out. It had been short for a long time, and I was tired of having to keep it cut. I was tired of the style changing every time I trimmed it back. (It's hard to be consistent when you cut your own hair - just a warning if you decide to try it for yourself.) And, I was ready for pony-tails and braids again. So, I started the long process of growing it out. When it grew into a bob, I trimmed it regularly because of all of the unevenness from being boy-short in the back. Once I had it all evened up and it started growing past the bob stage, though, I stopped trimming it quite so regularly. It's not quite as easy to trim your own hair when it's long because it's harder to reach it in the back. I usually would think about it during the day when Doug was gone, so I never did think to ask him in the evenings if he would trim it for me. I just let it grew.

One thing to keep in mind is that my hair grows very unevenly. So, when it's not kept trimmed, the ends can look rather thin and unhealthy simply because there's not as much hair there as there might be an inch or two higher.

So, today I decided it was time to trim. I set to work, only to discover that I needed to trim a whole lot more than intended to get it all relatively even. Why? Because I'd waited so long to trim it, and there were so very many lengths to deal with! Once all was said and done, the hair that has been falling several inches below my shoulders was, well, not much past shoulder-length.

Am I upset? No - I like it this length. I can still wear a pony-tail, it works better pulled up in a clip (which is a style Doug likes, so I like to wear it that way), and it looks much thicker and healthier already. But, looking at the drastic length difference made me think...what needs to be trimmed in my life spiritually?

As we grow spirituallly, we sometimes let our discipline falter in certain areas. Without realizing it, we focus on preparing our Sunday school lessons, but pull back a little bit from our personal devotional Bible reading. We focus on praise and worship and neglect to intercede. We focus on making sure we are patient with our children, but tend to be a little more lax on discipline. We work hard to exercise our bodies, but forget to take the time to exercise our minds. We focus on strengthening relationships with people who are in need of godly friendships, but sacrifice a little more family time.

Are any of the things we focus on bad? No, but it causes that area of our lives to grow while others hold back a bit. So, our Sunday school lessons grow more difficult to prepare because we are not feeding ourselves quite as well. Our praise and worship is a little more empty because we are not seeking Him for the needs of others. Our patience runs thin because our children are testing it more and more. Our devotion to our bodies wanes because our minds are exhausted. Our external relationships become tense because they conflict with our family needs.

Occasionally we just need to refocus. If we do it on a regular basis, we will stay balanced. If we wait too long, we'll have to pull back a little further than we might have wanted to, and we might run the risk of becoming imbalanced in the opposite direction. Whether it's monthly, weekly, or even daily, let's evaluate where we are focusing and what we need to rebalance. Let's try to stay "trimmed" that we may grow evenly and steadily and be dependably useful in all we do.